Category Archives: Bibliography of Books, Articles, and Video links

This is an evolving category that we will update as we come across different references we think are relative to the JAZ Farm workings and philosophy

Our Veggie Gardens Won’t Feed us in a Real Crisis

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Once again, friend Ellen sent me an article that put me in the food pulpit.   The article is posted below.  This was my rant:

Oh! That is cool that I’m not a lone voice in the wilderness.  I have lambasted vegetarians and vegans for years about the slim landscape that can grow non-grain vegetables at scale.  There are about three areas on this side of the world (there are others, but three major areas) where vegetables can grow at volume.  Should we try what all the IPCC wonks say -that vegetarianism is the only way to save the planet – we will all starve because it CANNOT support a 350 million person population at a 2000 calorie diet with sufficient protein and fiber (not to mention micronutrients and vitamins). It might, if everyone did what I do….. Bwahahahaha!  Oh god, I crack myself up.   Florida, the San Joaquin Valley, and Mexico are about it.  The top soil is so depleted in the Midwest that it could never be readily converted to tomatoes, peppers and onions. Besides that, most of us have this thing we call winter.  I have given up on my species, because when they open their mouths about food, they haven’t got one flippin’ clue.  I DEFY anyone to come out here, in the vast grassland Prairie, and grow Broccoli at a significant scale.  1.  The soil is heavily alkaline.  2.  It’s 80% clay.  3.  The water is basically liquid rock (full of lime and iron).  4.  We get 13 inches of rain per year.  5.  We have that whole winter thing 6. The sun will send it into bolt the second it sprouts.  Animal protein wasn’t produced as a luxury.  It was designed to keep one’s food on its feet and mobile so it can feed itself, and be self moving (herded) to get it where it needs to be processed when needed.  Oh ya, they are also ruminants that can turn grass into protein.

But, but, but! Hydroponics and aquaponics indoors that’s the ticket!!  LED lights instead of the sun and all done in climate controlled grow facilities. Brilliant…… all dependent on coal and natural gas.  But what about solar panels to power them??  I’m not even going there.  The best all that can do is grow greens.  Ever try to survive on just Romaine?  Might work if you have some weight to lose, but that has a shelf life over time.  We are bloody fools.

Does anyone know what it really means to eat “in season?”  It means making nail soup, killing a hog, hoping you canned enough to get from October to June, not eat each other, and pray to your almighty Jebuzz that there isn’t some fucking plague of locusts when you try to restock for the next seasonal cold snap (winter).  May Day and Solstice were celebrations for a reason.  The emergence from dark dank hovels to bask in sunlight, screw, reproduce, plant and thank the ever lovin’ powers that you didn’t succumb to whatever awfulness made parts fall off of your neighbors.  But of course, it’s all May Poles and Easter Eggs, morphed into the re-animating of some dude with a hammer and chisel.

The actual article:

Our Veggie Gardens Won’t Feed us in a Real Crisis

 

The News Is Getting Out. What Will You Do?

I have kind of been in hiding for the last month, and plan to be for the foreseeable future.  Since leaving work and having gone through surgery, I really needed to take some “opinion and judgement free” time to sort a lot out.  The long and short of it is trying to figure out what the last third of my existence on this rock is going to look like.

It is no surprise to readers that I am no climate change denier and think that those who are are pretty mis-informed folks.  In fact, I will not allow those comments here nor will I allow the ignorance of those that think a “Grand Solar Minimum” is an actual thing that  is causing the weird issues with the weather.  Look at the science behind what is causing the Polar Vortexes and educate yourself.  Science denial seems to be a new mental disorder.  Physics, Chemistry and Biology don’t care what your opinion is.

