Gleanings is my monthly “link love” post where I share some of the interesting articles I’ve come across the past month.
• Are We Starving The Hearts Of Our Children?
Could it be that constantly being indoors or in the car, media exposure to immoral values at an early age, lack of consistent routine, constant over-stimulation by electronic entertainment, and attempting to make children into little adults is destroying the hearts and souls of our children?
Our half-century effort to cut back on the consumption of meat, eggs and whole-fat dairy has a tragic quality. More than a billion dollars have been spent trying to prove Ancel Keys’s hypothesis, but evidence of its benefits has never been produced. It is time to put the saturated-fat hypothesis to bed and to move on to test other possible culprits for our nation’s health woes.
•This Mama Isn’t Scared of the Shmeasle Measles
Dealing with the inconsistencies and derogatory “anti-vaxxer” rhetoric makes me feel like I’m up to my knees in cow poop and in desperate need of some muck boots. Am I scared of my child getting measles? Absolutely not. Am I scared of the MMR vaccine…you better believe I am. You would be too if you were getting the facts…the real facts.
•I’ve got 9 kids. Are we killing you yet?
Some will tell me that demographic decline is desirable to make-up for our poor ecological balance sheet. While it is true that resource abuse is threatening the environment, I would counter that what is killing the planet are abusive mentalities, not large families. If large families are too few to make a statistical difference in birth rates, what makes you think that there are enough of us to compromise the environment? Resource abuse and overuse happened in parallel with demographic decline. The problem is not simply how many people are killing the planet, but how they are doing it!
So, the soil is being fed this toxic sludge which will then affect the organic crop. So trusting in organic is not the key either.
•When To Not Pinch Pennies in Homesteading
One of the many valuable lessons I’ve learned on the farm is to do it once and do it right. Part of that involves learning when it’s not a good idea to pinch pennies. Part of that involves knowing when it’s better to do a great job than to half-heartedly throw something together. Part of that involves knowing when it’s a good idea to invest in quality breeding livestock or high quality hay. Part of that involves knowing when it’s better to feed your animals a better grain product or investing in organic vegetable seeds. Part of that involves building a community with local farmers and supporting them by purchasing their products.
You see, it’s not ALL about the money.
•Good listening here…
God’s Call to the Land: An Overview of Christian Agrarianism
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