Small localities in Maine are standing up to the large, corporate companies that engage in factory farming and genetic engineering. The primary costs of such behavior is the health of our Planet, our family, and ourselves.

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(Don't go loco, buy local)

Small jurisdictions in Maine continue to proclaim food sovereignty.   It appears that every couple of months, a new locality declares their right to grow their own food while supporting local farmers, artisans, makers of clothes and fishermen.   Many of these locavores argue that it is only via food sovereignty and local rule that we can be truly free of corporate and government rule.

As if to predict this healing trend in Maine, psychiatrist Eric Fromm wrote a classic in the middle part of the last century called Escape From Freedom. Could local rule be a return to freedom?   Forced to flee from Nazi Germany in 1933, Fromm settled in the United States and lectured at the New School of Social Research, Columbia, Yale, and Bennington. In the late 1930s, Fromm broke with the Institute of Social Research and with Escape from Freedom began publishing a series of books which would win him a large audience. Escape From Freedom argued that alienation from soil and community in the transition from feudalism to capitalism increased insecurity and fear. Documenting some of the strains and crises of individualism, Fromm attempted to explain how alienated individuals would seek gratification and security from social orders such as fascism.   (See end of article to read more on Fromm).

To fascism, I would add the consumerism hiding underneath the shirt tales of corporatism, which is nothing less than the old feudal class system re-dressed under a different name.   Indeed, I would add all "isms" to corporatism for "isms" are nothing more than ideologies. It appears that people are willing to give up freedom for a false sense of belonging to various fringe groups filled with their respective idealisms such as extreme conservatism, liberalism, scientific and philosophical theoretical positions as well as religious dogmatisms.   For example, in the field of counseling, it is often asked, "what theoretical position are you?"   This is answered by many a job interviewee with a sense of defensiveness and prideful arrogance regarding being a behaviorist, cognitive psychologist, or humanist.   It's as if there is a requirement to fit into some theoretical box. Similarly, in religion we have to be Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or Pagan.   And some of these argue their self-righteousness in the face of a mysterious universe that ultimately doesn't care what philosophical bend you are.   The universe really doesn't give a hoot or a damn what you believe for the Absolute Truth is beyond theisms.   The Sun shines on your face and the stars sparkle at nights regardless if you are Christian, Jew or Atheist.   Even the term a-theist has been manipulated into a belief system held by many whose mindsets are saturated with self-righteous arrogance.

Yet, a-theistic literally means non-theistic.   It is to be transcendent of theory AND theism.   As the play write Goethe said, "Give them the stone of Sophia (Wisdom) and you'll find philosophy gone and, what's left?   The Stone!"  

The universe has worked well for several billions of years and has done so without having to believe in any dogmatic "ism".   Furthermore, since the Intelligence of this universe is infinite, it really has nothing to be jealous of so it doesn't need for you to drop your illusionary money into a gold collection plate.

Does any of this help you with feeling alienated in our age of computers, televisions, and other mind-numbing contraptions to keep you entertained and mesmerized?

According to psychologists like Abraham Maslow, it appears that human beings want to experience a sense of belonging as their foundations.   But are they going to find that sense in a world of theology, philosophy, scientific theory, or political stance?   Or are these points of view acting more like mothers and fathers to alienation by dividing this group against that group?

Where do we get our sense of belonging?

There is probably nothing existing that would have brought a prouder smile to Fromm's and Maslow's faces than a meeting on 6/18/12 at the Town Hall of Blue Hill Maine.   This meeting may be the beginning for the development of a sense of belonging so desperately needed in this day and age in Blue Hill, the State of Maine and, indeed, all of the world's people.   This meeting discussed local food ordinances.   How much more basic of a social venue empowering individuals can one get than a determination of food choices?

How will the economy look if more local food ordinances happened throughout the nations?   There are several possibilities including:

1.          It will encourage people to get all their needs met locally.   Perhaps a person who loves to build can thrive in building compost toilets or perhaps someone who loves to knit can create clothes for others while using local materials (e.g., wool from sheep);

2.        The goods will be of higher quality.   If you loved to knit, how would you feel if the sweater you designed and made fell apart on your neighbor's shoulder the first day she wore it?   Furthermore, how would that affect your business and even your friendships?  

3.        A person's craftsmanship will be advertisement enough, thus your intelligence won't be insulted with blonde, anorexic women and abnormally muscular men trying to entice you into buying beer while engaging you into shop-till-you-drop escapades.

4.        There would be full employment with people supporting the community in line with their talents, passions and training.

