...from the mouths of decadence... Metaphoric bread. A slice of corporate farming bread. Leavened with the yeast of greed, the whole loaf's gone stale. Mega profits churning out mega farms churning out mega environmental and welfare problems. Hand in hand, birds of a feather, separate but really equal. Cheap input equals cheap output equals low cost, as long as you don't count the cost to our land and water. Hidden costs, like so many land mines waiting for our children and grandchildren to step on. Helping sow the minefield with our money and then wondering why the ordnance was so heavy the ground couldn't contain it. Taking the land down hard and fast and then putting the consequences in safe deposit, a down payment on the next generation's future, which might be anything but safe. Realizing too late that the karmic wire only has so much stretch before it snaps back and takes you off your feet. But hey, the chicken's cheap, man.
...but I can't feed on the powerless...Oh they're feeding alright, gorging like there's no tomorrow, Godzilla with an appetite. Aftermath of the feeding is right in front of us, you just have to read the bones to see the signs. Algae bloom signs, fish kill signs, dead town signs, rusting skeletons of rural sales barns signs, "hazardous to swim" signs, foreclosure signs, and chemical overload signs so powerful you could grow elephant high corn for a 100 years on some ground, if you could only get the seed to take. Cadmium, mercury, arsenic, lead - pick your poison - an arc light run couldn't put as much heavy metal in the ground as the corporate ag industry does.
...when my cup's already overfilled... Filled and spilled, the coffer's filled and the fertilizer's spilled. Filling the coffers under the "we feed the world" mantra never telling you that it's going to take burning your own house down to save the rest of the neighborhood. Trying to fill the cup so full, but they can't find people that know anything about the cup or whether filling it's a good thing or not. People working with livestock and crops who think stockmanship and stewardship consist of electric prods and round-up. Trying to re-shape agriculture along industrio-Wal mart lines, then stepping back and wondering why the square peg won't fit the round hole no matter how hard you pound it. Out ambition the mission.
...but I'm going hungry, yeah... Lots of people going hungry. Realizing that what they were being fed gave no sustenance, like eating sawdust, full and hungry at the same time. So they started stealing bread . It's what has given rise to places like Cherry Street, Broken Arrow, Pearl Street, and markets all over this country, farmer and shopper, hand in hand, stealing. Small farmers turning the machine on it's head and realizing you can't put more on the land than it can take. Realizing that sustainability isn't just some by-word, but a real means to de-mine the field. Realizing that farming for money's sake alone scales the eye, causes you to miss seeing what you're doing to the land. Shoppers realizing that how they spend their money doesn't just affect the quality of their food, it can also affect the quality of their future. Looking at what will have to be reaped from what's been sown, and realizing their grandchildren might not like it. So, I don't mind stealing bread, how about you?
Pork & Greens