How dependent are we?

[me&thegals]

The book The End of Food does an excellent job explaining how we went from small family farming to the food system we have now--agribusiness. It gave me more respect for people who are now completely dependent on others to feed them since I can see better now how things ended up this way.

It's wonderful to be in the position to share chicken meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables with others, to invite them into our woods, barns and gardens and teach them about the food that grows here. It's one step towards helping others learn more about their food, not too far away from them learning how to grow it themselves. Folks generally are sensitive to being made to feel stupid, so I work really hard on making it easy for people to ask questions, get recipes or otherwise learn as much as they wish to

Thanks for starting another fascinating conversation, beekissed!

 

[enjoy the ride]

me&thegals- very uplifting thoughts- thanks

 

[Beekissed]

This subject has always fascinated me. I have always wondered at the differences between people and cultures and their origins.

These mountain folk amaze me, as they seem to be at least 20 years behind the rest of the world and wanting to catch up. By the time they catch up it will be going backwards. They want cell phone reception, malls, fast food places, etc. but they don't seem to realize what comes with progress. So, they are pretty closed off to newcomers and don't like "outsiders" but still want the advent of progress to the backwoods. I try to tell them that its all a trade-off, very few communities can have it both ways. But now, there are a few folks who want to keep or revive that resilient mountain heritage and the people look at them as being very strange. They don't seem to notice that there is a general movement out there of people wanting to "go back to living self-sufficiently" and they don't understand it. Go back? What for? I guess the reality of it is, that "go back" isn't as far back for them as it is to some!

For my part, its a mixed bag of tricks. Although I would love to be a part of a community like you have, Me&thegals, and have someone with which to barter, I also seem to have a small monopoly on the realization that the tourists are hungry for "mountain flavor" and will pay for it. The "mountain" folk don't like tourists! My theory is, if you don't like them and you can't stop them, at least make some money! So, I'm working towards that and hope to eventually have others in the community that catch on and kind of develop a little mecca of "back home" businesses or barter systems that benefit everyone.

The North brings up some valid points and I realized I sounded kind of preachy there, but didn't quite mean to. Its just a subject that I like to read about and discuss, the "progress" of America and how it affects different generations.