5.        Communities and individuals would be independent in creating their lives in relation to how they saw fit instead of trying to be pigeon holed into a category of work or philosophical/spiritual/theoretical/political philosophy.

The localization movement is thus about more than food.   It is about the creation of local economy through business models such as co-ops and alternative economics.   For example, in Blue Hill, my wife and I walked into a store that was a co-op; meaning it was managed by its employees.   The atmosphere in this store was extremely pleasant for one knew that the person behind the counter, telling you about the product you were buying, wasn't just there for a pay check.   They were there because they were deeply invested in what they were doing.   They weren't working "for" someone.   They were working because they belonged to a community and were a service to that community while also selling products manufactured or grown by people in that community and its surrounding areas.

What if more people were invested in their communities through service?   Could we reduce poverty while giving people a sense of purpose".a purpose that they can see?

As such, a meeting at the Town Hall at Blue Hill, Maine took place on Monday 6/18/12 which included members of the Town of Sedgwick Community Self-Governance Committee, Neil Davis (1^st Selectman, Secretary), Bob St. Peter (Maine for Maine's Future), dick Greenfield, and Doug Wollmar.  

The panel identified that across the country, traditional food ways have come under attack.   For example, the Wesleyan Church in Emily, Minnesota was told that in order to continue church suppers that they have been serving for the past 20 years, they would have to put in a $170,000 commercial kitchen.   In Rochester, PA, the homemade pies being served at the St. Cecilia Catholic Church Lenten Fish Fry were seized by a state inspector.   Meanwhile, in Keene, New Hampshire, the police shut down a Cub Scouts' cotton candy booth and homeless shelter's back sale because they didn't have the necessary permits.   Likewise, the Maine Department of Agriculture gave a summons to a Blue Hill farmer for selling unlicensed food at his farm stand, including raw milk from his one cow.   Why is raw milk illegal?   What benefits are there to drinking raw milk?   According to Suzanne Nelson, the benefits are several.   As she states below:

But I'm part of a rapidly growing underground in North Carolina and across the country, because few people actually buy it for their pets. Far more commonly, its devotees are people who have allergies, eczema, autoimmune diseases, cancer, difficulty digesting processed milk, and parents who say it has helped their children overcome behavioral and health issues. And included among that bunch are those who think simply that it's the only milk worth drinking. They call it "real milk." In their eyes, the stuff on the grocery store shelves might as well be called a "milk-flavored beverage," the way Cheez Whiz is a "processed cheese food."  

Do the localities of a state have to right to override the state?   According to the constitution of the state of Maine, it does.   For example, Article 1, the Declaration of Rights states:

All power is inherent in the people; all free governments are founded in their authority and instituted for their benefit; they have therefore an unalienable and indefeasible right to institute government, and to alter, reform or totally change the same, when their safety and happiness require it.

This is an important clause, especially given the fact that food is primary to our health.   The foods presented to us in grocery stores, at fast food chains, and most restaurants are not produced in a healthy fashion. For example, many of the eggs you may buy may come from chickens raised in horrific conditions through factory farms such as DeCosta in Maine.   For a disgusting and sickening example, see the link below regarding how these chickens are treated and raised.  

There is a deep truth to the phrase, "you are what you eat."   If you are eating genetically engineered foods, or foods raised in factory farms, then you are probably starving for real food.   Indeed, perhaps the obesity epidemic is more than just people not exercising and eating properly?   What if our heavy children are starving to death and they eat and eat to try and balance their systems.  

As you can see, the benefits to buying local and to have food processed and raised in self-sustaining ways are more than just ecological sense.   In addition to affecting the Earth's health, it also affects our health and the health of our family.

Perhaps there is a Natural Law in this?   What's good for us is good for the planet and Her infinite variety of animals, plants and fish?                

References

Information regarding Eric Fromm    ( http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell9.htm ).

Neson, Suzanne, http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/drink-it-raw/Content?oid=1202527

Factory Farm footage:   http://www.mercyforanimals.org/maine-eggs/

Authors Bio:
Burl Hall is a retired counselor who is living in a Senior Citizen Housing apartment. Burl has one book to his credit, titled "Sophia's Web: A Passionate Call to Heal our Wounded Nature." For more information, search the book on Amazon.

Burl's philosophy entails the idea that "everything effects and causes everything thing else." His spirituality of Sophia i.e., Wisdom is universal as well as within each of us. He also sees the idea of Chaos as not being "all over the place" but as infinite relationships.

The question I present in my articles speak not so much towards the politicians, but how WE the people can empower ourselves within a planet that is healthy, wealthy and wise.