Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 10 March 2023...
Hey Y'all!
Happy Fast-Jet Friday from Free Missouri!! The weather is nice today with rains forecast tomorrow. The animals are good. We waited about 12 hours longer than normal to unroll hay for the beef cows and sheep to encourage them to nibble on the green grass. Needless to say, this morning they were bellyaching and letting us know we were late in meeting their culinary demands. We are encouraged that we still have over 30 bales of hay remaining and the grass is already starting to grow. This past summer we had a severe drought and hay was scarce. I wouldn't say that we panicked, but we did make a concerted effort to source enough hay in July to last us through the winter in case the price skyrocketed or even became unavailable. We stacked the hay on the pallets I have mentioned before so that it stayed off of the ground. If you just set the hay on the ground, it begins to rot and the longer it sits, the more it rots. You can even lose 1/3 of the bale to rot. Some of our bales touched the ground on a side so it wasn't perfect, but it is certainly better than just putting them all on the ground. We saved the highest quality hay for the last so that we could slowly increase their protein intake in preparation for the spring grass. We made the trip to Springfield yesterday and uploaded a video to YouTube of me fixing the tractor. We are going to finalize a couple more videos today and try to get them uploaded. We are also going to do a bit of garden prep. The BIG news is our meat birds are scheduled to arrive today! Stay tuned for a video and blog discussion. The top pic is a hatless Happy Friday pic. The next is Shelley and Stella saying good morning. Then Shelley and Stella both showing some teeth as they smile at each other. The bottom two are a tribute to Fast-Jet Friday!
I am so excited that a few of you have commented in one way or another, engaging on the topic of food freedom. I will attempt to reply to each individually and also redirect the discussion here so that everyone benefits from the comments. A couple of comments have focused on ways around the laws I highlighted. A quick answer is "Yes." Yes, you can just do the things you want to do. That said, there are consequences. The most famous ongoing case right now is the "Amos Miller" case. Mr. Miller is an Amish farmer who set up a Buying Club workaround for the system and was selling meat that was not inspected to folks that knew it wasn't inspected and still wanted to buy it. After multiple Federal Government cease and desist orders, he was ordered to destroy the meat and the amount of his fines are still in question but approach $300,000. The case is still ongoing and there are many more important details than I can cover here but the point is that the Federal Government is actually serious about limiting this form of commerce. (I still assert it is not about safety but market access.) Another comment regarded bartering to get around the legalities of commerce. The Federal Government considers bartering as a form of commerce and is reportable and taxable just like if dollars were exchanged. It is not a legal workaround. The most promising workaround I have found is actually beginning to take hold with small farm-to-fork operations like ours. It is the idea of "Private Membership Associations (PMA)." A common example of PMAs are Country Clubs. The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of PMAs in every case taken before it using the First and Fourteenth Amendments as the basis. The Court asserts that Freedom of Association is a guaranteed constitutional right and those two amendments are the foundation. The most famous cases brought before the Court regard States attempting to compel Associations to release their membership lists. In each case, the Court ruled against the States and upheld the judgement allowing Freedom of Association. It appears to me (still doing research) a viable workaround for these laws restricting commerce between two willing parties. The idea is that an association is legally formed with detailed bylaws explaining the purpose of the association, members are charged a small (like $20 lifetime) fee to join, they sign an agreement that they are willingly becoming a member of the association, and under the PMA umbrella all of the transactions I have described as "illegal" can take place without recourse. There are still questions for me, but it looks like the most promising way for me to exercise what I consider a basic human right. I might just become a Country Club Farmer!
Shelley has posted 2 YouTube Shorts since yesterday's blog: Who needs the gym, gardening the hard way
Farm Sounds: Pouring milk ASMR
The YouTube Video of me fixing the tractor is
Local Farm Report for 9 March 2023:
Harvest:
31 Chicken eggs
9 Duck eggs
0 Goose eggs
6 Gallons of milk
Sales:
4 Gallons of milk
4 Dozen Chicken eggs
2 Dozen Duck eggs
Cheers! Psycho & Shelley
Hey the topic you have been covering is great and very thorough. The PMA is a very interesting concept. I’m interested to understand a little more about it. You mentioned the restrictive requirements to get into the market through the up front costs associated with establishing a certified operation. I had looked into the requirements for being certified as an organic producer but the process is overly burdensome and costly and it’s mostly up front requirements. I think your spot on with your assessment that their real drive is access or “their” control of the access and that goes for multiple areas. Controlling who you can sell too and how you categorize your products in the market.
Great topics and…
The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy
James Madison