I was a Financial Planner for about 30 years.  A cornerstone of financial planning is preparing ahead of time, as much as possible,  for the unforeseen.  Rules of thumb included having 3 – 6 months of cash available in liquid accounts to cover deductibles, non-regular expenses, emergencies, etc. (So you don’t have to go into debt if you need to replace your tires, etc), having adequate disability coverage through your employer and on your own to replace your income should you not be able to work, life insurance if you have family dependent on your ability to earn an income, Long Term Nursing care coverage (which my in-laws are both using right now) and other protections to help one stay solvent financially despite roadblocks and pot holes that may arise along the road of life.  This should always be done prior to, or concurrently with, saving for your goals.

As I progressed through my career, I became more and more aware that there were some pretty serious issues on the near term horizon that no manner of saving and protecting was going to mitigate.  Issues like Peak Oil (which we are seeing the wars over and the resulting economic slowdowns today), the issues brought to the light of day in MIT’s publication, “The Limits To Growth” (which appears to be right on track), water and food shortages, overshoot from over population and excessive resource exploitation, environmental collapse, and then, most heinously, Abrupt IRREVERSIBLE Climate Change, had a profound impact on me because my career was built around trying to help, as one of my clients was want to say, “keep me from becoming a bag lady in my old age.”  This was a gut check time for me and it led to us adopting this kind of self-sufficiency lifestyle.

I would now add to the financial planning schematic described above that in addition to covering one’s family with savings and insurance, learning how to grow food, store food, and learning lost skills needed to thrive when this veil of civilization collapses.  I advocate mitigating in place because I can’t even imagine the insanity if every person in urban and suburban Romper Room donned a ruck sack full of protein bars and handguns and hit the street to go to some alleged “bug out location”.  FEMA recommends having at least 72 hours of food and water stored in case of supply disruptions.  Grocery stores have about 3 days of food available, which can be depleted rapidly (just ask those who have been through hurricanes or prolonged blizzards – raises hand).  Also, 95% of this country is unprepared for a 2 week emergency and recently a report came out regarding our electrical grid that said people should look at what would be required to withstand upwards of a 6 month disruption in electricity availability.  Should you think this be an alarmist statement, read the book on said subject by Ted Koppel entitled, “Lights Out”.  Not exactly a tin-foil hat wearing prepper nut.

But today, I took pause.  I thought I was pretty up on most of the climate change literature and research.  Vice Media posted an article that references a paper that distills it down in a public way that I am so pleased to see; not because it is a gloom and doom paper (It is) but because it comes out and clearly calls B.S. on the IPCC (The International Panel On Climate Change – one of the most politically sanitized committees in existence) .  We are being fed a canard that goes something like this:  “If we don’t take corrective steps in the next dozen years, then we will feel the brunt of climate collapse by the end of the century (As though we won’t see bad stuff until December 31st 2099).  This paper seems to support my assertion that we don’t have 12 years to make these changes, we simply have 12 years…. period.

I have posted the article and paper here.  I suspect that most won’t take the time to read it.  However, if you do read it, you will need to sit with it for a time.  Many people, when their eyes are open to the futility of our endeavors, find themselves needing emotional support.  My going into hiding has included this issue.  After all, finding out that most of your life and why you strived to “achieve” was all based on lies and abuse, is a tough pill to swallow.  Buy a good wine, or whatever you may imbibe in, and be gentle with yourself.

The rest of the world runs around blaming each other for everything and beating each other numb with the stupidity of left wing vs. right wing politics (after all, they are two wings of the same diseased corporate bird).  I stand out in the gardens a self-proclaimed, die hard, “Regressionist”.  After all, that’s where it is all headed and that ain’t all bad – except for the whole extinction thing.  I wish you all peace.

The VICE article:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy

Also, in the article there is a link should you want to listen to it via MP3 format.

