Alternative Ag Moralist ??
I have been an "Agrarian" -- philosophically & practically since long before I ever heard the word. (more on this in my next message). In addition to living as an Agrarian for almost my whole life -- and having an Agrarian philosophy before I ever heard of "I'll Take my Stand" or other such literature -- I have drunk deeply from the writings & wisdom of Agrarians past and present for over ten years.
I earnestly believe that the Christian Agrarian Movement is one of the bright spots in our dimming hopes of restoring our once great/ godly civilisation.
However, I have some serious concerns about the so-called "Agrarian Movement". I have voiced these concerns privately to a few folks and even had a good series of correspondences with a some Agrarian friends five years ago. Later, I will write -- God willing -- a series of six or seven articles/ open letters to you folks laying out these concerns and hoping to help us chart a course and avoid what I see as poison to the movement, our families, and our culture.
Below, for sake of introduction, is an article that prompted me to go ahead and get this going. I am on the mailing list of several "Agrarian", "Alternative Agriculture", and Conventional Ag groups. For several years I have been receiving a pretty good e-mail newsletter from "The New Farm". This is a work of the Rodale Institute, publishers of Organic Gardening & Prevention magazines and pioneers in organic agriculture.
This article, "Pro Choice AND Pro Life" was in a recent mailing. It is the text of a speech given to an "Eco Farm" Conference recently. In it, we are lectured about the dangers of evil farm chemicals by a murderous whore who openly brags about hiring a "doctor" to have her own unborn child tortured to death. She says that she and "every woman in her family" had done the same. After this, she decries the hypocrisy of an uncle who has the nerve to be a pro-life activist then use pesticides. This child-murdering whore -- totally devoid of natural affection ( Romans 1) --then proceeds to moralize to her audience about using pesticides.
I will expand upon this in an upcoming entry, but there are several things that we who are Christian Agrarians need to take pause over, among them: why would we be listening to anything a child murderer had to say about the dangers of pesticides to children ? who are we aligning ourselves with/ who are we trusting ?
The reason I ask this is I often hear/ read things my Agrarian friends/ compatriots say & write about "corporate ag", "factory farming", pesticides, contract/ confinement livestock production and the like that sounds like it came straight from the Mother Earth News & PETA.
I know and have seen first hand the rotten fruit of corporate/government agriculture & despise what it has wrought. I & my family have been personally effected. However, I think we have to be careful accepting the criticism & solutions of those who in word & deed hate our God & everything we stand for.
For more on this, also read Al Cronkrite's excellent commentary "The Company We Keep"
More to come. Let me know if you know anyone else who would be interested -- or if you're not. As always, your comments are welcome.
P. Leslie Riley, Jr
Egypt, Mississippi
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Pro-choice AND pro-life
Eco-Farm Keynote, Part 2: There's strong evidence, says ecologist and writer Sandra Steingraber, that agricultural chemicals cause miscarriages and deformities, contaminate breast milk, dirupt vulnerable stages of life like adolescence, and are the source of problems in old age--such as Parkinson's disease.
An address by Sandra Steingraber
Posted October 13, 2005
I have found personally--growing up in a very conservative part of the Midwest--that there’s a lot of traction in talking about miscarriage and pregnancy loss from agricultural chemicals with farming communities, because many of them are very pro-life. In fact my uncle, who’s a farmer in Illinois, and members of his family actually do what they call clinic defense, where they go to abortion clinics and try to prevent women from having abortions.
Now, I couldn’t be more on the opposite side of the fence than that, so here’s what I say when I talk to farming communities. I lay out the fact that I’m very pro-choice, that I've had an abortion myself and so has every woman in my family for reasons you might think are good or not, but if we’re interested in fetal protection we need to ask ourselves more than who’s walking into a Planned Parenthood clinic to end their pregnancy.
We need to be asking what farm chemicals are in the drinking water--which farmers may be responsible for putting in there--that are ending pregnancies that may be very much desired by women. Having undergone two miscarriages myself, I would be hard-pressed to say whether pregnancy loss through miscarriage or pregnancy loss through abortion is the more painful outcome. But right-to-life needs to be expanded to take a look at some of our farm policies.
(Full Article Here)
Our Lecturer -- sermonizing about pesticides -- makes a nonchalant reference to doing this to her child --Les
