Confession of an agrarian revolutionist

Sent to me by a friend:

Friends of Liberty, fellow farmers, friends and family,

While searching the net for something unrelated this morning I came across this article regarding Missouri law and feeding pigs. "Seriously?" I thought. "Pigs are known to eat just about anything that doesn't eat them first. Missouri actually has laws governing what a pig can and can't eat?".

To make a long story short, the law actually forbids farmers to feed pigs (ones that will be sold to market or for consumption) vegetables from a store, restaurant, or even your own garden. If you pick a turnip out of the garden and throw it over the fence to the hogs, technically, that's illegal. 

My confession is this. For a period of approximately two years, I was guilty of aiding and abetting juvenile delinquents who were engaged in this dangerous criminal activity of feeding vegetables to pigs. Thank God the pigs didn't "squeal" on us! Imagine that, trying to run a sustainable farm, capturing and using nutritionally dense organic produce that would otherwise be thrown away only to find out it's illegal. As Joel Salitin would say, "Folks this ain't normal".

I realize that my reputation as a small producer, political activist and community do-gooder is at stake so I would like to ask your forgiveness. We've actually eliminated swine from our portfolio for a number of reasons so I can assure you this won't happen again. If you'll find it in your heart to forgive me for this grievance to our community, I assure you that we'll continue managing our farm with sustainable practices using common sense and ignoring foolish regulations such as this. Furthermore, I'll continue supporting fellow producers such as the Ozark "raw milk rebels" (you know who you are ;-) who also have enough intestinal fortitude to stand up against such nonsense.

I realize we have some challenges facing us in this state but all in all Missouri is a pretty good place to live. We're second only to Texas in the number of small farms according to Maddie Earnest and Liz Fathman, authors of Missouri Harvest. Now that I think about it, perhaps that's why small farmers in Missouri have become such targets. If I was Monsanto or the DFA, I'd target my largest competitors, too.

Cheers,