The actual paper:

Deep Adaptation

Dahr Telling It Like It Is

While I think the over use of the phrase “By the end of this century” is very unhelpful (being WAY too optimistic) Dahr Jamail gets it, writes about it, and is unapologetic.  His book, The End Of Ice, is a lament about our untenable predicament. An important read.

http://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/12/the_end_of_ice_dahr_jamail?fbclid=IwAR2u-zc0kOVFIWzN2qPkh0QDMULc3guGFtpf4fYIdmyi_ueJvUT7nrLJQ60

 

No More Sugar Coating For Snowflakes

We have no more time for “beliefs.”  “I don’t believe we are headed for trouble.” I don’t believe in Climate Change” “Or,  “If it is real, humans aren’t the cause”.  Along with the biggest reality denier:  “If things progress as they are, then “By the end of the century things will start getting bad”. If you think that, then quit reading this blog.  I’m done glossing things over.  I’ve gone into retreat here on the homestead and have gone no contact with most of the world so that I can heal and regroup from abuse and from the ignorance of the society we live in that has been perpetrated by a culture that deifys and elevates Sociopaths and Narcissists.  We are all being gaslighted and my experience with Narcissistic abuse has shown me that the ruling elite are doing it to everyone.  You are being made to ignore the man behind the curtain and told to only listen and believe what the thin veil of doublespeak tells you.  Orwell was right.  This system is coming down and it’s high time we quit worrying about ruffling our abuser‘s feathers by talking about it.  Saving for some “retirement”?  What a joke.  This embedded video speaks the truth. The financial system is going to collapse as nature does.   You don’t want the truth?  Go to Disneyland.  This is why I dropped out.  This is why for most of 2019 I will be unavailable to family and to society.  There is work to be done and hurt feelings can go drown in someone else’s wine.

Sincerely,

The Farmer

To quote Greta in my last video posting above, “I want you to panic.”

 

A Film Everyone Should See

A new documentary entitled “Fed Up” has hit the scene.  It is narrated by Katie Couric and I must say it nails what is wrong with our nation’s eating habits and our food system today.  It is quite an eye opener and for anyone who cares why we have a diabetes and obesity epidemic this will pretty well put it in perspective.  My family has watched it.  Having a 19 year old son who has been influenced by food advertising and led to believe that processed foods are some how “real” foods instead of food like substances, it really opened his eyes.  Sugar is the new cocaine.  Watch this and recommend it to others.  You might just save someone’s life.

Because of this film I am attempting to go as sugar free and processed food free as possible.  Indeed that is the cornerstone of why JAZ Farm exists.  My weakness isn’t so much sugary and processed foods as it is liquid calories…. in particular, wine (hear me sobbing as I write).  If one is to be able to be active and energetic as the years go by, the old jalopy of a body needs to be kept in shape.  You can’t have clear and efficient fuel lines if you keep stopping them up with goo.

Watch this show….  everything you may know about food could very likely be wrong.  Don’t torture yourself by saying you are going on a “diet”.  Make it a change in lifestyle.  I did, and I am adding this to it.

https://movies.yahoo.com/video/fed-trailer-161051027.html

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JAZ Farm Library

This post is a lengthy listing of Books, Movies, Documentaries and Articles that have influenced our worldview and led to the creation of JAZ Farm.  It is kind of unwieldy.  If you are interested in any of them you can simply copy the title and paste it into Google.   It is a great library and has kept me busy in my Kindle and iPad and, lest we forget, real honest by goodness print for several years.  I hope you find some of them informative, challenging and thought provoking.  I will post new titles and links as I discover them so this post will be updated and edited from time to time.  Simply click on the Bibliography category link on the home page and it should bring it up instead of having to scroll through all of the other posts.

