Anti-government Rhetoric Is Not the Answer
A resilient food system is
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On January 4, 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) began an investigation into farmer and businessman Amos Miller of Miller’s Organic Farm.
Extremist media outlets immediately made claims that a “tyrannical government” was raiding a “small farmer.”
These kinds of claims must be reserved for situations where there is no other explanation and where there is a track record of governmental abuse substantiating the particular incident.
In this incident, the PDA was as patient and lenient as possible.
When I wrote about this topic last weekend, my article was to shed some light into some of the background of Amos Miller:
His practices and outsourcing are not always transparent.
He has a national (not even remotely local) distribution network while many claim that he is “feeding his neighbors.”
His anti-government rhetoric–and that of the media outlets screaming the loudest about the case–are deeply divisive and harmful.
The PDA has been flexible over the past 10-15 years.
They’ve worked hard to make processes as lenient and easy to follow as possible.
They have offered all kinds of grants–too numerous to list here–for struggling farmers with no strings attached.
They have supported local and short food supply chains and expanded local food access across the board.
They have used discretion in not arbitrarily enforcing against small farmers–even those producing raw milk without the “required” permits.
Some people questioned my content as being “biased” and for not being anti-government enough.
Whatever that means.
People in the food rights and “food freedom” world are angry.
They are rightfully angry at instances of government overreach and government overregulation of our small farms and personal gardens over the years.
And because government agencies are in bed with–and beholden to–corrupt organizations and big agribusiness.
They are upset that our industrial food systems brings about chronic illness and destruction of our ecosystems.
That’s all very real.
And that anger is righteous and justified.
I don’t want to take that anger away from anyone.
That anger can fuel us to productive change.
AND…. I also do not want “the government” to collapse or fall apart as many of these extremists espouse.
I’ve seen responses to this investigation that blanketly say things like “Time to Oust the Government and give control back to "THE PEOPLE."
And endless diatribes against literally anyone in government.
As if they all people are the same.
We must remember that our efforts need to tackle policies, not people.
If your goal is to increase access to locally produced safe food produced in a transparent manner, then trashing the people working the hardest at doing that isn’t going to get us closer to our goal of better food systems.
Right now we have certain systems in place.
Yes, there is too much regulation.
Yes, there are distortions in access that we need to set right.
Yes, access to land and resources are some of those distortions at the moment.
But trying to shut down or overturn the government en masse is not a solution.
Claiming–as some do–that laws do not apply to you because you are sovereign is also not a solution.
It won’t work. It hasn’t. It still won’t.
Amos Miller, hiding under a thick robe of food freedom, is effectively leading a cult. He’s attracted unsuspecting and/or rabid followers who don’t want any accountability. Miller and his ilk seemingly want people to blindly pay into their coffers as they go on tirades against all governments. And it works because being anti-government is a trigger for many people right now.
However, the effort to “overturn government regulation” immediately is setting us collectively in the wrong direction and actually making it harder for many people to access clean, healthy food.
I believe there are ways to get closer to “food sovereignty” and a truly transparent food system where we don’t “need” government oversight or intervention on the scale we have it now.
It is my life's goal.
But it’s hard work. And it takes time–years, not weeks.
That’s why a lot of people don’t want to do it.
Including the people who think it is somehow going to be easier or makes more sense to “overthrow” the government. This includes people who donate to Miller and his war against America thinking they are somehow making a difference…
Here’s 2 pathways to reach the goal of greater food access.
1. Participate in your own food production.
Look, I’m not saying that overnight you’ve got to be producing 80% or more of your own calories. I don’t think that’s realistic for most of us right now. But learn to grow, produce, process, literally anything.
Grow a tomato.
Grow basil in your windowsill.
Have a couple chickens in your backyard.
Help a farmer.
Start a community garden with a few neighbors.
Plant garlic in the fall.
Plant pollinator flowers to help our food grow.
Grow a nut tree or a fruit tree.
Keep your fallen leaves to compost and fertilize the ground they came from.
The point is, if what you really want is to get the government out of our food system, then you need to step up and become part of it–even the parts that aren’t sexy and won’t get you attention on social media.
You need to help decentralize our food system in a serious way. Not just talk or donate a few dollars that never make it to the good farmers who actually need and deserve help. Get dirt under YOUR fingernails. Learn how hard it is. Learn what grows in which seasons where you live. Learn what’s in your ecosystem and what’s in your neighboring ecosystem.
It starts with personal accountability and personal responsibility and reinvigorating a hyper local food system.
2. Change the laws, change the policy.
I get it. You want less government. And you’re willing to talk about it and be a true keyboard warrior to foment enough agitation and enough hate so that empty-headed, anger-spewing anarchists take enough action to be a little disruptive and cause a scene. (And then heavily fundraise with no accountability about where that money is going). But then the scene is over and the years-long court battle ensues. And no one wins. Not the farmers in court, not the anger-spewing anarchists, and most certainly not the ordinary people needing clean, healthy food.
I’ve seen this over and over. I’ve been around the block a few times on food rights, changing food laws, and watching good people get caught up in a fight they can’t and won’t win.
IT. DOESN’T. WORK.
What works is making determined and concerted efforts to change laws or change policies through hard work, team effort, and persistence.
In fact, the two things listed above are the only things that actually work to change our foodscape on an appreciable level.
I will add here that writing, workshops, teaching, etc I believe to be extremely helpful in teaching people WHY we need to do things, but they are not replacements for taking the direct action to actually making those changes somehow, someway in your own life.
Ultimately what this comes down to is that you can’t use an anti-government mentality or rhetoric or outsource your responsibility to change our food systems.
You have to participate.
And then that participation will inspire others to join. And then our joy and wonder at how our natural world works becomes so real and so wildly contagious that other people pick it up around us and pretty soon we have an ecosystem of resilient communities so strong that no one–not even the hefty weight of the whole government–can overcome that natural resilience.
But it has to be done with joy and with love for those we are feeding. Not anger and hate towards other people.
That’s what I believe.
About Raw Milk Mama: I believe in the freedom to feed our families how we see fit. I also see the direction that our country is going--no one wants to live in a world where food scarcity is a constant reality. It's time to take back our food systems so they serve us, not monopolistic corporations or greedy shysters.
When we push against what exists, it persists. When we choose to use our energy in a more productive way, change is more likely. Nice post!
Thank you again for being the voice of an ever growing movement of food freedom. I listen to AG Report every weekday, (not because I like what they are offering or doing as it is atrocious what the farmers think is important in order to get food from fields, pens, huge holding areas of live animals and feed lots, being tortured and poisoned with horrific pesticides and herbicides, is normal and necessary. and so on...),in hopes it will become evident that the huge corporate thing, and calling people consumers and looking at money, profit etc. as end game instead of health and food excellence with humane practices for both animals and humans, plants and tree health adding to healing of ALL LIFE as stewards not rapists of the Earth and Creation...Any way you get the gist. It is only getting worse at this time so it may be that a tipping point moment soon will occur. I will be glad not to listen to the horrendous reports any more.