A good use for Coke

cola pesticides

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fpEgurO-ec...

Indian farmers using Pepsi and Coke as pesticides

The Greatest People on Earth (at least my part of it) *please read post and reserve judgement on my corniness with the photos

so i have a problem of polishing whatever i write to the point that it is good enough for me. i recognize that is usually a good thing. but it keeps me from being productive. i am not a "stream of consciousness" writer like James Joyce, though i wish that i was more than i wish i could play an instrument well (which is a ton). anyways this is my solution: Firstly i will not correct any mistakes, so if there is a misspelling or grammar

 error or something is wrong with my sentence structure I AM NOT FIXING IT and i have to piss SOMETHING FIERCE and i will not let myself go until i finish this blog and write everything i want to say: which is a lot and comes straight from my heart. so get ready and pray that i don't mess up my bladder cuz THIS IS NOT COMFORTABLE.

so here is the deal: i have great friends. the problem is that i divide them into two groups. which is completely unhealthy. the RA group and the Mercy house guys (which a grouping of this term doesn't exist anymore except sometimes in my head). this bad becaue i see people as groups not as individuals. like they are. i dont feel connected with some of them alot. they challenge me, they are genuine, and they are striving for something good even if that is just inner peace or being an entirely new and different kind business person. both i respect and love. i have been too selfish lately, selfish with my time. most of my time is spent thinking about me. i need to give that time more to these guys.

i am sorry if you are reading this now and our relationship could be better. i feel at fault. too many times i am not real. i am not true to myself and to you in a conversation. like the quote from i heart huckabee's "how am i not myself" i ask the opposite "how am i myself?" i often don't feel like i am and it keeps me from being close and real and intimate with friends. it takes away from laughs, from a deep conversation going deeper. i hate this. i just read martin buber for the first time for an ethics class. and i want to value you for just your being, entirely not labeling you and relating to you in an eternal way. 

i feel out of place. i wish i was more with certain friends that i fear may be getting away. i feel connection being lost in something that could be a lifelong collaboration towards the betterment of eachother and thereby the earth. i think this is happening or could happen with friends like isaac, ian, ben, joe (4 people whether they know it or not i admire and look up to and love) it has already happened with some people. maybe this is entirely too dramatic and i will end up regretting being too sentimental sooner than later. but things just seem on a slippery slope. like we end up not living together next year/this summer and then we become casual friends - a scary thought for me as i realize i have more casual friends than best friends - and then we over the years lose touch. this would be a huge tragedy for me. so i may regret saying for its sentimentality but it seems pressing enough in my head right now to express it. 

thing is i just generally feel scared about the future. what the hell is going to happen? with me, my friends, what we do. i hope it is together. i hope i find community. god, i hope i can find a toliet soon! but i am not quite done.

abbie, you are my best friend. i dont know what i want. i cant change that. you know this stuff, but it seems to make more real to write it. i dont know what will come, i have to be true to myself, to you, and the future. i love what you are doing with yourself and your life. it has been awesome to see you grow. i hope i can recognize you as a new person, it is a daily struggle. this doesnt completely capture all i should say or what i could say. sorry about that

UGGH - like a Achebe said, 'things fall apart" what is worth pursuing? i know some of these friends i mentioned earlier are and other things and people are not. i cannot waste time anymore. it so tempting for me to go it alone. sometimes i love it. but it is always depressing. i cannot make it alone. nor should i. i am not alone. i am not alone. i am not alone. i have great friends like josh, matt, kyle, wieler, todd, joe, paul, tandy,  basically all the smith ras and trent and so many more that is too much to name and some mentioned above who have helped me through so much. if i ddint have you i would have went insane at some points. so thank you. thank you for showing me life is best done together. that all is not darkness. may i be there when you need it too. i hope i can be a better friend. you guys deserve it. 

this has been a throw back and prayer for the future. i hope this future is mutually wanted. i did this stream of conscious style. so one on hand i am pretty proud of that in one sense bcause i have never done this before, so it is kinda of groundbreaking. however, i may have left somethings and some people out. for that i apologize. i love you too just as much. so i did correct some stuff, but in my defense not that much. now it is time for me to take a wizz.

God Bless

Joseph

So True. So Funny.

This is a great clip passed along from Mike Gentry from the Onion.

