Table of contents for Act Now

1. Your Future Well Being Depends on Your Actions Now

I get so frustrated with people I know and love who bury their heads in the sand of unconsciousness.  We all have our gifts, something we do better than others.  Mine has been feeling the pulse of humanity years before things would actually happen.  For years I’ve tried to find the courage to tell people what I felt was on the horizon for humanity and the United States in general.  Like others, I felt it was past time for a radical change in how we live our lives.  Most people listened politely, but thought I was nuts despite the fact I was not alone in my thoughts. Now as things come to pass (like our failing economy, global warming, etc…) those same people I wish I could say were realizing what is happening in the world and acting, but they are not.  They have simply taken a look outside their shells long enough to realize what they are “aware” of scares the hell out of them and they feel power less to do anything.  Most believe it is out of their hands anyway and the new president will fix everything.  The troubles our world faces is beyond the scope of one newly elected president no matter how well intentioned.

What should you do then? Disentangle yourself from non essential affairs that are not enhancing your chances of survival. Yes, I said survival!  This includes emotional, physical and financial attachments. Your new vehicle is not going to ’save’ you, it’s usefulness is limited and it’s future is already determined, it has a very short lifespan. That home you love is the same, if it’s not sustainable (for example: Do you control your water supply?  Where does your food come from…can you grow it?) and is located in an area that is not sustainable or safe, then this emotional and financial attachment will wind up killing you. Sell it while you still can before the bank takes it from you or it becomes worthless and you can’t even give it away.

The global economic crash that is happening now will affect everyone.  Can you really afford to wait for housing prices to continue to fall before you make your relocation move? Use any monetary assets you have now to invest with others that have the same goals.  Find land or communities to buy into.  The “AMERO” (our new currency to be representing US, Canada and Mexico) will be hitting the market as soon as the U.S. cannot afford to pay the interest on it’s debt any longer.  Which is projected by some to happen as early as February 2009!  At that point your dollar will be worth whatever the government decides it will be.  Some say the buy back could be as low as two pennies on the “AMERO”.  I know, almost does not sound real, but google it and see for yourself.  Educate yourself!

Wake up to the present situation and circumstances. Stop kidding yourself. Assess your own dependency upon the entire system – it’s what’s keeping you alive right now. Without it, you would die. Learn to live without it’s support if you can. Disentangle yourself more and more, working on it constantly so that you become self-reliant and self-sufficient and capable of dealing with a world in chaos. Dependency is also a one way street and has created a world full of incapable humans who really cannot take care of themselves. They lack even the basic skills to survive. The future won’t permit that, so do something about it.

Get educated, get trained, put real skills into daily experience and learn how to take care of your own needs.  Learn practical skills in self-sufficiency, gardening, animal husbandry, mechanical repair, including bicycles,  seed saving and alternative construction. Raising food is going to be essential for localized citizens and how to do it. Food storage, preservation and preparation will be essential skills. Start learning how to do this now while mistakes are easy and survivable. Seasonal crops are an easy way to try out your green thumb. Learning to grow things isn’t hard, but it does take time to learn from your mistakes, so get started now.

This is what we have done and why we have joined FOSL.  We have liquidated everything of value and invested in supplies, heirloom seeds, farm animals, fruit trees, tools, sustainable technologies and information.  We have allied ourselves with people that have the necessary skills and know how for our continued existence.  We attend workshops with the folks to continue our knowledge and most importantly we are laying the foundation of community.  FOSL currently has one property that when finished may sustain 15 people.  This property has been slated for retirees desiring to be close to health care facilities.

However, there is a larger group of us who are searching for the right piece of land to build another community on.  One that would sustain many more people and would be much more rural in its location.  FOSL is a non-profit land trust.  FOSL needs land for communities. One of its many missions is to protect farmland and help create community based agriculture.  Community farms not only produce food, but involve as many people as possible in that production and distribution.  Since FOSL is a land trust, a not for profit organization, part of FOSL’s mission is to educate.  FOSL seeks to involve communities in social issues associated with agriculture and care of the land.

Our future survival and well being depends on agricultural land.  It depends on community.  Community is people coming together for a common good or cause.  Your future depends on your ability to act now.  Please, bring your knowledge, will to create a brighter future, physical resources, monetary resources, whatever you have and join us now.  Time is running out.  If you are reading this article you all ready know this on some level or you wouldn’t be here.  Trust your feelings.  This is not about fear, I see it as an opportunity to enrich our lives with community. A type of community that our grandparents knew, but with a new awareness.  It is a challenge and we will have to change the way we live on this earth if we are going to survive.  If our children are to survive and prosper.  I’m not asking you to change the world, but start with something you can change…yourself.  Open your mind and heart to an awareness of what is happening around you in the world.  Decide that you do want to change and join us in making that change.  We need you and we need your help.   Will you help us?  Will you help yourself?  The choice is ultimately yours…

If you have land you would like to discuss placing in a land trust please contact us.  If you are interested in joining FOSL or have questions contact us immediatly.

We maintain a pretty good list here on this web, but it is always growing.  The real purpose of today’s blog is to get people to participate in forming this list as well as their own. Most of us don’t have unlimited resources so we really need to think about what is important to stockpile in case of an emergency or long depression.  I’m inviting people from many different Yahoo groups today to participate in what they would consider is the top 20 things they would have on hand.

