This Is What Revolution Looks Like
You might just see a veggie wrap, but I see a revolution. Look closely, see that onion? That came from our garden. That tomato is no bought-at-the-chain-store-genetically-modified Monsantoed tomato, that was from a coworker’s garden. And the cuke was from the garden of my wife’s coworker. The kale and pepper were from local farmers and the lettuce came from Grow It Forward, a community food center.
It is a modest revolution for sure, but all revolutions begin modestly, all things that grow start from a tiny seed. As a rough estimate, I’d say 90% of the food I purchase comes from small businesses, local farmers, local restaurants, local bakeries, and a small nearby Mennonite store. Modest measures, but a not-insignificant impact on the local economy. The money goes directly to the producers of the food, thereby avoiding giving a lot of money to corporations that will use it to buy up politicians who will pass laws that favor corporations and further destroy small farmers. I also avoid paying taxes that would be spent by a government that does not represent the interests of the working people. And of course, credit card companies are not getting any cut from this.
A lot of people think I’m a health nut. I’m a nut all right but I mostly eat healthy incidentally. You see, when you avoid buying your food from corporations, you can’t help but eat better. I challenge you to purchase a canned good from a farmers market and compare the ingredients to something you find at the supermarket. Go ahead, put an apple you buy at Walmart and an apple you buy from a local farmer next to each other in the refrigerator and see how they age differently. I don’t know how they get away with not having to put an ingredients label on that store-bought apple, because there is more than just apple in it.
Buying locally helps build community. Building community means having meaningful connections that are more important than most of the things we argue about. Conservatives and liberals all of the sudden find common cause, which makes it a lot easier to find compromise on the issues that divide us. Strong communities are able to fight for those issues that 90% of the people support but are never mentioned by the politicians who are more interested in arguing about the things that divide us.
For a time I worked with others to start a co-op. While that project failed, it made me realize just how wide a variety of political views were held by those interested in promoting small farms and healthy food. We were a mix of gun-loving Trump supporters and environmental socialists. And to my knowledge, it never, ever, became an issue. Because we shared a common goal. Not only did we share a common goal, we found out we shared a hell of a lot of common opinions, saw a lot of things the same way when it came to what was wrong with the world. Again, realizing just how much we shared and how much we were willing to work together made us much more understanding and caring on other issues.
Everybody eats. When even our diets nowadays seem to be dividing us, what with the vegans and the gluten free diets and the low-carb people, it’s hard for a family to sit down to dinner anymore. And yet to people concerned with where their food comes from, there is so much to talk about, so much to share.
I grew up as a Democrat and still consider myself on the (far) left. I cannot help but notice the Democratic Party has lost the small farmer. Furthermore, many of those who call themselves liberals wish to cancel rural people for not embracing the Democratic Party. I don’t think any party can afford to lose the small farmers. As someone looking to create a revolutionary change, I don’t think anyone can afford to ignore those who are willing to dedicate their lives to growing the food we need to live. It’s time for some self-reflection, fellow leftists, if you don’t feel it necessary to take the time to know and appreciate the people who feed you, to understand their concerns and their needs and their problems.
They say an army marches on its stomach. You can’t have a successful revolution (and when I refer to revolution I speak of a non-violent but nonetheless transformative movement) until you first procure for yourself a reliable supply chain of proper nutrition. We see at the moment how in the Netherlands the farmers are protesting government actions that are threatening their way of life. We have seen such farmer uprisings pop up time and again around the world, but we have not been paying attention because we didn’t think it concerned us. It does. We need to support the PEOPLE who provide us with our daily bread, before our daily bread is provided to us by corporations who don’t have our best interests at heart. Think Wonderbread.
And once we have reclaimed the very food we need to survive from the corporations who wish to control it (and us), we can then work to retake from them our media, our government, our military, and the destiny of our species and the planet.