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March 22, 2018 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
10:58
Food security, local farms and FEMA
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music yeah i mean and the reason why we we don't sell meat and we're not meat producers i'm a vegetable farmer but um but we do eat meat and i want the very best meat for my family and my children and my the best eggs and the best dairy and
And again, that's what motivates us as farmers, is that we want the best food for ourselves and our family and for our neighbors and our community and our customers and everyone that we deal with.
Good, everybody.
It's Farmer Brad again.
Hey, Brad.
How's it going?
Good.
I wanted to ask you about food security.
And in the last segment, you started to talk about what happened after Hurricane Katrina.
Can you talk about that scenario, the store shelves versus local food, and why that's important?
Well, again, local food is local security.
I mean, when we had, you know, that was, we couldn't believe it.
You know, we had just started this farm.
We were down here.
We're not really used to being in the hurricane even consistently.
I mean, what's all worried about the hurricane season, you know?
But when that happened, I mean, we had...
And you see how quiet our road is here.
We had traffic, you know, coming through here.
We couldn't get to our own town, which is just seven miles away.
It was backed up, you know, because of the evacuation.
And again, our CSA members, who comes from the Metroplex east of us in Houston...
We could swing by their farm during their evacuation and come pick up the produce because we weren't going to be able to deliver it to them.
That was the first time when we really saw the impact how local food can provide food security.
FEMA starts doing an inventory on all the farms and stuff around these metroplexes.
FEMA was doing an inventory?
Well, they start calling up farms, and they want to know where the farms are, and then they're being prepared to maybe take food when they need to from farms, you know, for a crisis like that.
Wait a minute.
This is a big deal here.
How do you know?
I mean, did they say that they're going to maybe acquire food from the farms?
Or what's the deal on that?
Well, they're making food assessments.
You know, what is in the local food shed in the Metroplex?
During any kind of circumstance like that, or even during the fuel supplies get cut or fuel prices go up, that'll definitely affect fuel prices or food prices.
But, you know, our distribution system for food is so...
It's so fragile.
Yeah.
You know, and there's only enough food in these grocery stores to last for literally just a couple days.
And in that case, the store shelves were stripped bare, weren't they?
Oh yeah, they're stripped bare within hours, you know.
And I remember because we needed to go into town for some reason that day, and Jenny couldn't make it, we couldn't make it halfway into town because of the traffic.
They knew there was no way we were going to be able to get in there.
And then we heard all kinds of stories from our local residences of what it was like in the We had people camping out in the Wal-Mart parking lot and grocery stores were empty.
Food wasn't coming in.
We had people from 90 miles away from Houston and some other Metro-X's coming to our town because we were one of the few that still had gas in some of the gas stations.
That was a big awakening for us.
So wait a minute, did FEMA agents come to your farm?
No, FEMA agents did not come to my farm.
They didn't go to any farms that I'm aware of, but because of me and me being associated and knowing all the other farmers around here in the area, I know farms were getting phone calls from FEMA asking, you know, what are you producing, how much land do you have, wanting to get the details of the local food sheds.
So they're creating a database of food on farms?
Essentially.
Or a list.
And again, we voluntarily, we've all been participating in that.
But why would they need a list of your food?
Unless they plan to use it.
Food security issues.
Exactly.
It makes us all a little suspicious, you know.
But I was reading on your report, I think, this morning about terrorists and the salad bar, you know.
Right.
And I'm thinking, I'm out here, and I'm on my hands and knees, and I'm picking my salad mixes, you know, by hand.
Yes.
You know, and that's food security, because it's coming from my hand, who's maybe a domestic extremist, you know, but not a terrorist, you know.
But it's coming from my hands, picking my vegetables, Being stored on my farm or refrigerated on my farm and cared for and directly delivered to my customer, that's food security.
Not just even the threat of food not being there, but the threat of terrorists attacking our food supply.
Yes.
You know, and terrorists are not going to target a small local farm with that such of a little impact.
No.
Major cargills, meatpacking warehouses, things that is distributed and affects thousands of people.
Right, right.
If the terrorists hit the food supply, you know you've got your stuff right here.
I'm going to pan over there so people can see.
That is food security, folks.
Right there.
Crops in the field.
I see you've got some chickens.
They got loose, it looks like.
That's also called food security.
On feet, depending on whether you eat chickens.
So, you got food right here, and you're right, the terrorists aren't going to get it, but FEMA might come get it.
Yeah, I mean, so again, it's just like the FDA police with the Food Safety Act.
