Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
Title: Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard Thank you Barry, The crisis is a kind of therapy, however. It is a teaching method that you have set up for yourselves because you need it. And you need it now, before your race embarks upon journeys to other physical realities. You must learn your lessons now in your own backyard before you travel to other worlds. So you have brought this upon yourself for that purpose and you will learn. --Jane Roberts - Seth Speaks. SESSION 550, SEPTEMBER 28, 1970 and What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your life. Whether the subject of your thought be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies. The more you think of grievances, the more such trials you will continue to receive; the more you think of the good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you. --Emmet Fox Kristo intuits Sunday 12/8/02 The Aquarian MOON Conjuncts NEPTUNE (in his Trine to the Dragon's Head) at 4:00 AM CST -6GMT. There's no need to name the direction. The only details that count are the ones directly in your line of sight...don't worry about getting oriented to the rest of the terrain...at least for now. MERCURY (in his / her Opposition to SATURN) enters Capricorn at 2:21 PM. Continue concentrating on what's happening in your own neck of the woods. The global details are of no practical use to us in the present moment. If we can get things squared away on the local level, much more can be achieved later on in terms of the bigger picture. LUNA Sextiles SOL (in his Coniunctio to PLUTO, and Trine to JUPITER) at 6:38 PM, Sextiles PLUTO at 7:52 PM, and Opposes JUPITER at 9:06 PM. A not so subtle, global process is unfolding...but we have no business in trying to affect the outcome. We're only meant to concentrate on our personally immediate issues. The larger pieces of the process are made up of these innumerable local details. We each have a part to play...but we're really meant to forget the big picture. It's much, much bigger than any of us could possibly carry (or care for) alone. To think otherwise would be a very nutty inflation.
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
I'm new to the list. Where does this WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard come from? Rose
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
Rose - You can read the Berry Agrarian article at http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/02-3om/Berry.html It came from the Orion Society homepage -Allan
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
It was Goethe who said that the problems or weaknesses of an age exist only for the faint-hearted. Today we stand on a threshold. People like Wendell Berry, Steiner, Rodale, Pfeiffer, Albrecht, Balliett have provided humanity with incredible inspiration. To hear a swansong from Berry is sad. It is the media that oppresses the good work that is going on. Yes, the media owned by corporate scum, having their way yet again. There exists a huge movement of people caring for the Earth Mother, putting back more than they take. Somebody please tell Wendell all is as it should be. In the end the people will win. The corporate military industrial complex is dying, almost dead. The Earth will go on in a new paradigm, it will become a star in the cosmos and a model for the cosmic environment. Social-Economic- Cultural economy is waiting in the wings with the kind of ethics that will make Wendells heart swell in his chest. We will go on, the corporate economy is on its death bed...sstorch
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard + FRESH AND LOCAL
Hi Allan, Part of what I'm doing with the Estancia Valley market is expanding those very items. We have been invited to the Santa Fe Family Farmers co-op, which wholesales members produce at a very comfortable price. We are also setting up a co-op for going after DOD contracts as there is an intiative to displace the big corporate entities and allow the producers to provide fresh produce to their own local schools. Part of what I've planned will include all aspects of farm and value added products for our markets. From seed saving to seed sales (local and internet); baking of all types; jams and jellies; off season fruits,veggies and greens; GH forage for dairies and feed lots;and much more. My goal is to keep this valley rural and turn around the local economy from one falling into the great black abysss to one highlighted in the state as being a rural success model within the sustainable movement. Can I do this? You bet your bippy! Years worth of contacts in the Farmer's Markets, knowledge of groups such as Food to Table that are leading the movement for farmers to get those big contracts from DOD, membership on a panel promoting rural ag business and a strong ability to network. What I do is only limited by my own ability to create an awesome group of opportunities and then follow them up and get them done! So is it possible for Local and Fresh? My answer is a resounding YES!!! Pat
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard + FRESH AND LOCAL
Pat - What's a DOD contract? -Allan
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
