Occupy Yourself

This past year, with learning about our unethical food system, I really began to question our government. How can our government allow international corporations, like Monsanto, to treat people and our environment so poorly? Why aren't our food system issues a bigger part of the 2012 Presidential campaign?

People need to know about the unethical corporations and corporate greed. You need to see the environmental and political effects of these corporations. That's what the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrations are doing. Showing the world a group of people are sick of the way things are being run and they want changes to happen.

With my feelings toward Monsanto I had to asked myself- what products does Monsanto have that I am consuming? A lot! My diet has been crap, I know it and I have not been able to get off my fat ass to do anything about it. I am supporting Monsanto! Not with my heart, with my actions.

My question is this: How do corporations, good and bad, effect your life? It's a deep question! Cars, clothes, medicine, food, entertainment, etc... Are there any goods you buy that are not tied to a corporation?

Without HUGE policy changes in our country, corporations will not change without without a huge grassroots campaign. This means taking steps back from their products. Is that possible? What would something like that look like?

First and foremost not everyone would be on board with it. A small group of people would honestly live a life off the corporate grid and some people would do a very half-assed job at it. We would need to be a lot more "locavore." We would need relationships with people who made the products we use- farmers, tailors, herbalists, carpenters, performers, etc...

If we think about those people who live off the corporate grid, what do we think? They're outside the cultural norm. 

I put two and two together when I was thinking about this stuff. I want this blog to be: from scratch, local and creative. I want to see how I could live without the help of corporations. Look at my past posts; I made a drink from roots in my yard, I buy eggs from people in my neighborhood, I eat weeds, I sign up to kill farm animals with the guidance of local farmers, I want to make my own medicine... Yes I am outside the cultural norm, but I have a hunger to see what I can do myself. 

We need to ask ourselves some hard questions on how we really want to live our lives, what we buy and our desire to be free from corporate corruption.

The businesses run by corporations provide us something huge: convenience. We can go to the store to buy ready to use goods. That's huge- That is America! It is very difficult to free ourselves from that convenience.

I don't think we need to completely go off the corporate grid. We would need to know good and bad corporations and we would need to give credit to the ethical corporations out there.  

What would it look like to START to life off the corrupt corporate grid? We would need a deeper sense of community. Get out and start relationships in your neighborhood. We would need to develop skills or multiple skills to help ourselves and our community. We would need to be able to buy and sell used goods. We would need to be more active in the informal economy. We could barter for services. We would need to give back to our community with volunteering. Most of all we would need to draw back our materialism. Our culture loves stuff. It would be very difficult to deny ourselves some goods. We live in America, it's our right to have too much. 

Unethical corporations and government can suck it. But it is going to be a huge, long battle to fight them. I am not saying we need to be all-in with leaving the corporate grid, but we need to take a closer look at some of these issues.