Centralized control of the American meat supply is the downfall of our ecological health and all Americans' food security.
To understand the vulnerabilities we currently face, we need only look back a few years.
“Three separate events in 2019, 2020 and 2021 highlighted the country's reliance on large beef plants run by the four biggest processors.
First, a large Tyson Foods plant in Holcomb, Kansas, closed for four months following a fire on Aug. 9, 2019, that reduced U.S. beef production [by 6%] and removed a market where farmers could sell their cattle.
The second disruption occurred as COVID-19 spread last year, causing slaughterhouses nationwide to close to contain outbreaks of the virus among workers.” (Reuters, June 17, 2021)
The third event occurred on Sunday, May 30, 2021. JBS USA, “which supplies more than a fifth of all beef in America, said all of its US beef plants were pushed offline” after a serious ransomware attack. This subsequently caused a dramatic surge in beef, veal and pork prices.
How did we get here?
How did we go from Native people and pioneers who understood food security and food resilience to the vulnerabilities we face today?
In the natural system that existed for millennia on the American plains, tens of Millions of bison were integral to the ecosystem. Tatanka, Lakota word for bison, grazed the grasses of the prairie, causing disturbance and then resilience in the cycle of growth, and in the soil beneath. As they moved across the land–never staying in one place in their attempt to keep ahead of predators–they left behind their manure to fertilize the soil. In this natural cycle, whenever something was taken (grass and forage), something was left (manure, seed and urine).
Their manure created the rich, fertile soils of the American plains.
In this natural system, the birds traveled behind the bison, collecting insects, grasses, and the occasional seed. As they went, the birds deposited their nitrogen-rich manure, adding more to the soil.
For millennia, this ecosystem cycled, building the soil fertility unique to the American grasslands. We depend upon these soils today.
Native tribes called this vast land home and heavily relied on tatanka for food, clothing and shelter. It was paramount to the Native people’s survival.
In the 1860s, that all changed.
What happened to disrupt this?
Nothing illustrates the dark underside of the 19th century prevailing ideology like the mass slaughter of the American bison in the late 1800s.
Unscrupulous, profit-driven destroyers wanted to see the death of all Native people. And so commenced one of the greatest genocidal and ecological atrocities of all time–the mass killing of the American bison. The destruction of the bison was a means to an end–the end being the annihilation of the Native people.
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It took a very short time to destroy the Native’s way of life by eliminating their food source. “One colonel, [in 1867] told a wealthy hunter who felt a shiver of guilt after he shot 30 bulls in one trip: “Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.”
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150 years later, we live in an era where 80% of our meat in America comes from only 4 companies.
Imagine for a moment if an enemy of the American people wanted to exterminate us or destroy our way of life. What would it take to starve the American people into compliance?
A modern extermination would not need the 20 year campaign of hired hunters chasing the bison across the plains.
Could a concerted flip of switches, cyber attacks, and/or sabotaged structures at major meat processing or packing institutions lead to similar results?
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Looking at the same topic from another angle, how can we rely on our food security when monopolized by 4 major for-profit corporations? What entities want to keep us separated from our food production and processing at a local level?
What happened since 1860 when the Native people knew what to eat and how to prepare it and the early American settlers knew how to raise and process animals for food? All with very little refrigeration, or none, it should be noted.
Somehow, all these families knew how to safely harvest, process, cook and eat their meat. And they passed this knowledge from generation to generation.
True food security only exists on the community level.
Decentralization of our meat production and processing is a vital element of a free society. If we are not able to feed ourselves, we will not be able to defend ourselves. Conversely, if we are not able to defend ourselves, we will not be able to feed ourselves.
It is the decentralization of the meat industry that will revitalize our American freedom.
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Legislative initiatives such as the PRIME Act can open some of these doors. Localized production and processing of our meat is what will keep us safe–both in the short term–with food safety–and in the long term–with community food security and food resiliency.
As we return to the knowledge and wisdom of our ancestors, we must support and respect those who safeguard this knowledge for us–the farmers, ranchers and hunters of America and the men and women who reverently turn animals into food for our tables.
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More:
https://lizreitzig.substack.com/p/american-genocide-bison-to-beef