Dear Friends, At 06:56 AM 12/8/2002, you wrote: It was Goethe who said that the problems or weaknesses of an age exist only for the faint-hearted. Today we stand on a threshold. People like Wendell Berry, Steiner, Rodale, Pfeiffer, Albrecht, Balliett have provided humanity with incredible inspiration. To hear a swansong from Berry is sad. It is the media that oppresses the good work that is going on. Yes, the media owned by corporate scum, having their way yet again. There exists a huge movement of people caring for the Earth Mother, putting back more than they take. Somebody please tell Wendell all is as it should be. In the end the people will win. The corporate military industrial complex is dying, almost dead. The Earth will go on in a new paradigm, it will become a star in the cosmos and a model for the cosmic environment. Social-Economic- Cultural economy is waiting in the wings with the kind of ethics that will make Wendells heart swell in his chest. We will go on, the corporate economy is on its death bed...sstorch Here is a Seth quote which resonates with much of what has been said on this subject so far: First of all, as a race, in the context of normal usage, you have considered yourselves as apart from the rest of nature and consciousness. Your own survival as a species was your main concern. You considered other species only in the light of their use to you. You did not have any true conception of the great sacredness of all consciousness, nor of your relationship within it. You were losing your grasp of that great truth. In the present circumstances you are carrying that idea forward--of racial survival regardless of the consequences, the idea of changing the environment to suit your own purposes; and this has led you to a disregard of spiritual truths. In physical reality, therefore, you are seeing the results. Now those personalities who are returning are doing so for various reasons. Some of them are drawn to physical life again because of these attitudes. They are those who in the past, in your terms, strove for physical existence without consideration for the rights of other species. They are driven to return because of their own desires. The race must learn the value of the individual man. The race is also learning its dependence upon other species, and beginning to comprehend its part in the whole framework in physical reality. Now: Some individuals are being reborn at this time simply to help you understand. They are forcing the issue, and forcing the crisis, for you still have time to change your ways. You are working on two main problems, but both involve the sacredness of the individual, and the individual's relationship with others and with all physically oriented consciousness. The problem of war will sooner or later teach you that when you kill another man, basically you will end up killing yourself. The over-population problem will teach you that if you do not have a loving concern for the environment in which you dwell, it will no longer sustain you--you will not be worthy of it. You will not be destroying the planet, you see. You will not be destroying the birds or the flowers, or the grain or the animals. You will not be worthy of them, and they will be destroying you. You have set up the problem for yourselves within the framework of your reference. You will not understand your part within the framework of nature until you actually see yourselves in danger of tearing it apart. You will not destroy consciousness. You will not annihilate the consciousness of even one leaf, but in your context, if the problem were not solved, these would fade from your experience. The crisis is a kind of therapy, however. It is a teaching method that you have set up for yourselves because you need it. And you need it now, before your race embarks upon journeys to other physical realities. You must learn your lessons now in your own backyard before you travel to other worlds. So you have brought this upon yourself for that purpose and you will learn. --Jane Roberts - Seth Speaks. SESSION 550, SEPTEMBER 28, 1970 -- With kindest regards, Barry Carter [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2319 Balm Baker City, Oregon 97814 Phone: 541-523-3357 Web Pages: Forest - http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/bmnfa/index.htm ORMUS - http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/whatisit.htm What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your life. Whether the subject of your thought be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies. The more you think of grievances, the more such trials you will continue to receive; the more you think of the good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you. --Emmet Fox
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