I would like you to think past the three day preparedness kit.  I think most of us know what we would need to survive for three days.  I want us to imagine having to be self-reliant for weeks or longer.  What would you want?  What would you need to live?

Please post your list under the comment section (below) for all to see or email me and I will post the result tomorrow.

This new book by Claire Hope Cummings reads like a science fiction novel about some other planet.  It is hard to believe we have allowed big business and governments to do the things they have done to our food supply.  I’ve followed GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) for a while now, but have a hard time finding real facts on the web.  However Claire has done the research and better than that she has seen the industry first hand.  She was an environmental lawyer for twenty years, four of them with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.  She gives clear and shocking facts for all those that care about the future of food to see. (I’m assuming you already know a bit about GMOs and know they are already in your food supply.)

Here are some of the startling facts:

• 97% of 75 vegetables whose seeds were once available from the USDA are now extinct.
• Everything imaginable has been engineered into food.  There is corn that produces the hepatitis B virus, corn with a human contraceptive, corn with jellyfish genes that glow in the dark, and corn with chicken genes. There are human genes in tobacco, sugar cane, and rice!   (Remember despite company claims these engineered plants are know to be transgenic!  Meaning they cross these species barrier and don’t just stay in the one engineered plant!  BT (designed to kill bugs biting the plant) which was designed to stay in corn has now been found in the guts of honey bees where it destroys the “good bacteria” responsible for food digestion.  It is also found in humans or anything that eats this corn!!)
• There are now many world wide studies confirming that GMOs are hazardous to human and environmental health.  One out of Ireland showed that food-related disease doubled during the same time that GMO food was introduced.
• Rats fed GMO corn had blood cell formation problems, and those fed GMO soy had liver problems, which were even worse in rats red GMO canola.
• These companies are not required to label food products is the US containing GMOs as they are in Asia and Europe.
• Between 1999 and 2005, there were 115 documented case of GMO contamination, twice as many in the US as in any other country.
• Monsanto, Syngenta, Pioneer/Dupont and Bayer now have a decade of experience with contamination.  They have been fined, chastised by consumers, and sued by farmers, but they have done nothing.
• Over 80% of processed foods sitting on the grocers shelves contain GMOs.

Don’t think you have eaten GMO’s?  Think again, one study tried to find at least one small group of people without GMO contamination for a comparative study and could not find one person that wasn’t already contaminated!  You eat Nabisco or Kraft foods?  Then you eat GMOs. Kraft Foods spun off from Altria Group (formerly Phillip Morris) and became its own public company in 2007.  Phillip Morris…mmm…you remember the tobacco with human genes in it?  Mmmmm wonder what that is used for.  Hope you don’t smoke!

How about eating anything made by General Mills?  General Mills manufactures breakfast cereal, yogurts, baking mixes, dinner mixes, fruit snacks and grain snacks, among other products. In 2007, the Minneapolis-based company employed 28,100 people and reported sales of $12.4 billion.  General Mills has not provided transparent information about its use of genetically engineered products and has fought proposed regulations requiring the labeling of GMO foods.

How about Kellogs? Kellogg’s produces several lines of breakfast cereal and foods, such as frozen waffles and toaster pastries. The company, based in Battle Creek Michigan, employs over 26,000 people. In 2006, Kellogg’s reported sales of $10.9 billion. Kellogg’s has worked to block US legislation requiring producers to label items containing GMOs.

Are you starting to get the point?  You are being experimented on by big business.  You think the government protects you?  Think again, GMO slips through the cracks and is a self-regulated industry providing their own reports to the government on safety.  Hundreds of these companies executives now sit in key positions in our government.

Your tax dollars even went into the development of the terminator gene! Complements of the USDA and your hard earned tax dollars!  Now Monsanto uses it in there seed so farmers must by seed from them every year instead of saving it from year to years as humans have done for millenia.  Now one large company controls the very food you put in your mouth.

Cargill, the second largest privately owned corporation in the US and one of the largest producers of GMO,s (read this link to understand the depth of which this company owns the food supply) owns the following companies or supplies them with GMO laden foods either directly or through animal feeds:

• McDonalds
• J.M. Smuckers
• Coca Cola
• ACCO Feeds
• Nations second largest beef processor
• You know I have to stop here, the list is exhaustive!!!  I could type for another hour and not get them all down here, but you get the point.  Research it for yourself.  Learn, educate yourself and start growing your own food.

How do you stop this from happening to your food?  With your $, stop buying contaminated food.  Next time before you shop go to this web who keeps an an on big business and find out what is in your food.  You vote with your $ when it comes to big business.

But how do you start packing so many animals?   What about our bees who 2/3 of them were out foraging.  How could we catch all those chickens who were now up in the upper field this time of day.  Some realities really set in.  We have been planning for fire design when we build a new house on the community, but this is a rental and it is pretty defense-less against fire.  Our new home will be designed into a mountain slope, with very little structure exposed.  Plus we would have cleared at least a 1000′ away from it and the barns.  Not too mention on-site fire fighting equipment and tons of water catchment.  However none this does us any good here as we watch a CDF Helicopter join the fight.

Thankfully, these amazing people with 3 planes, a Chopper, 2 bulldozers, 7 water tankers and 28 fire trucks put out the fire by nightfall.  It seems a down power line sparked the whole mess.  However, this brings up a huge questions.  In the years to come, will we still be able to rely on such machine power and the thousands of gallons of fuel that were used to fight this fire?  What will be do in the future?  How do we start to prepare a community for such an event?