YIKES!! Food as weapon (political yak on Back Porch)

Hey ya'll! Been tendin' ter family bidness and sorta let mah blog down...but here is sompin' I been wantin' ter write 'bout--SEED SAVIN'. Thar is sompin' diabolical afoot--no kiddin'.

News flash: Food is soon ter be a weapon.(Politcal elements of that on the BACK Porch)

First, mega agricultural forces is stealin' yore right ter grow yore own food--check out Monsanto's "terminator technology (monstrous!). See, them agri-bidness folks doan want ya ter "steal" their intellectual property--oh yes, chile' they got "legal" rights ter the new seed varieties they engineer, but they also engineered in them new seeds the ability to self destruct, that is, not make seeds fer the next batch. ...sterile plants, in other words.

SO iffin' ya buy a pack of tomato seeds and think ya's goin' ter save some fer the next crop, fergit it! Them is sterile tomatoes--ya'll wanna be eatin' sterile food? No wonder they doan taste like a tomato--they mostly is chemicals and pulp engineered fer travel and market conditions--not fer yer palate.

An' think now--if pretty soon they's nuthin' BUT terminator seeds on the market, how ya gonna grow yer own vittles? Well, ya ain't, that's what. So then food is a weapon ter keep us folks in tow. We'uns will stand in line Stalin-style fer a ticket to git food rations.

Next, plain ole' corporate greed is addin' ter the problem.

Beautiful flowers and trees, interestin' vegetables and fruit is dang well jes' disappearin' off this planet! Why? Why?? Cause mah chillen, them big ole commercial growers doan wanna bother wif em' that's why. Commercial growers only grow what grows under the easiest possible conditions and nuthin' else. Why, them nitwits even market plain ole weeds as bedding plants (lantana?!!) cause--of course!--they thrive like...well, like WEEDS.

Now ya'll, iffin' youse not interested in a garden and growin' thangs, doan change that blog dial--heah is why youse need ter care plenty: we's killin' off the earth's patrimony of genetic variety which in turn is how some version of tomatoes or corn or apples survive--see, when blight or drought or whatever strikes, the stronger varieties make it...but now we's killin' off --by not propagatin'--important genetic types and so we won't have 'em next time a blight hit a major crop.

From up heah on the Aunty Belle's Front Porch (AB's FP) can see cross the way ter other folks' yard whar they's a flowerin' tree that ain't too common heah anymore....so I done looked up in Granny's Flowering Trees of Florida ter find out what this tree be. LO! Ya'll, now I'm tellin ya, I'se alarmed! Bout half the trees in that 1970 book is no longer "available" from no growers I can find. Only place ter git them purty ole fashioned trees is ter find folks whose been seed savin'...and guess what?

They's a heap of these folks out there--so please ya'll send off fer some "heritage" seeds and grow somethin' thas' not been tampered wif: on yer patio a pot of cherry tomatoes? A window box of herbs? A old fashioned pear tree in yore side yard?...mayhap this'll be yore dinner ticket in decade. www.seedsavers.org At the very least, make it a habit to buy as much organic, heritage food as possible, cause we need ter support those who are conservin' nature fer us.

Last thang: I'se a big time promoter of Wendell Berry--fer them literary types heah in blog world, he is a fine fine poet...read his poetry, but most of all, read his little book, Another Turn of the Crank--see why local allegiance ter growers and crafts people is the hope of a decent future. Otherwise, sweet potatoes, it'll be Henry Ford all over the planet: "Choose any color ya like, as long as ya like black.