Is the time for warning people to prepare for what is ahead coming to an end? For years, bold men and women all over America have been sounding the alarm and warning people to get prepared physically, financially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the great storm that is rapidly approaching. Personally, I have written more than 2,500 articles on my primary two websites combined, and so nobody can accuse me of not blowing the trumpet. It has gotten to the point that sometimes I am even tired of listening to myself warn the people. But now we are shifting into a new phase.
The other day I was reflecting on some of the things that I have been hearing lately. Sales of emergency food and supplies are way down across the entire industry. Many organizations and websites that have been instrumental in sounding the alarm for a long time are really struggling right now. On my websites, traffic has hit a bit of a plateau after experiencing a tremendous surge late last year. Overall, “prepping” was very hot just a few years ago, and at one time it was estimated that there were approximately three million “preppers” in the United States. But these days there seems to be a tremendous amount of apathy out there.
As I reflected on all of this, I came to one inescapable conclusion.
Those that wanted to get prepared have already gotten prepared by now, and those that did not want to get prepared are not likely to do so any time soon.
I personally know a lot of people that are very, very prepared and have been for a long time. Yes, there is still a small minority of people out there that only recently woke up and started prepping, but overall most of the preparation that people wanted to do has already been completed. And for those that have not done anything to prepare, you could argue with them until the moon turns to cheese and they still won’t take any action.
At this point the die has been cast. Most of those that felt that they should prepare have already prepared. Most of those that felt that they should repent have already repented. Most of those that felt that they should warn America have already sounded the alarm.
So now all that is left is to wait for the shaking to begin.
In looking back at what has transpired over the last several years, I think that it would be appropriate to say something about the failure of the church in America.
You see, if the churches of America were doing their job, all of the “watchmen” out there would not even be needed. Our voices would simply be lost in a chorus of thousands upon thousands of pastors, teachers, ministers and evangelists boldly warning people about what is coming to this nation.
But instead, there is just deafening silence coming from most of the mainstream churches.
The sad thing is that many, many church leaders understand very clearly what is coming, but they have purposely chosen not to warn the people. Some time ago, George Barna conducted a study that looked into why our churches are not addressing the key issues of the day, and what he discovered was absolutely astounding…
“‘What we’re finding is that when we ask them about all the key issues of the day, [90 percent of them are] telling us, ‘Yes, the Bible speaks to every one of these issues,” he explained. “Then we ask them: ‘Well, are you teaching your people what the Bible says about those issues?’ and the numbers drop…to less than 10 percent of pastors who say they will speak to it.”
Most churches in America don’t want to talk about the hard things, because they desperately want to make people feel comfortable. They want to entertain people and make them happy so that they will come back week after week and drop their money into the offering plate.
When it comes to defining success as a church, Barna found that there were five primary factors that were important to the majority of pastors, and none of them had anything to do with repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ…
“There are five factors that the vast majority of pastors turn to,” he outlined. “Attendance, giving, number of programs, number of staff, and square footage.”
Sadly, most Christians in America actually prefer these lukewarm churches, and the Apostle Paul warned that these times were coming nearly 2000 years ago. The following is what 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says in the Modern English Version…
3 For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears,4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths.
You may not want to hear this, but the majority of churches in America have already gone apostate, and that is the truth.
We are slowly but surely losing an entire generation of Americans, and yet our dead and dying churches just continue to slumber. I shared the following numbers in a previous article, but they bear repeating. The following comes directly out of a Pew Research Center report…
Millennials – especially the youngest Millennials, who have entered adulthood since the first Landscape Study was conducted – are far less religious than their elders. For example, only 27% of Millennials say they attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared with 51% of adults in the Silent generation. Four-in-ten of the youngest Millennials say they pray every day, compared with six-in-ten Baby Boomers and two-thirds of members of the Silent generation. Only about half of Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with seven-in-ten Americans in the Silent and Baby Boom cohorts. And only about four-in-ten Millennials say religion is very important in their lives, compared with more than half in the older generational cohorts.
Those numbers are absolutely horrifying. Yes, there are still a few really good churches scattered across the country. But overall, the church in America is in really sorry shape, and the numbers don’t lie. Christianity is in rapid decline in the United States, and somebody better wake up and start doing something about it.
Over the years, I can’t tell you how many dead churches that I have sat in. That is why it is so refreshing when I actually find one where the gospel is preached and where people truly love one another. I have had the privilege of sharing my message in such a church in recent months, and I wish that there were a lot more of them out there.
Unfortunately, most ministers in America are really busy doing things other than what they should be doing. For instance, have you ever heard of “clergy response teams”? If you can believe it, the government has actually recruited ministers to help the population accept martial law when it is declared someday. The following comes from KSLA News…
Could martial law ever become a reality in America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil might trigger just that. KSLA News 12 has discovered that the clergy would help the government with potentially their biggest problem: Us.
Can you believe that?
Here is more from the report…
Such clergy response teams would walk a tight-rope during martial law between the demands of the government on the one side, versus the wishes of the public on the other. “In a lot of cases, these clergy would already be known in the neighborhoods in which they’re helping to diffuse that situation,” assured Sandy Davis. He serves as the director of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
For the clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself, specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated, “because the government’s established by the Lord, you know. And, that’s what we believe in the Christian faith. That’s what’s stated in the scripture.”
I don’t know about you, but I found that article to be extremely chilling.
But this is the state of things in America today. We have a dead church that is stuffed to the gills with dead ministers, and the people are not being told the truth about the great shaking that is coming to America.