You know, farmers, it's becoming very, very difficult for farmers to grow food.
It's becoming scary.
Farmers are intimidated.
We're being intimidated by regulations.
And that's just not right.
You know, it's just, I can't imagine being in any more dangerous occupation right now.
But, you know, getting back to this FEMA thing, it also seems strange.
If you've got a bunch of people evacuating, let's say, Houston because of a hurricane.
And those people probably didn't prepare.
They don't have any stored food.
They probably don't have fresh water.
But you prepared.
You put your labor and your effort into this farm to grow your own food so that you and your family could be prepared.
But the government's plan to come along and take the food that you grew and distribute it to the people who did not prepare.
I mean, that's there.
You know that's there.
And again, they might not have any other option because, like I said, food isn't going to be shipped in.
And I really know if...
An event like that did occur here locally.
I know my farm would be completely wiped out in a matter of hours.
And again, I'm happy to do that to feed my community, but we've got to think a little bit more long-term.
Well, that's the thing.
I know you would try to help as many people as you could, just from a humanitarian point of view.
But at some point...
You know, maybe you have a little extra stash to get through two or three months to keep your family alive.
What if they find that?
That's something that we all have got to be concerned about.
And again, it's...
What if they take your seeds, Brad, and then you can't plant next year's crops?
I don't know.
I don't want to give away all my answers, but...
That's right.
Smart man.
But it is.
Local food is food security.
And it's safe food.
And really when it comes down to it, the consumer needs to know who their farmer is.
And to know who they are before a crisis occurs.
And to know who they are before food prices rise.
Our biggest expense here on our...
Literally our biggest expense.
Monetary expense.
Not kind of my labor because I get...
Below minimum wages.
But it's fuel.
And it's not the fuel it takes for me to produce my fuel, my food.
It's the fuel it takes for me to distribute it into Houston.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah, it's eat me running my truck into Houston.
It's more expensive than three months of fuel.
I mean, one trip to Houston is $80 of fuel.
That's four months of fuel for a tractor.
Uh-huh.
And I imagine the...
Even though we see big tractors, and definitely our conventional system is based on fuel, besides the fertilizers and the byproducts of fuel, I suspect really the biggest fuel expense in any food is the distribution, the shipping of it.
Right.
Well, speaking of that, you mentioned this earlier, a lot of food that people eat in the U.S. comes from Mexico, comes from Central America, comes from South America.
You know, I talk to vegans sometimes who think they're saving the planet.
Well, where's your celery coming from?
You know, that's got a thousand miles on it.
Really, the best thing we do to help the environment is just learn to eat more seasonally.
I mean seriously, if you want to make an impact, and if you want to make an impact with your shopping dollar, I mean nothing makes bigger of an impact than buying local food.
That's true.
I mean it's better for your health, it's better for the local economy because you're keeping the money right there in your own community, it's better for the environment because you're buying it from a farmer who lives there on their land that cares about their land.
I mean we call ourselves a sustainable farm and it's sustainable because we're improving it for the next generation.
When I die, or when I hand this over, hopefully to whoever else has it, it'll be in a lot better shape than when I received it.
The benefits are so great.
The impact is so great.
Not only it makes a political statement that I am not going to participate in this program, Food industrial complex system.
You know, I'm not going to participate in all the drugs and GMOs and the scientific experiment that you're pulling on our population.
I'm not going to be a part of it.
Right.
You know, I'm going to eat seasonally.
I'm going to get to know my farmer.
I'm going to do all I can by starting a garden in my own backyard.
And you also mentioned that all the meat your family eats is meat that you grow right here on your farm.
Yeah, I remember when we first kind of came out.
When we first were doing this full-time and finally...
You know, we would make a point of what percentage of our meal was, you know, wow, half of what we produced, half of this food on our plate we grew, and then eventually, now we don't even keep track anymore because it's easily 90%, you know, of what we eat is what we grow here.
And we grow a lot of variety, and our children love vegetables and love different varieties.
They're not afraid to try anything, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, and the reason why we don't sell meat, and we're not meat producers, I'm a vegetable farmer, but we do eat meat, and I want the very best meat for my family and my children, and the best eggs and the best dairy.
And again, that's what motivates us as farmers, is that we want the best food For ourselves and our family and for our neighbors and our community and our customers and everyone that we deal with.
Again, we're after the pursuit of happiness, you know?
We want to enjoy what we're doing in our life here.
Not turn it into some factory with food that we wouldn't even be, you know, happy to eat on our own lights.
Well said.
Farmer Brad, everybody.
Here in Texas.
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