Also check out my previous blog. It was good for me to write. It made want to travel. To see those faces i do not know in hopes that it will radically change my heart.

or try http://www.theonion.com/content/video/usda_official_takes_courageous

There's a whole lotta singings never gonna be heard, Disappearing everyday without so much as a word

Oppression of the farmworker is well documented throughout history. Agriculture has been used throughout history to exploit people. Look at slavery in America and colonialism abroad. The thing about it is that this is not over. Internationally in the in Latin and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia (especially) workers are now living in a modern day slavery, serving a different master. No longer are there formal slave owners or masters or kings. The enslaver of today is the global corporation. Any company that uses an agricultural product (such as chocolate, coffee, rice, corn, sugar cane, fruit, ect) for mass consumption must be suspect. The ways that corporations have a responsibility towards fair wages and sustainable lifestyle of the people that make their products is shrouded in mystery. In fact there is not much accountability for these companies. No one knows the practices of companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Folgers because the companies have become very good at sweeping their injustices under a rug. And all of this is for Western consumer that usually has everything they need to live well already and of course cheaper price. (Even narcotics is involved in this scheme. Though things like cocaine are not controlled by corporations, the practice also enslaves many in Latin/South American Countries (this is why you shouldn't by weed folks)). Anything to save a penny. Too cheap of a price. The prices at supermarkets like Wal-Mart are just not logical. Things do not cost enough in order to pay people fairly, even when moving mass quantities. The overconsumption of this culture further contributes to the degradation of land and degraded souls abroad. These are people we do not know. These are farmers whom we do not have a face to put with the products and ingredients they cultivate. We need to know these faces if we ever will treat them like our fellow human-beings and end the modern day agricultural slavery that is very much alive today. The price of Organic, fair trade, and local food, though it may be higher is the right price. It is the right price to end oppression. This is why everything we buy matters so much. Spending a bit extra is the new civil rights movement. It is the new way to end discrimination. We must do research and know where our dollars are going. please buy, when you have to, with the image of a better world in mind. Agriculture can be a beautiful thing, but in too many places worldwide it represents a disgusting representation of slavery. Let's try with our might to curb our consumption, the way we buy, and to learn. To learn so that we can no longer be said to know not what we do. Let's know what we are doing and redeem which should be beautiful. Agriculture.

The Start of Chronicle

i am beginning to hammer out a conception for this blog. rather than it be my own personal journal, contained with entirely personal things i would rather like to talk about something specific. Agriculture is something i want to learn more about. its history and its future. so forthcoming entries i am thinking will be about articles and things i have read in this area. so this blog would sort of a chronicle of my experience and growth in understanding agriculture.

To confess something i am a little ashamed of my agricultural past. i grew up on the farm, but was hardly involved with it at during any point when living at home except last summer while on break from school. all the resources and knowledge from my parents were there to learn everything there is to know about running a farm. i was very much uninterested in farming until i left home for college. now i am playing a catch up game. trying to learn all the stuff i should already know. however, i am glad that no matter how i came to it, i now have a passion for agriculture. it could very well be that if it was forced upon me like a chore, i may resent it at this point and fail to see the its value. i also realize that my lack of knowledge and on the family farm is not entirely my fault. My father, due to being tied to a career, is also not very involved with his own farming. He calls his style of agriculture: "farming by phone." this basically means calling other people to do all th uninvolvement e work for us and then splitting the profits with them. A good friend of family plants and harvests all of our monoculture crops and he does a great job. and in minutes its seems a sprayer can come through and chemicalize the entire crop. We as a farming family are not very well tied to our own land. we possess knowledge about it, but our lives are not built in a way to incorporate the land into our lives. others that do not live on the farm, know its rhythms better than us. this seems to be criminal but this is also not entirely our fault.
Modern agriculture has created such invincible seeds, such accurately destructive chemicals, and such advanced technology that hardly anyone is farming. Technology has taken away farming as a job and lifestyle. i was not needed to help on the farm and know it like the palm of my hand because technology knew it better. it has become more time efficient and all around preferable to let technology take the place of teaching children the ways of the land, how to plant a seed, and the joy of eating its fruits. in many ways agriculture has become too big and too complex.

This is just one of many issues that i think many more people can relate and that i wish to talk about. i will probably try to start finding articles and commenting on them. if you are reading this and you have come across some writings to do with ag. send them my way.

A Poem: In anticipation of new year

May we Love and Be Loved

May we be free of mixed motives
Obtain a heart of purity
One that is set to will only one thing
Realizing the interconnectivity of the earth
Able to understand our role in our world
Willing to Forgive
Willing to be Forgiven
Ready to enter into a mess
Finally seeing change for the better

May we as the Tree
Sink roots into that life-giving substance
nourished to grow up and out
May we allow ourselves to be pruned...
when there are things attached to us -
that need to die
May we bloom and give fruit
To be shared - so that another Tree -
may take root into that life-giving substance

8.18.08
i wrote this on a night of silence in preparation of a new year as being an Resident Assistant in Smith Hall. As i reflected upon the summer and praying for guidance in a new year. this was my prayer for myself, my friends, and for the campus. It used the school theme for the year: Root, Grow, Bloom, which i rather like. and i have loved hearing reference and metaphoric allusions to it all year. it doesn't get old for me. i love the idea of having a theme that a whole community strives to understand and embody. It is a very up-building and connecting thing to do and it makes me appreciate and feel tied to the community i am a part of even more.

