Self-Sufficiency in Style
... if variety be the spice of life
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Self-Sufficiency in Style ... if variety be the spice of life |
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A colourless existence? |
We live in a pretty monochrome world. Once our planet was a place of
endless diversity and wonder. Now we watch the same films, drive the same cars and shop at the same stores. They are sometimes spruced up a bit to give us the impression of variety, painted pink with a widget added, but it is the same old black Model "T" underneath. It is the price we pay for the economies of scale and consistent quality. We live well, but we live the same. Not always at the best quality, merely at an acceptable quality: the lowest common denominator. |
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neither, new nor original, but what is less obvious is that although we seem
to live between two extremes, they are exactly the same. The the mind numbing crunch of mass production and the wild exhortations of specialists are equally dangerous and products of the same mental process. In fact, they are exactly the same thing. The lunatic system that decreed that racehorses should be descended from twelve common ancestors, with all the problems that that brings, is no different from that which constantly inter-breed commercial pigs to a point where their common genetic defects encourage disease. All that they do is designed to encourage efficiency in racing, in pork production, in anything. There are risks to an endless search for maximum production, performance or profit. |
Cut the the rope to see what happens. |
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"Are you sure I was supposed to be this length?" |
But the kind people that preserve rare
breeds are different... Err, no. They make exactly the same mistakes on a smaller scale. They are just pushing a different breed, usually one that they hope will make them rich. They seek to standardise too, often with illogical and cruel preferences. They are just less successful. |
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Anyone who has been to a modern livestock or pet show, must have doubts. Distorted inbred animals and silly prices everywhere. Some of the owners are little better. More to do with greed and ego than husbandry. Low standards and chicanery abound. Some practices make the average multinational look angelic. |
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But it does not have to be like this. True self-sufficiency can turn its
back on the latest trend and the distorted pedigree. The self-sufficient can do something much smarter. They can take a good commercial breed and cross breed it to one of the old pedigree breeds. If you are truly non-commercial, it does not matter. Your production of milk, meat, or even fruit and vegetables, will perhaps be a little more eccentric, variable and less reliable than the best commercial breeds and varieties, but it will be safer - and more interesting. The produce will certainly not taste as disgusting as either the factory farmed or the cherished heritage oddity. |
Turn your back on breeding.
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The cross breed may be a modern ark. |
You don't need a flock of sheep that look identical. You don't need to spend
your time at breed meetings or squabbling, setting standards and collecting
rosettes at shows. Each ewe or sow or cow will look different, behave differently, be of a different size and present different problems and pleasures. |
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The true heritage variety and the real rare breed is the person who can separate the fad and fancy from the reality. The individual that is prepared to stand and fight for the original, the unexpected and the different. Real quality in food, real diversity in animals and plants does not come from breed societies, charities and regulation on one side or industrial farming, supermarket, multinational and government bullies on the other. It comes from the freedom to be different. |
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When modern industrial scale farming makes a mistake, it quickly becomes
an international disaster. When a rare breed or even a common one gets interbred it can become a major crisis. When a smallholder shepherds his mongrel flock, he is not even a blip on the village scene. |
The mongrel fights back. |
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The writer has, in the last few years, seen and experienced things that he thought impossible. Animal health crisis after crisis is sweeping the world. Now, we see obvious serious risks to humans too. But the commonsense and balance that comes with well considered self-sufficiency and the determination not to accept the unacceptable, can make a contribution to long term solutions. |
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You can find more thoughts on similar themes on OUTLAWS! Information on current animal disease is available on both the HOME PAGE and on a newsgroup UK.BUSINESS.AGRICULTURE where the writer notes any media reports from around the world and fights for the freedom for you to produce your own food. Sixteen chapters of a harrowing personal story are accessible on STOP THE WORLD PS. As I write these words, we hear of the first human death from Bovine TB in Britain for many decades. There is currently an epidemic amongst cattle and badgers. |
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...fighting for real diversity - at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. October, 2006 |