With the Pentagon being the largest source of bureaucratic waste, abuse and corruption in the federal government, having maintained a military tax-fueled budget which has averaged 300 billion dollars a year since 1948 and considering the administration of George W. Bush is requesting $396.1 billion for the military in fiscal year 2003 ($379.3 billion for the Defense Department and $16.8 billion for the nuclear weapons functions of the Department of Energy), this is $45.5 billion above current levels, an increase of 13 percent, also 15 percent above the Cold War average, to fund a force structure that is one-third smaller than it was a decade ago, I am concerned that the aforementioned "death bed" is an insidious crypt frighteningly more undead than dying. In all, the administration plans to spend $2.1 TRILLION on the military over the next five years. The budget plans, if approved by Congress, would lead the nation back into deficit spending in FY'03 - for the first time in four years. With aerospace/defense contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Electric usurping some half a Trillion dollars in sales since the mid-eighties, all of which are among the world's most powerful companies, I am uncertain of this impending mortality. With mega multinational corporations based right here on American soil generating revenues such as Walmart's 219 Billion dollars in 2002 and Philip Morris with 73 Billion dollars as well as Citigroup's 112 Billion dollars and Merck's(pharmacueticals) 47 Billion dollars, I am alarmed that if corporate economy is nearing the pearly gates, US spending citizens are largely unaware, unconcerned and irrefutably aloof to that speculation. Yes, there is a reason for the media's repressive slant on the economic viability of responsible associative economics and the valuable contributions made from our conscientious cottage industry sector as well as grassroots social and political movements-$$$. The profits are alive and well and as long as mainstream media works for their advertisers/patrons such as Ford Motor and General Electric and as long as medical doctors remain hypocritically-oathed pharmaceutical reps and corporate farmers continue the rape and humiliation of our planet by doing the industrial, war-based, economically incestuous government's bidding to produce depleted, demoralized garbage to fill our decaying bodies with (this includes the so-called organic industry which caters to the small percentage of the upper pyramidal populus of this country and further more the world who can actually afford the stuff.) I am not convinced that Microsoft nor Exxon nor Boeing nor AOL/Time Warner nor Pfizer (not to be confused with Pfeiffer) nor the 495 other inappropriately economically endowed machines on Fortune's hall of shame are dutifully lined up to meet and greet St. Peter just yet. Collapse is imminent, however. what we do now will prepare for the fall. If not in this lifetime then the others... Peace be with all, Caine Rose
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard + FRESH AND LOCAL
Hi, Depart of Defense is DOD. They handle the food supplied to public schools as well as bombing other countries. Pat Pat - What's a DOD contract? -Allan Are you serious? When did this happen? I thought it was USDA or some education department that handled school lunches. (Where have I been?) -ALlan
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard + FRESH AND LOCAL
Hi Allan, Alas, tis true. I don't know when this took place, but that's how it is now. I know from what my boys tell me how bad the school food tastes, smells and appears that something had to be done and now I'm doing it. I'll fight tooth and nail to make it happen for the farmer's of this area and at the same time improving my(and everybody elses here) children's diet by eating good healthy local food. Pat Hi, Depart of Defense is DOD. They handle the food supplied to public schools as well as bombing other countries. Pat Pat - What's a DOD contract? -Allan Are you serious? When did this happen? I thought it was USDA or some education department that handled school lunches. (Where have I been?) -ALlan
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard + FRESH AND LOCAL
G'day: In Washington state we have:: "From the Heart of Washington - support your local growers, buy Washington products." http://www.heartofwashington.com/pressroom/farmkt.html contact: Pam Perry Parsons Public Relations 206-789-5668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cheers, Penelope Hugh Lovel wrote: Fresh and Local! Anyone have a FRESH AND LOCAL initiative in their area? (LOCAL HERO is a similar program.) Dear Allan, This we have in Georgia. Contact Gary Brown of Georgia Grown, 770 786 1933 or cell 404 213 8470 Best, Hugh Visit our website at: www.unionag.org .
Re: WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard + FRESH AND LOCAL
And also in Western Washington, there is Puget Sound Fresh program: http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/farms/___Barry Lia \ [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ Seattle WA On Sun, 08 Dec 2002 14:08:30 -0800 BP Bell [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: G'day:In Washington state we have:: "From the Heart of Washington - support your local growers, buy Washington products."http://www.heartofwashington.com/pressroom/farmkt.htmlcontact:Pam PerryParsons Public Relations206-789-5668[EMAIL PROTECTED]Cheers, PenelopeHugh Lovel wrote: Fresh and Local! Anyone have a FRESH AND LOCAL initiative in their area? (LOCAL HERO is a similar program.) Dear Allan, This we have in Georgia. Contact Gary Brown of Georgia Grown, 770 786 1933 or cell 404 213 8470 Best, Hugh Visit our website at: www.unionag.org .
