Page 33 - Winter2010

doubt suffer the same market distortions that upon them. With one and a half million largely subsistence-based small
Smithfield brought about in Poland. family farms still in operation, it is something we should not rule out. But
perhaps the strongest force mitigating against such an action is the fact
THE ONLY CHEAP OPTION? that a fair proportion of farmers have already signed up to the “pot of gold”
How ironic it is, that the hell-bent U.S. devel- held tantalizingly in front of their noses by the Brussels bureaucrats. This
opment of biofuels has played into the hands of so-called pot of gold ultimately delivers just a few crumbs of financial
the exponents of cheap, mass-produced, GMO- support to small farms of five to seven hectares, but rewards large farms
aided animal flesh production, by forcing up the with substantial offerings.
price of conventional feeds, such as barley-based Money can indeed buy out the seeds of revolution but the hearts of the
products, caused by the replacement of cereal peasants will not be satisfied. Neither will the hearts of caring individuals
production with millions of acres of GM maize who know and love the working countryside. In a world where genuine
for burning up as fuel for motor cars and trucks. independence is seen as a threat to the controlling influence of national and
Now GM soya and maize, previously avoided by transnational power brokers, a watchful eye will be kept on any potentially
most European animal feed importers, suddenly rebellious leaders and covert efforts made to ensure that peasant farmers
look like the only cheap option available. We remain passive.
have consistently lobbied for the government to However, we are in for some big changes, some from the hand of a
encourage farmers to grow their own traditional poisoned and polluted nature in rebellion, but others by the hand of those
feed products, but in a world hooked on the who are waking up to the stark choices that confront all of us: capitulate
global shipment of cheap proteins, such advice to the forces of “total control” or wrest back control of life and work to
has fallen on deaf ears. rejuvenate local communities to do the same.
Poland has all the potential for a full blown Poland is well versed in the art of survival. Provided the next genera-
peasants’ revolt to recapture the right to grow, tion of farm owners has the will to carry forward the traditions inherited
eat and trade their superb farmhouse foods, along with the land, there is great hope for this proud and brave nation to
thus freeing themselves from the increasing come through the chaos with its soul unbought and its seeds unmodified.
stranglehold that the bureaucratically perverse
sanitary and hygiene regulations have imposed

EXHIBITORS AT WISE TRADITIONS 2010

Almost one hundred exhibitors sold healthy products at Wise Traditions 2010.
Clockwise from top left: The Agarwal family from Pure Indian Foods, sellers of
grass-fed ghee; Pennsylvania dairy your Fam-
ily Cow, Edwin Shank proprietor, selling raw
milk; Dave and Barb Wetzel of Green Pasture
Products, makers of high-vitamin butter oil
and fermented cod liver oil; the good folks
from Wilderness Family Naturals with their
line of natural foods; and Scott Grzbek of
ZUKEy Live Foods, selling lacto-fermented
products.

WINTER 2010 Wise Traditions 33

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