I talk a lot about community; it’s something that I preach over on Tiktok and I’ve done so quite a bit in real life. I preach getting to know your farmer, learning how to grow food, and supporting local business.
Why? Because community is the easiest form of revolt against the collapsing society.
If you haven’t taken a look around, we are currently standing in the boiling pot that is the collapse of the empire. Call it what you want, but record inflation, the national debt, a collapsing housing market, and food shortages all loom over the corner. It can be intimidating, I know, but the truth of the matter is this: our ancestors survived times such as these, surely we can, too.
I often think about the fact that my great grandfather survived the Great Depression with little more than know-how and a third grade education. He grew a garden until he was elderly, raised his own hogs and chickens for meat, lard, and eggs, and for many years of my grandma’s life, he raised a cow for milk, too. What they didn’t grow, they traded with the neighbors or they bought in bulk once or twice a year. That was the way of life for poor sharecroppers in the post-Depression American south. I also think of another great grandfather who, although living in an urban environment, raised chickens for meat and eggs, hunted or fished for all of the family’s meat, and was able to trade services for food. Everyone had a small garden, even in the city.
Why don’t we get back to that?
Did you know that four major meat processing companies control 85% of the meat in our country? Did you know that 1.3% (roughly) of ranchers and farmers feed the rest of us? Do you know where your food is coming from?
Too often, we allow our communities to become food deserts and we allow ourselves to become disconnected from where our food comes from. Our grandparents grew gardens to mitigate the fact that food had to be rationed or was in short supply. Often, neighbors worked together to grow and supplement each other. Once, I watched an interview of a woman who survived the Spanish Flu pandemic with her father by planting sweet potatoes (I’ll link it below). They grew enough for their neighbors, and saved everyone.
If things were supposed to go sideways, would we know how to do that?
In 2020, to became apparent to many people just how fragile our supply chain really was. Convenience foods became scarce, which is something that many millennials like myself had never seen before. Breads were hard to find, milk was hard to find, sometimes eggs were hard to find. There are still many places in my local stores where frozen meals, certain canned goods, and things like cream cheese are completely empty.
That’s why it’s imperative to not only learn skills, but build community and connect with local homesteaders and farmers.
“But how do I find local farmers?”
A few ways I recommend doing this are 1.) going to local farmer’s markets, 2.) finding local CSA’s, 3.) Craigslist, 4.) searching for meat farmers in your area and 5.) the app Farmish (also, @farmishterra and @farmish are on Tiktok). By supporting local businesses, you’re supporting local economy. Those farmers are YOUR neighbors.
Of course, growing your own garden is something that I believe everyone should do, but not everyone has that luxury. However, I think it’s an important skill to learn and one that will be extremely useful eventually. Pretty soon, I think we’ll all need to be growing something, no matter how big or small.
Connecting with your local farmers, finding people who can teach you the skills you need to learn, and finding like-minded people who want to learn those skills along with you can make the world of difference.
Community is important. Skills are vital. And working together is going to be how we break the collapsing system to build a better one. All of the things currently going on are scary, that part is true, but we can work together to make it better. And it only takes one step at a time.
(Video about surviving the Spanish Flu pandemic linked below)