WENDELL BERRY: The Agrarian Standard
From the Orion Society Home Page http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/02-3om/Berry.html This article is an abridgement of an essay that appears in the 20th Anniversary Issue of ORION, the magazine of the ORION Society. The Orion Society is a charitable organization that focuses on the Environment. They need your help to stay active. To encourage you to support them, they are offering a very good deal on a trial subscription to their quality publication (which often features the likes of Wendell Berry, Barry Lopes, Rick Bass and Gary Snyder) This year, more than ever, we need your support. For a limited time only, you can give new subscriptions to friends and family for just $18. More about this offer at: http://www.oriononline.org/holidayoffer ) This essay appeared in the 20th Anniversary issue of Orion. It in was drawn from this spring's The Future of Agrarianism Conference which was held April 25-28 at Georgetown College in Lexington, KY. It has been further abridged for the web, where this post was drawn from. If you would like to read the full version, please click here https://ssl.crocker.com/orionsoc/freeom.cfm for a FREE copy of this special 20th Anniversary Issue. Please make time to read this essay carefully. It literally drips wisdom. THE AGRARIAN STANDARD by Wendell Berry The Unsettling of America WAS PUBLISHED twenty-five years ago; it is still in print and is still being read. As its author, I am tempted to be glad of this, and yet, if I believe what I said in that book, and I still do, then I should be anything but glad. The book would have had a far happier fate if it could have been disproved or made obsolete years ago. It remains true because the conditions it describes and opposes, the abuses of farmland and farming people, have persisted and become worse over the last twenty-five years. In 2002 we have less than half the number of farmers in the United States that we had in 1977. Our farm communities are far worse off now than they were then. Our soil erosion rates continue to be unsustainably high. We continue to pollute our soils and streams with agricultural poisons. We continue to lose farmland to urban development of the most wasteful sort. The large agribusiness corporations that were mainly national in 1977 are now global, and are replacing the world's agricultural diversity, which was useful primarily to farmers and local consumers, with bioengineered and patented monocultures that are merely profitable to corporations. The purpose of this now global economy, as Vandana Shiva has rightly said, is to replace food democracy with a worldwide food dictatorship. To be an agrarian writer in such a time is an odd experience. One keeps writing essays and speeches that one would prefer not to write, that one wishes would prove unnecessary, that one hopes nobody will have any need for in twenty-five years. My life as an agrarian writer has certainly involved me in such confusions, but I have never doubted for a minute the importance of the hope I have tried to serve: the hope that we might become a healthy people in a healthy land. We agrarians are involved in a hard, long, momentous contest, in which we are so far, and by a considerable margin, the losers. What we have undertaken to defend is the complex accomplishment of knowledge, cultural memory, skill, self-mastery, good sense, and fundamental decency -- the high and indispensable art -- for which we probably can find no better name than good farming. I mean farming as defined by agrarianism as opposed to farming as defined by industrialism: farming as the proper use and care of an immeasurable gift. I believe that this contest between industrialism and agrarianism now defines the most fundamental human difference, for it divides not just two nearly opposite concepts of agriculture and land use, but also two nearly opposite ways of understanding ourselves, our fellow creatures, and our world. THE WAY OF INDUSTRIALISM is the way of the machine. To the industrial mind, a machine is not merely an instrument for doing work or amusing ourselves or making war; it is an explanation of the world and of life. Because industrialism cannot understand living things except as machines, and can grant them no value that is not utilitarian, it conceives of farming and forestry as forms of mining; it cannot use the land without abusing it. Industrialism prescribes an economy that is placeless and displacing. It does not distinguish one place from another. It applies its methods and technologies indiscriminately in the American East and the American West, in the United States and in India. It thus continues the economy of colonialism. The shift of colonial power from European monarchy to global corporation is perhaps the dominant theme of modern history. All along, it has been the same