I’ve seen or read them all – The * symbol indicates highly recommended

Books about Food and the Food System:

* >The China Study – T. Colin Campbell

>The American Way of Eating – Tracy McMillan

* >Animal Factory – David Kirby

>The Vegetarian Myth – Lierre Keith

>The Botany of Desire – Michael Pollan

* >The End of Food – Paul Roberts

>Farm City – Novella Carpenter

* >Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser

* > The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan

* >In Defense of Food – Michael Pollan

* >Salt, Sugar, Fat – Michael Moss

>Tomatoland – Barry Estabrook

>Empires of Food – Evan D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas

* >Pandora’s Lunchbox – Melanie Warner

>Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer

>The Accidental Farmer – Tim Young

>Beautiful and Abundant – Bryan Welch

>Bringing It To The Table – Wendell Berry

>The Chicken Chronicles – Alice Walker

* >Diet For A Hot Planet – Anna Lappe’

>The Dirty Life – Kristen Kimball

>Folks, This Ain’t Normal – Joel Salatin

* >Everything I want To Do Is Illegal – Joel Salatin

* >Food Inc. – Karl Weber

>The Good Food Revolution – Will Allen

>Growing a Farmer – Kurt Timmermeister

>Its a Long Road To A Tomato – Keith Stewart

>Life is a Miracle – Wendell Berry

>Living In The Land of Enough – Courtney Carver

>No Happy Cows – John Robbins

>Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life – Joshua Fields Milburn

>Organic Manifesto – Maria Rodale

>Son of a Farmer Child of the Earth – Eric Herm

* >Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle For The World Food System – Raj Patel

>Food Politics – Marian Nestle

>The Way of Ignorance – Wendell Berry

Political, Philosophical, Ethical

>Cooking Solves Everything – Mark Bittman

>The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy and Environment – Chris Martenson

* >The Culture of Make Believe – Derrick Jensen

* >Dreams – Derrick Jensen

>Eaarth: Making a Life On a Tough New Planet – Bill McKibben

>Empire of Illusion – Chris Hedges

* >The End of Growth – Richard Heinberg

>End Game Vol 1. and Vol. 2 – Derrick Jensen

* >The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego In Human History and the Dawning of a New Era – Steve Taylor

* >Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – John Perkins

>Hoodwinked – John Perkins

* >Limits To Growth – The 30 Year Update – Donella Meadows and Jorgan Randers

>Confronting Collapse – Michael C. Ruppert

>Crossing the Rubicon – Michael C. Ruppert

* >The Long Emergency – James Howard Kunstler

* >Peak Everything: Waking Up To The Century of Declines – Richard Heinberg

>The Race for What’s Left – Michael T. Clare

* >Resistance Against Empire – Derrick Jensen

>Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit From The Nest Eggs of American Workers – Ellen E Schultz

>Snakes in Suits:  When Psychopaths Go to Work – Paul Babiak

>The Third Industrial Revolution – Jeremy Rifkin

>Vulture’s Picnic – Greg Palast

>Oil and Finance:  The Epic Corruption – Raymond J. Learsey

>The Oil Depletion Protocol – Richard Heinberg

>Powerdown – Richard Heinberg

>Too Much Magic – James Howard Kunstler

* >American Facists – Chris Hedges

>Born To Be Good – Dacher Keltner

>Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture – Ellen Ruppel Shell

>the Death of the Liberal Class – Chris Hedges

* >Deer Hunting With Jesus – Joe Bageant

* >The End of Growth – Richard Heinberg

>The Great Disruption – Paul Gilding

* >Here We All Are – Ram Dass

* >Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That is Breaking America

>The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution Against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos – Ravi Batra

>A People’s History of The United States – Howard Zinn

>The Political Mind – George Lakoff

>The Psychopath Test – Jon Ronson

* >Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain

>The Science of Fear – Daniel Gardner

* >Screwed: The Undeclared War Agains the Middle Class – Thom Hartmann

>Self-Reliance – Ralph Waldo Emerson

* >The Shock Doctrine and the Rise of Disaster Capitalism – Naomi Klein

>The Uprising – David Sirota

>Virus of the Mind – Richard Brodie

* >When Corporations Rule The World – David C. Korten

>Winner Take All Politics – Jacob S. Hacker

* >The World Made By Hand – James Howard Kunstler

* >The Witch of Hebron – James Howard Kunstler

Movies and Documentaries

*>Critical Mass

*>Genetic Roullette

* >Crazy, Sexy Cancer

* >Dirt! The Movie

>Dive!

