Death of the Vegetable Garden and the Nationwide EBT Panic

So today I was totally unaware that something was a foot here in the good old USA. Seems that a technical glitch shut down the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Program that many rely on to feed their families. I will admit, it is not easy trying to feed your family on a fixed income and I can only imagine the hardship and panic many experienced today when this government subsidized system failed across the nation. Rumors that it was the result of the government shutdown spread like wild fire among a people that are already fed up with the shutdown, rise in food and medical costs, the bureaucracy which governs day to day life, and the absurdity that they have to sit at home sans paycheck while their fate is decided by those on Capitol Hill, who will still collect a paycheck. This is probably the straw that should break the camels back.

If this wasn’t real life, Hollywood could have a hay day with today’s nationwide EBT crisis. Hollywood could use this scenario as the catalyst for the impending Zombie Apocalypse [which I truly believe has already happened with the US consumption of alcohol and illegal drugs on the uptick.] I can see it now… its a beautiful Morning and mom loads the baby into the car seat and heads out in the family mini van, which is about 10 years old and needs repairs, to the local grocer, about 2 miles away. After struggling to get the kid out of the car seat and finding a basket, she walks into the store with a long list of things to get, as her pantry is nearly empty. She is preoccupied on how to make the $120.00 and some change stretch to feed her family for a month. It’s difficult, choices between getting quality meat, fresh milk and eggs are weighed against what she can afford and how to make it last the month. She knows its like Christmas when that money comes down on her EBT. She can finally put a substantial meal on the table. However, on this day as she weighs options, there is a sudden squawking and cracking of the store’s loud speaker. In between the hissing, crackling and popping, she makes out a distorted voice advising that the food stamp system is down nationwide and no grocery orders can be processed. Slowly around her people stop mid stride and look up at the ceiling, intently listening to the message as it is repeated. Others who heard it the first time are panicking, and running to the check out lines, to be the first to try their luck. As panic sets in the store patrons start to riot as card after card is declined. That young mother is gripped with fear and terror of her babies starving to death, as she clings to her little one in the stampede. [End scene] And, this is actually what happened to day, across this Great Nation. Not a Hollywood plot, but real life gone wrong.

How did we get to this point? There was a time when we were close to the foods we eat. Some of us can ask our parents or even grandparents about Victory Gardens, gardens grown during WWI and WWII. Many neighborhoods were sprinkled with locally owned grocery stores that were run by either farming families or others that had direct contracts with local farms. Some families raised chickens in a coop while other families grew some staples like potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and cabbage with a few fruit trees. My maternal grandmother used to tell me about the grape orchard in her yard. I even remember living in a house for a short period of time that had an apple tree. My paternal grandparents grew tomatoes just beneath their kitchen window. I remember standing there picking them and eating them.

Somewhere over the course of time as people began to worry about property values and landscaping, gardens that fed families faded out in lieu of flower gardens and manicured lawns. Also, neighborhood, municipal and the federal government began to regulate land use and zoning. I read an account of a woman who planted a vegetable garden in raised flower beds in her front yard, after a sewer line was repaired, but she ended up battling her local city government. This is not the only story I’ve heard of everyday ordinary people coming toe to toe with the government. The scenario of David versus Goliath is being played out all over the country, as many are turning to their own little plot of land for food. In these uncertain times, it just seems natural that we should want to be self sustainable and be able to take care of our own needs without government stepping in to regulate our actions. But we live in a money driven society, and as the old saying goes “Money talks, BS walk.” And by the way, history tells us that all financial systems eventually crumble and become replaced by something else. But I digress….

So where do we go from here? How do we stand up for ourselves? How do we sustain life? There are some unorthodox answers out there and things that have never before been considered. Some of the things I’ve come across include Earthships, TIny Houses, Compact Living Spaces, Container Gardening, Hydroponics, rainwater catchment and filtration systems. Earthships, which really fascinate me are houses built using earth, tires, glass bottles and other materials, in a recycling process that creates homes built on the principal of thermomass construction, i.e. energy efficient homes, that not only provide shelter, but rain water filtration, self sustaining vegetable gardens and solar power. These houses bring us back to our life source, food and water. These homes are completely off grid. Tiny houses, are literally little replicas of McMansions at a fraction of the sqft, offering smaller living quarters, sometimes situation on farm-able plots of land with the option of being off grid. Other housing and living include cob houses, shipping container homes, turning old school and double decker buses into homes and the list is growing every day. The ideal behind many of these living situations is to be off grid, grow your own food, filter your own water and produce your own electricity. A move that could take us back to a simpler way of life and living that mirrors homesteading.

IMHO, if we get back to being close to the land, food and water, we can be less dependent on government and we can live life without worrying about food shortages and government controlled food programs. Who knows perhaps some of our most prevalent diseases would disappear for good. Even if we are to take stock and look around at our resources, we will not build Thomas Moore’s “Utopia” but something more useful, a society of thinking individuals that are returning to a simpler way of life for the sake of survival. Or dare we believe that this current state of affair is our “Best Possible World” per the philosophies Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss?

When is enough really ENOUGH?

Links and articles for further reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/garden/gardeners-fight-with-neighbors-and-city-hall-over-their-lawns.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/2012/08/a-front-yard-vegetable-garden-in-ferguson-missouri/

http://www.newson6.com/story/18802728/woman-sues-city-of-tulsa-for-cutting-down-her-edible-garden

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/michigan-woman-faces-jail-for-growing-vegetables-in-her-front-yard/