A little hint: the shaded passages are also links :)


This weeknd's grocery bill of $260 was no surprise. Our food budget has been steadily growing and yet, our pantry is shrinking. I have always been frugal and capable of feeding my family on a shoestring. These times are different. The possibilities are fewer and the opportunities in which to control your family's food supply is being manipulated by big agribusiness . How many of you knew that last December, President Obama appointed Tom Vilsack as the chief of the USDA? Did you know that? Do you know who Tom Vilsack is? Monsanto? Holy Shit.


As I watched President Obama speak the words "...it means that we are ensuring that we are using our farmlands to not only strengthen our agricultural economy but to grow advanced biofuels" my heart sank. He married big, corporate agribusiness to the USDA which was supposed to protect this country's food supply. With HR 2749 in play, the family farm, the organic gardener, the private food supply is officially on our government's hit list.


These past few months I have felt myself slip into a deep depression. I am not blaming the government, Monsanto or President Obama for making me depressed. Of course not. But I will thank them for making me angry enough to lift myself up out of it.


A few weeks ago, I was informed by my local zoning office that my property (that stuff with dirt and grass that I pay for) isn't zoned for chickens. It is illegal to raise chickens as pets and/or food in this particular zone. Nope. And I was informed that even trying to appeal to the zoning committee would be expensive and useless.


These are dangerous times when councils, zoning committees and government are trying to steal our liberties. Seriously. We have the right to raise are food and not be dependent on a collective public food supply. That is what they want; for us to need them. No chickens? No food. No goats? No dairy. Look for gardening restrictions next.


In the not-so-distant-future, there is a knock on my front door...



"Hello. May I help you?"


"Uh, Yes 'ma'am. We're here on behalf of the zoning commission. It's in regards to your garden."


"What about my garden?"


"We understand that it is an organic garden, is that correct?"


"Why, Yes it is."


"And you plan on feeding your family and perhaps a few friends and neighbors with this organic food; is that correct?"


"Yes, of course. Is that a problem? What is the meaning of this?"


"Ma'am, you are in direct violation of zoning code HR5467-33.463 and 1/2 which clearly states on page 345, paragraph 7, sentence 4 that 'no private citizen will produce, preserve, distribute or consume food without direct and decisive permission, authorization and regulation from thus mentioned board as well as the USDA, CIA, FBI, GMO Seeds, Inc. and, of course, da' man'. It's all right here, ma'am, in black and white.


"This is ridiculous! It's a garden, for Christ's sake!"


"Ma'am, you will have to come with us, ma'am..."


"Please! I'm sorry! I was just trying to grow cheap, healthy, real food for my family! There are only a few chickens! We just needed the eggs..."


"Chickens? Did you say you have chickens on these premises? Agent Terry, you had better call and get us back up..."


Start watching some videos, browsing some forums, going to some meetings. Listen closely to what they are planning while they think we are busy trading in our clunker. Turn off Fox News, CNN and all the rest. They will tell little and that will be as altered as the corn products you eat. Read and question everything. And stop growing a lawn. Grow some food.


Blessed Be