* >Farmaggedon

>Fast Food Nation

* >Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

* >Flow: How do a Handful of Corporations Steal Our Water

* >Food Fight

>Forks Over Knives

* >Fresh

>The Future of Food

>Happy

>The Harvest

>Hungry for Change

* >I Am

>Killer At Large: Why Obesity Is America’s Greatest Threat

* >King Corn – You Are What You Eat

>Lbs.

>The Perfect Human Diet

>Planeat

* >Surviving Progress

>Vegucated

* >The World According To Monsanto

>The Consequences of Suburbanization

>A River Of Waste

>Manufactured Landscapes

>Meat The Truth

>Gashole

* >What A Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire

>Blind Spot

>Fuel

>No Impact Man

>The 11th Hour

>Poison On The Platter

>A World Without Water

>The Slow Poisoning of India

* >Natural World: A Farm For The Future

* >Patent For a Pig: The Big Business Of Genetics

* >Life Running Out of Control

* >The Story of Stuff

>Way Beyond Weight

>Seeds of Freedom

>Fast Food, Fast Profits: Obesity In America

* >Food Matters

* >Super Size Me

>Ethos

* >Ingredients

>Food Beware

* >Why We Fight

>Our Daily Bread

>Frankensteer

* >Bananas!

* > Vanishing Of The Bees

Websites

http://www.deepgreenresistance.org

http://guymcpherson.com

http://peakmoment.tv

http://www.onestrawrevolution.net

http://www.collapsenet.com

http://www.navdanya.org

http://www.handpickednation.com

http://www.CenterForFoodSafety.org

http://www.OrganicConsumer.org

http://www.FoodSafetyNews.com

http://www.PostCarbon.org

http://www.PeakProsperity.com

http://www.FoodDemocracynow.org.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Arab-Countries-Openly-Discuss-Peak-Oil-for-the-First-Time.html

Books About Things That Make You Go HMMM…..

>The Believing Brain – Michael Shermer

* >Bio-Centrism: How Life and Consciousness Are The Keys to the True Nature of the Universe – Robert Lanza

>Be Love Now – Ram Dass

* >Becoming Enlightened – The Dalai Lama

>Emotional Freedom – Judith Orloff

* >The End of Your World – Adyashanti

>Emptiness Dancing – Adyashanti

* >God Is Not Great – Christopher Hitchens

* >The Greatest Show On Earth – Richard Dawkins

* >Forged: Writing In The Name of God – Why The Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are – Bart D. Ehrman

* >The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy – William Strauss

>The Jewel Tree of Tibet – Robert Thurman

* >Last Words – George Carlin

>A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle

* >The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle

>The Republican Brain – Chris Mooney

>1984 – George Orwell

>Back to Sanity – Steve Taylor

>Being Gay is Disgusting – Edward Falcon

* >Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing The Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) – Bart D. Ehrman

* >Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed The Bible and Why – Bart D. Ehrman

>Outliers: The Story of Success

>The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy

>Total Freedom:  The Essential Krishnamurti – Jiddu Krishnamurti

How To Instructional Books

>Aquaponic Gardening – Sylvia Bernstein

>Country Wisdom and Know-How, Everything You Need to Know to Live Off the Land, From the editors of Storey Books

>The Organic Farming Manual -Ann Larkin Hansen

*>The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible – Edward C. Smith

*>The Beekeeper’s Bible – Stewart Tabori and Chang

>The Backyard Homestead – Edited by Carleen Madigan

*>Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens – Gail Damerow

>Homesteading in the 21st Century – George Nash and Jane Waterman

>Storey’s Guide to Raising Meat Goats – Maggie Sayer

>Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats – Jerry Belanger and Sara Thomson Bredesen

*>Guide to Rocky Mountain Vegetable Gardening – Robert Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough

*>The Self-Sufficient Life and How To Live It, The Complete Back To The Basics Guide – John Seymour

*>Mother Earth News