Locavores And The Gospel

[Stone holm]

After decades of promoting home production and until Pres Benson encouraging gardening, why is it that VT, NH, and ME and not Utah are the three top States for supporting eating and shopping local. Am I off message here or something?

Edited April 16, 2013 by Stone holm

[CASteinman]

After decades of promoting home production and until Pres Benson encouraging gardening, why is it that VT, NH, and ME and not Utah are the three top States for supporting eating and shopping local. Am I off message here or something?

Yeah... you kinda are. They are not the same things.

[Stone holm]

Yeah... you kinda are. They are not the same things.

Okay, explain?

[CASteinman]

Okay, explain?

Eating and shopping "local" is related to shopping. Growing your own food in a garden is not. One is supporting the local economy. The other is self sufficiency. Not the same things.

[Bikeemikey]

After decades of promoting home production and until Pres Benson encouraging gardening, why is it that VT, NH, and ME and not Utah are the three top States for supporting eating and shopping local. Am I off message here or something?

Might have been that benson hated micro farming and actively promoted corporate farming on large scale over new England's farming models.

[Stone holm]

Might have been that benson hated micro farming and actively promoted corporate farming on large scale over new England's farming models.

Well I suspect that and the general embrace of American corporatism by Church leadership from the Stake level on up. The idea that agriculture might or should be just an expanded version of gardening and that home manufacture is a viable alternative just was no longer on their radar screen. After all ZCMI had been converted from a market for home manufacturing to just another department store chain and then dumped as an investment.

[rongo]

Might have been that benson hated micro farming and actively promoted corporate farming on large scale over new England's farming models.

Do you mean "corporate," or "cooperative?" "Corporate" smacks of liberal irritation at Benson's conservative policies (i.e., the cooperative movement, etc.), which attracted Eisenhower to him in the first place. Benson railed (unsuccessfully) against farm subsidies and other things that the "corporate" agronomists favor (regardless of political affiliation).

[ksfisher]

I don't see how planting a garden and growing some of your own food is related to buying locally. The church encourages us to plant a garden. The church doesn't tell us where to shop.

[CASteinman]

Well I suspect that and the general embrace of American corporatism by Church leadership from the Stake level on up.

CFR on the "embrace" of "American Corporatism by Church Leadership from the Stake Level on up".

The idea that agriculture might or should be just an expanded version of gardening and that home manufacture is a viable alternative just was no longer on their radar screen.

This is babbling nonsense.

[CASteinman]

Might have been that benson hated micro farming and actively promoted corporate farming on large scale over new England's farming models.

Might have been.

Might have also been the secret martian mice that penetrated the brains of all Earthlings and have been controlling their behaviors and thoughts since 1945.

Might have been....

[CASteinman]

"The top local markets for adult homeowners who have gardened in the past 12 months are Seattle (63 percent are homeowners who have gardened); Portland, Ore. (63 percent); Salt Lake City (62 percent); Milwaukee (58 percent) and Columbus, Ohio (58 percent)."

Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine -- those paragons of perfection, where every citizen is glorified and perfect -- don't even make the list.

http://www.scarborough.com/press-release.php?press_id=nearly-half-of-all-american-homeowners-give-a-green-thumbs-up-to-home-improvements

[Stone holm]

Might have been Martian mice, but think it had more to do with the new agriculture instituted by Benson and then moved to its ultimate conclusion by his successors which called for big commodity farms.

[Bikeemikey]

Might have been.

Might have also been the secret martian mice that penetrated the brains of all Earthlings and have been controlling their behaviors and thoughts since 1945.

Might have been....

If you can pull federal legislative action and policy proposals from his tenor as agriculture zar that refers to martian mice over his actual farm policy I might buy it.

As it is, I think we should make assumptions about his "might have beens" from what he actually said.

[CASteinman]

As it is, I think we should make assumptions about his "might have beens" from what he actually said.

Well, do you have a statement by him that he hated micro farming?

[CASteinman]

it had more to do with the new agriculture instituted by Benson

Second CFR. This one is that there was a "new agriculture" "instituted" by Benson.

Still waiting on the last one as well.

[Bikeemikey]

Well, do you have a statement by him that he hated micro farming?

OK, so hated is the wrong word.

Benson loved farming and was in favor of maximizing farming output... he did this by incentivizing the migration to larger farms producing specialized crops. He hated (again I have no evidence he used the word so I will also accompany it with preferences) more efficient output produced from larger farms.

http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/59390/2/eib3.pdf (This is a good report on the US history of farming demographic data in the USA. Please not the graph on page four that clearly shows the decline in the number of US farms and the increase in the average farm size. This trend begun before Benson tenure in the 1950's, though he also was an advocate for consolidation and specialization.

I have no axe to grind with Benson on the matter, it is also not a value judgement against Benson that he was an advocate for larger more specialized farms. Farming efficiency and total output has jumped astronomically over the same period of time. Obviously crop modification and equipment improvements have played a key role in this, but so has Bensons policies driving larger and more specialized farms.

Larger more specialized farms plays a key part in why mid-west communities rely on food imports from other farming regions. This again is not necessarily a bad thing. They produce what is most effective for their climates and import was is more effective to produce in other climates. As such, Bensons policies in favor of larger specialized farms was reduced the financial viability of "micro-farming". This has resulted in food needing to travel to many States over long distances.

The entire era of farming legislation (1950's- now) is referred to as the "Get big or Get out". A phrase reportedly coined by Earl Butz who was under-secretary to Benson for part of his tenure.

[Stone holm]

Wasn't Butz the one that got canned for anti semat

OK, so hated is the wrong word.

Benson loved farming and was in favor of maximizing farming output... he did this by incentivizing the migration to larger farms producing specialized crops. He hated (again I have no evidence he used the word so I will also accompany it with preferences) more efficient output produced from larger farms.

http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/59390/2/eib3.pdf (This is a good report on the US history of farming demographic data in the USA. Please not the graph on page four that clearly shows the decline in the number of US farms and the increase in the average farm size. This trend begun before Benson tenure in the 1950's, though he also was an advocate for consolidation and specialization.

I have no axe to grind with Benson on the matter, it is also not a value judgement against Benson that he was an advocate for larger more specialized farms. Farming efficiency and total output has jumped astronomically over the same period of time. Obviously crop modification and equipment improvements have played a key role in this, but so has Bensons policies driving larger and more specialized farms.

Larger more specialized farms plays a key part in why mid-west communities rely on food imports from other farming regions. This again is not necessarily a bad thing. They produce what is most effective for their climates and import was is more effective to produce in other climates. As such, Bensons policies in favor of larger specialized farms was reduced the financial viability of "micro-farming". This has resulted in food needing to travel to many States over long distances.

The entire era of farming legislation (1950's- now) is referred to as the "Get big or Get out". A phrase reportedly coined by Earl Butz who was under-secretary to Benson for part of his tenure.

i

Wasn't Butz the one who got canned for antisemetic comments. I disagree with the industrialisation of the size of farming. They were ripping out fence rows and planting field to field. Our whole concept is on family self sufficiency, then community self sufficiency, then regional self sufficiency. This is what makes for close knit families and communities. We would do better to focus more on these things rather than on gay and lesbians if we want to restore families.