Common Sense Revolution

Something is amiss in Cape Breton. It has to do with what we put in our mouths, food to be precise. The state it seems wants to decide what we put where and when. At the farmer’s markets in Cape Breton and around the province, vendors are being told to fall into line with extremely strict preparation regimes for any food that they sell. At the current time it doesn’t apply to bread, but if you make pizzas, cakes, muffins, wraps and sandwiches you must follow the state’s commandments. Or else.

On the surface this seems fine, obviously food should be prepared in sanitary conditions and with thought given to germs and bacteria and all the rest. Maybe some people are still stupid enough to not wash their hands after wiping their asses but you’d think that most vendors don’t really want to poison or kill their clientele. Seriously, if you give your customers food poisoning or worse, you’re not going to have repeat customers and you’re likely not going to do much business.

And the funny thing, if you can call it funny, is that Maple Leaf Foods, which actually has killed people, yet continues to sell us hot dogs, has a free ride in comparison to small producers. There are some small meat farmers in Cape Breton who have food inspectors breathing over their shoulders every time they slaughter one animal. Yet Maple Leaf makes arrangements to police themselves. Again who do you trust more, the butcher in your neighbourhood or the big corporation who has actually killed people? You do have a choice you know.

But back to the markets and food inspectors, I have recently been told, by reliable sources about an unfortunate incident at a wake. People had come together to celebrate and mourn a life. As usual in a normal, healthy human community, people came together and supported the family by providing them with food so they had time for more important matters.

Then the food inspector showed up. At the wake. And he proceeded to pour bleach on various prepared foods on display so they could not be eaten since they were not prepared in a government inspected kitchen. People were shocked and wept. Talk about insensitivity. Wouldn’t you want to murder this person? What a shithead?

So where is this going to end? This says a lot about the state and control. You see, the state wants to control everything; it wants to put a value on everything. It wants to tell us what we can and cannot do. If you don’t believe me, read a really interesting book called Seeing Like a State, which I read several years ago.

Ultimately the food we eat must only come from the store and be prepared in “sanitary” conditions, pumped full of preservatives. The state must protect us from ourselves. Our kitchens must be banished from our homes, replaced by microwaves (by whose use you can save electricity). This is the only logical conclusion I can come to, having heard and witnessed the above behaviour.

All the more reason to ferment your own food and grow your own food, to meet and support a farmer or farmer coop. These are now becoming acts or resistance in a nutritionally depleted and fascist (as Dan would say) world. And all the more reason, to smash the state (corporations and governments being components of the state). What a useless institution it has become, if it ever was a good idea. Happily its days are numbered anyway but we should all do our part to urge it on its way.