Food Politics and Voting
It's YOUR food security...
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Strong opinions ahead (and a couple cuss words) so if you’re sensitive to those, this one’s not for you.
There’s a fantastic classic comedy called “My Cousin Vinny.”
It’s one of those old school movies that uses impeccable timing, facial expressions and biting dialogue to generate hearty belly laughs.
(If you’re anywhere close to my age, the word “yutes” just might set you off to peels of uncontrollable laughter. If you’re a younger generation, this might make no sense at all.) 😂
There’s no over the top, sloppy comedy or exaggerated sexual references….
Would I sound too old if I say I miss those days of genuine comedy?
Anyway, the story goes that there is a recently minted New York City attorney who is representing his cousin in a murder trial in the deep south.
The interplay in cultural references between New York and “the south” is all by itself a rich trove of comedic gold.
In one scene, the New York attorney–played by Joe Pesci–is invited to go on a hunting trip with the slick, good ‘ol southern boys.
He’s asking his girlfriend, played by Marisa Tomei, which pants he should wear.
And she whips out this (in a perfect New York drawl):
“Imagine yer a deer. Yer prancin’ along, ya git thursty, ya spot a little brook, ya put ya litta deer lips down ta the cool, clear watah….BAM a Fuckin bullet rips off parta ya head… ya brains are layin on the ground in little bloody pieces… Now I ax ya, wouldya give a fuck what kinda pants the sonofabitch who shot you was wearing?!?”
You might be wondering…
“What in the world does this story have to do with food security?”
Well, we’re certainly in the midst of “election season.”
There’s lots of gasping and hand wringing and shock and propaganda and entire libraries full of commentary and blaming and name calling.
I’m not one to tell you to vote or not to vote or who to vote for or any of that.
I believe these are intensely personal and private choices.
But here’s an inconvenient reality:
None of the politicking matters unless you’re willing to take the direct actions that will actually make change.
None of it.
Since this publication is about our food and our food system, let’s talk about that.
If we focus on food, think about actions that will directly impact your ability (and your community’s ability) to produce, process, and share food.
In many ways, the world as we know it is on the brink of…something.
Collapse, shift, change, reorganization….? Whatever you want to call it, we all feel the rug being pulled out from under us. Reality as we’ve known it is changing–and rapidly.
And with that change comes the inevitable shifting of our ecosystems, how we interact with each other, how our food is produced, and how it moves around the world, where and how we have access to water… and much more.
As much as it is part of our cultural identity at this point to blame and shame and fight over politics and parties, it doesn’t matter who’s in office if people do not have access to food and/or water.
To paraphrase Tomei’s character:
“Do you think people care if the “blue” or “red” politician is in power as their food security evaporates and they starve to death?”
And yes, I realize that many people reading this are a long way away from starving or even being food insecure.
This might even sound hyperbolic to many.
Let’s keep it that way.
As cliche as it is to quote Gandhi here, I’m gonna anyway. 😉
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
It doesn’t matter who we vote for if we refuse to do the necessary things that make a society more secure, functional, and prosperous. Really basic things are critically important, like producing our own food–or any part of it–so that our communities don’t dissolve into extreme food insecurity.
You cannot rely on “others” to do this work. You must become involved.
Yes, that includes working hard to shift policies that matter. And building a foundation–or mindset change–so those policies can’t shift back on the whims of a politician–or worse, the whims of an unaccountable bureaucracy/bureaucrat.
Grow your own food.
Mobilize IN your community to ensure that you have local food security.
Change zoning or HOA rules so you can have chickens or goats or front yard gardens.
Make raw milk legal or more accessible in your state.
Support the small farms doing this work so they can keep doing it.
Refuse to be triggered by political bickering.
Refuse to be led around by fear and greed.
There’s a foundation we need for a functional society.
As much as others would like to tell you it’s a functioning political class or political system, the foundation of true food security is vastly more important. Lack of which could, and potentially will, cripple any meaningful political institutions.
Humans are inherently resourceful, ingenious, and resilient. And, believe it or not, we need each other in order to function within our ecosystems–both our natural systems and our human-created social systems.
And, as we’ve created more complex systems, we’ve created more vulnerabilities.
Some of these vulnerabilities we cannot fully fathom until they come to pass.
So that means it’s extra important to build the foundation upon which you wish to exist.
Build it strong, build it now so that the foundation can support us through whatever turmoil occurs.
Do you have true food security in your community?
It won’t matter how much money you have to buy food if the logistics are broken or it can’t get to you.
Food security anywhere helps create food security everywhere.
This doesn’t happen because a politician makes an inspiring speech. And it doesn’t happen with a “state of emergency” or granting even more centralized control to an already gluttonous ruling class.
No, food security happens when we decentralize and relocalize our food systems, prioritizing neighbor to neighbor transactions and the passing on of generational knowledge and wisdom.
It happens when we eat most of our calories from within the ecosystem where they are grown or produced. And when we use what’s available to us.
It happens as you learn to grow something–anything–today so you begin to think like a producer and not just a clueless consumer.
Or when you find ways to eat without food being wrapped, packaged and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles.
When you learn how to keep animals alive, or how to humanely harvest them when needed for food.
It’s honoring the seasons and the ecosystems in which those seasons exist and realizing that restoring our soil isn’t an option, it’s a MUST.
Having a producer mindset starts with getting clarity on the fact that the health of our loved ones is directly related to the health of the soil from which they are eating and drinking.
Let’s not get caught in the political cross hairs. Let’s see our landscape for what it is: massive food insecurity if we don’t shift our attention immediately back to personal and community food security, sans partisanship, sans problematic and contentious national politics.
So yes, we’re closing in on an election. We so often think we are the ones deciding which color of pants to wear.
But we’re not. We’re the deer searching for food and water.
What will you do today to improve food security in your community?
Who will you share a meal with today?
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