Fried chicken is my favorite animal...

I found this joke in my email inbox this morning:

"Our teacher asked us what our favorite animal was, and I said, "Fried chicken." She said I wasn't funny, but she couldn't have been right, because everyone else in the class laughed. My parents told me to always be truthful and honest, and I am. Fried chicken is my favorite animal. I told my dad what happened, and he said my teacher was probably a member of PETA. He said they love animals very much. Especially chicken, pork and beef.

Anyway, my teacher sent me to the principal's office.I told him what happened, and he laughed, too. Then he told me not to do it again.

The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favorite live animal was. I told her it was chicken. She asked me why, just like she'd asked the other children. So I told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken. She sent me back to the principal's office again. He laughed, and told me not to do it again. I don't understand.

My parents taught me to be honest, but my teacher doesn't like it when I am.Today, my teacher asked us to tell her what famous person we admire most. I told her, "Colonel Sanders." Guess where I am now..."

Yes, this is a joke, but let's face it, this kind of indoctrination is rampant in our schools, and is one of the many reasons I homeschool my kids. Somehow, entire generations of kids, now adults have lost an appreciation for where their food comes from...and it's only getting worse. I read an article recently about kids in the UK who thought bacon came from sheep. I can honestly say that my children know, without a doubt, where their food comes from, whether it's meat, veggies, milk or eggs.

We spent all Saturday morning harvesting our meat chickens. It was good family fun where the kids get to see their once cute, fuzzy chicks turn into....well...fried chicken. Sure, there are some aspects that are less than glamourous, but as we watched our kids spend an hour dissecting a chicken heart, it was hard not to recognize the irreplaceable value of real life exploration and discovery, and the long term effect it will have on their world view and awareness. Of course, many people (many more these days) do not share in our view that raising and harvesting your own food is a valuable learning opportunity for children. Most of my husband's family, for instance, live the PETA hypocrisy of swatting flies while they wolf down tofu burgers...

We chatted about these unfortunates as we plucked broilers on Saturday, laughing about friends who refuse to eat anything that didn't come from the grocery store, and what that trend has brought us in the way of food quality and safety. It's a sad state of affairs in this country where food is concerned. And kids get the worst of it. Even my farm-raised kids came rushing in halfway through an episode of Sesame Street last week to say that they desperately needed some vegetables for breakfast because they wanted to be 'healthy'...uh, really?

Folks, there's only One Authority when it comes to our food, as He designed the entire system. For now, I think I'll let His words end this post.

Genesis 1:26-30
26: And God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created  them.

28: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

29: And God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food," and it was so.

30: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

Government that prohibits citizens from growing food condems them to death

I came across this headline today in my internet perusal:

US meat and poultry widely contaminated with bacteria including superbugs 

In the past when I read headlines like these, I praised God for giving us the inclination and ability to raise and eat our own food. But now, we're in a battle with the Town to defend that right.

When we purchased our property 9 years ago, we recognized the value of owning land that could feed us. Our priorities have not changed: we don't have a 4000 square foot house in a fancy subdivision, and we can't take vacations to Maui twice a year because of this life we have chosen. But if our economy collapses or all of the commercially available meat is found to be tainted (see article above), we will be able to feed ourselves and our neighbors with what we painstakingly cultivated on our land. 

This is our right, given by God, not just to Americans but to every person in the world...from camel farmers in outer Mongolia to goat herders in Pakistan.

In a previous post I mentioned that we received a letter from the Town demanding that we remove our cattle from our property. Though our 7.44 acre property has housed livestock since before the Town existed, the current administrators are attempting to enforce a 20 year old municipal zoning code that excludes any animal you can eat from its list of approved "domestic large animals."

After we rejected the Town's first demand to relocate our cattle, the Town suggested that we apply for a Conditional Use Grant in order to keep our cows. At a non-refundable cost of $100, it holds no guarantee of being approved and can not be transferred to anyone who buys our property. For our family, the thought of paying a municipality for permission to feed ourselves runs contrary to everything our nation was founded on, and is simply not an option. So, true to form, we will stand firm.

We live in weird times. There are people who want the government to provide them with everything, and who live from disappointment to disappointment, perpetually irritated that they're not getting what they want or what the neighbors have. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, there are people who defy authority to provide anything for them, and struggle with age-old challenges to provide everything from food to clothing for themselves. And finally, there are people in the middle--most of America--who are completely indifferent...typical consumers trying to do their part, content to remain blissfully unaware of the struggle around them. Government, is equally conflicted, wanting the role of parent and provider for all mankind so intently that it often cuts off its suppliers to prove its sovereignty. This is the drama that's playing out here in my town.

Town government is not a Homeowners Association. Homeowners may voluntarily enter into a contract with an HOA and sign over their property rights to that private organization for whatever security it offers in exchange. But municipalities may not operate in this way; they are beholden to the Constitution and obligated to defend the rights of the people they serve. It seems that we have become so used to people telling us what we can and can't do with our private property that we've forgotten that it is our our property to begin with. If the Town wants to decide how our property should best be used, it can buy it from us.

 

Perhaps this latest hurdle is our chance to stamp out tyranny in our own backyard, or perhaps this is a lesson to us all about what happens when government is permitted to run unchecked on the taxpayer's dime. It's time we all remembered that it's not someone else's job to protect fundamental unalienable rights, it's mine and yours.