Reflections from Godspeed the Plough

Godspeed the Plough was the name of the conference on Church and Agriculture that i attended last weekend. A group from Anderson went and i met up with them after coming from the memorable IU vs. AU basketball game in Bloomington. The conference was at Englewood church in Indianapolis.

I had been to Englewood before. To a New Monasticism conference or get together. I could easily discern that the church community there was continuing to grow, flourish, and tackle life together. very uplifting for me to see. just a lot of great people in the church doing very creative things, it was great to rub shoulders with a handful of them. it kinda puts a physical appearance on a lot of things that the church i'm a part of, The Mercy House is trying to do or may do in the future. They have a book review, publishing house, urban garden, beehives, they own a lot of houses around the block and fixing them up for people to live in, they make amazing homegrown meals, they have school, they were just starting a food co-op for their neighborhood, some of the people live close and in a tight community with one another and so forth. these are just some of things that i saw and i am sure there is much more. the church just seemed so simple but they were doing such radical things to help their world and their neighbors.

But as to the conference... it was also very inspiring. i have been at school for a couple months and have been away from agricultural initiatives since mid-August when school started. it was very nostalgic for me as i kept thinking back to my family's farm where i grew up and where i had a garden last summer. i kept getting visions on things i could improve and do anew next year and the years to come. This was especially true when sitting in on a break out session called Land, Art, and Agriculture. I have come to see agriculture as an art-form as of late. It is so interesting and stimulating how aesthetics and function can be so interwoven. in many ways these are so compatible that on a farm they are always present together. a farm is a lot like the recycling symbol. death brings new life and life brings death. the plants and food grown one year become next year's soil in a compost pile. livestock provide blackgold and other produce as they do favors for you around the farm as long as the farmer knows how to use them and keeps them fed. When widening my perspective of what a farm is i grew to appreciate everything in nature that was around me, because even the most miniscule things have tremendous purpose. Weeds can give indications of soil health, forests are gardens that we may never see the harvest of, water falls miraculously from the sky to keep everything vibrant, so many things were made for each-other to keep the farm and nature functioning as one organism. this cycle and this way of the earth never ceases to fascinate me.

I will post further on my experience at this conference in the near future and address what questions it forced me to struggle with and what i am learning as a result of the questions.

On Consumption

This semester i have been studying a lot to do with Eastern philosophy and Religion. Where as in the West we emphasize 'the individual' the East emphasizes the community. in the West we praise success that move up and advances to something better. The East generally thinks it better to live in simplicity. for them the corollary is: the more stuff and attachments one has, the more anxious and miserable that person is likely to be. In the West we praise the good ingenious ideas but for the East: thoughts and beliefs are useless unless they are lived out. My biggest two role models comes out of Eastern Society: Jesus and Gandhi. Since i agree so much with the side of the world in which i do not live, i often start off many things by having a philosophical collision from the very foundation with most folks. i believe that many of our underlining ideas about how things are and the way they could or should operate is top-side down. that is why i absolutely love how people like Jesus can in so many words turn an etire mentality on its nose. the truth is often otherworldly and for us the East is that other world. imagine what it would be like to try to live like Eastern folks in America. If we truly lived it out i would straight up confuse and bring curiosity to folks. The truth, i am finding, is almost always subversive/counter-cultural like this. 2.4.08

In hindsight this has a lot to do with consumption. Really the east holds the mentality that the west lacks to solve the problem of over-consumption. however, the east is getting smaller and smaller. china, india and other formally eastern societies are more western like now. Really the struggle is between Globalization and Traditionalism. Globalization spreads the so called virtues of the west to the four corners of the globe. While traditional or eastern societies, who are often impoverished, take the new ideas as gospel because perhaps it provides a better way to survive. who knows, they may think. but there very often is a call to go back once trying out a new technology, economy style, ect. to save the earth from many of ecological problems, it would do us well to re-examine ancient wisdoms, provided usually from the eastern, ancient, cultures

What Kierkegaard Has Done to Me

"I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my freindly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both." Kierkegaard

i always have a deep sense that there is something better somewhere else, and i am missing out on it. this is true, there are countless opportunities that i would love to take part in, but i will never have the chance. this has always disturbed me to the point that i never have been satisfied by my current situations. basically, it has led me to a state of depression. i always want to leave, to transfer, to change my major, to break up, to move out, to leave. i want another life than the one i am living. the above quote exemplifies my frustration. because if i i were to leave and choose another, altogether new situation, i would still regret not choosing one of the other choices. moreover, i would regret not fulfilling the situation that preceded it, leaving it unfinished and not completely matured. thus i will never be content, right? yet, i know that there is a way to be happy. i am in the situation i am in for some sort of reason, and i can choose to be content with that. no. this is too hard for me to do or say. there are too many passions left unrealized. i want to do it all. i want to see it all. i want to be a part of it all. but i cannot. my life in the span of human existence is rather unimportant, thus the goal is eternal not finite contentment and harmony. Harmony is a daily struggle. there must be hope of this and i shall move towards finding it. 3.2.08