Page 24 - Winter2010

a bad choice and then to put responsibility on federal inspector at your local slaughter house would be terminated, and
the person to find the answer. That’s how you none of the farmers could sell their meat out of the area.
stimulate informational curiosity. If we’re ever The point of this Science News article was, if we would allow politi-
going to have an informed consumer, we have to cal prototyping on a small scale, we could be extremely innovative in the
allow responsibility for their food choice. If we political sector. Then to the people who say consumers are ignorant and
eliminate food choice responsibility, then we’re have to be protected from themselves, we could point to this city or county
always going to have an ignorant consuming and say, “Look, the hospital is empty, the IQ scores went up. We didn’t need
populace. If someone makes all the choices for a development transfer program to save farmlands because the farms are
us, we quit learning about that topic because all profitable. Unemployment dropped to 3 percent because everybody is
someone else has taken the responsibility. . . and busy in this local food system, canning, preserving and pickling. Graphic
if something turns out wrong, then it’s their fault. artists have work, entrepreneurs are distributing and selling.” We all know
The magazine Science News had a fascinat- the potential of freeing up local farm economies. We need to join together
ing article, which said that with the penetration to advocate that kind of thing.
of the federal government into the state and local
levels, there’s no way to prototype new political NUMBER EIGHT:
ideas. What if my county or your county or your RAMPANT ANTHROPOMORPHISM
city declared they were going to be a local-food- That’s a big word—the kind you learn when you’re an English major,
commerce, government-intrusion-free zone. So like me. Rampant anthromorphism, the attribution of human characteristics
if you wanted to make pot pies in your kitchen to animals or non-living things.
and chicken broth from your backyard chickens One reason we see so much of this today is because the only connec-
and sell these at a farmers market, or you wanted tion most people have to animals is with their pet cat or pet dog. There’s
to milk a cow in your yard and sell the milk to a complete lack understanding about animals on the farm. Recently Poly-
a neighbor, you’d be allowed to do all this. The face was reported to animal control officers for animal abuse because a
problem is that if your city council or board of su- neighbor driving by saw our mob of cows standing there ready to move
pervisors passed such a rule, your city or county into their new pasture. They looked like a crowd, and since people don’t
would immediately be cut off from educational like crowds, she reasoned, these animals must be uncomfortable. So we
funding. You’d have your highway funds cut, the had to go out and spend days with letters and visits and talking to officers

WISE TRADITIONS 2010, A WEEKEND OF MANy FINE PRESENTATIONS

LEFT to RIGHT:
Wayne Feister
explains healthy
cookware, Felix
Liao updates the
audience on holistic
dental procedures
and Mark Keating
inspires the closing
session.

LEFT to RIGHT: Magda
Havas details EMF
dangers, Shannon
Hayes inspires the
radical homemaker and
Stephanie Seneff
describes the impor-
tance of fat and
cholesterol.
24 Wise Traditions WINTER 2010

74240_text.indd 24 12/13/2010 2:14:02 AM