These Occupiers are out standing in their field:
Steph Larsen and Brian DePew stake rural America's claim to membership in the 99% with their occupation of a pasture near Lyons, Nebraska. Lyons... hey! Isn't that a French name? They must be communists!
Hey, Charlie! When does the occupation start in Orland?
Update 20:23 MDT: Greg Olson notes that folks like Larsen and DePew represent the grassroots (all too literal here!) nature of the Occupation: there is no leader, no one in the background coordinating the message, at least not yet. It's just folks "thinking for themselves and voicing their own opinions," all motivated by the recognition that the status quo, including the Koch-stoked Tea Party shouting, isn't solving the obvious problems that need to be solved.
From GreenPeace: "Agricultural systems driven by genetic engineering technology is discredited, threaten crop biodiversity, and pose potential risks to human health and the environment."
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/a-future-with-food-for-all-ecological-farming/blog/37349/
Occupy Wall Drug!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedseverson/6251464174
Free ice water, not coke, brothers.
Check out this photo from Occupy Madrid: http://media.talkingpointsmemo.com/slideshow/occupy-wall-street-goes-global/1-227604
Mikhail Gorbachev at UW: "Speaking through a translator, the 80-year-old said though many hoped for world peace and stability after the downfall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, such a “new world order†hasn’t come to pass."
Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/gorbachev-sympathizes-with-occupy-wall-street-protesters-in-wyoming-speech/article_2ec9780c-c974-5c9b-8e97-1d241b7749ff.html#ixzz1b9BdMErd
Do these people realize that their message is completely opposite to the message of the Occupy Wall Street movement? "Be just, grow your own food" is tantamount to saying "Get a job.", or "I'm rich, why aren't you?" So let me get this straight, I'm supposed to occupy a pasture and grow my own food (or more specifically, meat. Pastures are for raising animals). And if I don't I'm "unjust"? I'm not trying hard enough to deserve to survive unlike those moral farmers? What if I'm a software developer who's deathly allergic to farm animals who just wants to get paid fairly and then use that money to buy some meat from the mega-corp that buys and distributes the farmers' products? Such ignorance!
Mike,
One of us must need a refresher in symbolism.
When I see "grow your own food," I'm reminded that the vast majority of the food sold in grocery stores is produced by corporations who generally "mine" the land rather than grow produce that we buy. Their practices toward livestock are far more objectionable. I suspect that occupying a small plot of land and growing our own food would be more just than buying it in a grocery store. Given that I don't have a green thumb, I suspect the folks in the picture will allow to buy from a farmers market.
I realize I shouldn't rise to the red herring bait about being allergic to meat, but I will. Given that nearly all of the plains state is naturally pasture and has now been cultivated, I'm sure that the two people in the picture would not object to your plowing up a small portion of a pasture or a lawn for a garden. Heck, I bet they'd let you raise something other than wheat so you could be gluten free.
Mike, I think you paint the pasture occupiers into an extreme corner which they do not occupy. I certainly do not take their sign as a declaration of a moral imperative for every person to seek complete self-sufficiency. But as LK suggests, they certainly encourage people to look for more local food, grown by neighbors, by real people with a real interest in their community that transcends the profits which are necessarily the sole concern of corporations.
...plus, occupying Wall Street doesn't require forcing every American to toil in the garden. Busting up the Big Food monopolies would be good enough.
Most people just want a fair shake, and gladly applaud those who are born with extra talent, skills, motivation, or whatever they have to get to the "top." But the maligned system has to end. I'm happy to be my percentage, just not the scraps that 1% thinks they should leave.
One more thing. Sure, the insanely ambitious people succeed. But what about moderation?
Cory, For the Johnson family, it has been 4 generations and 90 years. For the younger generation across all of rural America, it starts tomorrow. For South Dakota to be come a success once again, we must rehomestead the state once again. We need political and ag leaders to set goals where it's not bushels/acre or # of cows/every CAFO but rather the number of farm families per township. Our best days are still to come. The number one asset in South Dakota is the land itself and the bright young minds that live upon it.
Charlie, while that is a very good goal, reality may be that we lose 75% of the number of current farmers over the next 10 to 20 years. We really haven't seen what technology will do for industrial agriculture. Robot tractors are not far away.
John Steinbeck contended in the 1930s that we already had robot tractors, men enmeshed in technology, stripped of their autonomy by bankers and corporate directives, and paying no heed to real human needs.
President Obama: dismantle the main stem dams, buy out the poisoned ranches of European descendants and rewild West River.
I admire your efforts in helping people to pull together to be more self sustainable in daily living. It amazes me how some people think they should whine and complain that they can't help themselves due to their living situation or their career choice. Some people will always expect the others to make the world a better place while they just live the same way without any attempt to help. I suppose the world will always have those people... so, looking past those people to those who wish to try even a small change to help... like at our house... we grow a lot of our salad, snow peas, and many herbs and veggies and mushrooms. We know they are organically grown because we grew them ourselves and we do not pay big bucks to a box store for at least those items. We thought about things we use a lot of and decided we could do it... IN OUR FRONT YARD! Yes... we live in the city and our neighbors love to visit our little country dream in the city. It too has inspired others to try to do anything they can to help themselves provide affordable good quality fresh food. We buy cage free eggs from regular people who raise chickens in nearby communities because it is illegal to have hens where we live. We pay 1/2 the price for eggs and support our "fellow urban and suburban farmers" this way. It takes a little effort at planting and harvest time and pressure canning but I must say... I love it! It makes me feel like I am trying to provide affordable organic food for my family. When times got really tough with money it was one thing we could do to help ourselves stretch our food budget and not just go apply for food stamps which cost other taxpayers for our financial shortcomings. Seeds were cheap and made A LOT of food! We actually had enough to share with others! Helping ourselves and helping others... that is what "Occupy the Pasture" means to me. You just have to ask yourself what it means to you.... :0)