And when the great shaking comes, there will be multitudes of these dead churches and ministries that will go under and never rise again.
Meanwhile, God will be raising up a Remnant, and that Remnant is going to shake the world.
So what do you think about all of this?
Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…
I've often written about the collusion between industry and our regulatory agencies, and how industry-funded research tends to simply support and promote the industry agenda rather than shed truthful light on the benefits or risks of any given product.
Recent media reports have now revealed devastating evidence showing a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) executive aided a Coca-Cola representative in efforts to influence World Health Organization (WHO) officials to relax recommendations on sugar limits.1
In March 2015, WHO published a new sugar guideline that specifically targeted sugary beverages, calling them out as a primary cause for childhood obesity around the world, especially in developing nations, where the soda industry is now aggressively expanding its reach.
WHO's recommendation to limit soda consumption was a huge blow to an already beleaguered soda industry, struggling to maintain a declining market share amid mounting evidence identifying sweetened drinks as a primary contributor to the obesity and diabetes epidemics.
The damning email correspondence between Coca-Cola and the CDC was obtained by the nonprofit consumer education group U.S. Right to Know (USRTK).2 According to PhillyVoice:3
"The emails were between Barbara Bowman, Ph.D.director of the CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, and Dr.Alex Malaspina, a former Coca-Cola scientific and regulatory affairs leader and the founder of a food industry-funded group, International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).
They allegedly show Bowman's multiple attempts to aid Malaspina's relationship with WHO leaders whose actions (think soda tax) were hurting the beverage industry.
According to the report, Bowman — whose job is to try to help prevent obesity, diabetes and other health problems — 'appeared happy to help the beverage industry cultivate political sway with the World Health Organization.'"
Soda Politics
This kind of political maneuvering and back scratching is covered at length in Marion Nestle, Ph.D.'s book "Soda Politics." I interviewed Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, last year.
"[T]he fact that a high-level U.S. health official is communicating in this way with a beverage industry leader appears improper," adding the emails "suggest that ILSI, Coca-Cola and researchers funded by Coca-Cola have an 'in' with a prominent CDC official.
The official appears to be interested in helping these groups organize opposition to 'eat less sugar' and 'disclose industry funding' recommendations.
The invitation to dinner suggests a cozy relationship ... This appearance of conflict of interest is precisely why policies for engagement with industry are needed for federal officials."
Nestle's book reveals the soda industry is well aware of the connection between soda consumption and obesity and obesity-related diseases.
Soda companies are by law required to inform the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about vulnerabilities, and for the last decade Coca-Cola has been telling the SEC that obesity is the most significant threat to soda industry profits.
In short, Coca-Cola knows that once the truth about soda's influence on obesity becomes fully recognized, their jig is up.
Exposed CDC Official Steps Down
For many years now, health advocates have warned people about the connection between sugary drinks and obesity, and the message has slowly but surely started to take hold.
U.S. soda sales have dropped 25 percent since 1998,5 no doubt due to successful public health advocacy, and this makes the current scandal all the more scandalous, as it's an attempt by a high-level health official to undo all the work that's already been done to protect the public health. According to USRTK:6
"Alex Malaspina was able to ask for and receive regular input and guidance from a top official at the ... CDC on how to address actions by the World Health Organization that were hurting the food and beverage industry.
The emails ... reveal that ... Bowman ... tried to help Malaspina find inroads to influence WHO officials to back off anti-sugar talk. Bowman suggested people and groups for Malaspina to talk to, and solicited his comments on some CDC summaries of reports ... "
Surprisingly, Bowman had the good sense to immediately vacate her post once her betrayal of the public trust was exposed.
According to The Huffington Post,7 Bowman "announced her immediate departure from the agency ... two days after it came to light that she had been offering guidance to a leading Coca-Cola advocate who was seeking to influence world health authorities on sugar and beverage policy matters."
Perfect Example of Why Revolving Door to Industry Needs to Be Shut
While Bowman didn't mention her public disgrace as a factor in her resignation, saying she'd made the decision to retire "late last month," her boss, Ursula Bauer, Ph.D., confirmed Bowman's dealings with Coca-Cola in an internal email to CDC staff.
In it, Bauer states the "perception that some readers may take from the article [revealing Bowman's dealings with Malaspina] is not ideal," adding that the situation "serves as an important reminder of the old adage that if we don't want to see it on the front pages of the newspaper then we shouldn't do it."8
Bowman's connections to Coca-Cola actually dates back decades,9 and it's anyone's guess as to how those ties may have slowed down the path to truth and influenced public health policy. She'd been at the CDC since 1992; she was appointed director of the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP) in February 2013. But earlier in her career, Bowman worked as a senior nutritionist for Coca-Cola.
This just goes to show the power of the corporate and federal regulatory agency revolving door allegiances. Public servants must choose the hard road of doing what is best for the public, not their former bosses and acquaintances.
Few have that kind of integrity, it seems, and this case is a perfect example of why the door between private industry and public health and regulatory agencies needs to be more closely monitored. This is not a new problem and is pervasive in Washington for other industries. Yet the U.S. Congress and Senate continually fail to pass legislation to address this glaring loophole that decimates public health.
Philadelphia Imposes Soda Tax and Other Bad News for Big Soda
This scandal comes on the heels of a number of blows against the soda industry. Aside from WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan announcing soda is a key contributor to child obesity and suggesting restrictions on sugary beverages, Philadelphia recently decided to implement a soda tax to cut consumption.
Mexico imposed a soda tax in 2014, and San Francisco requires ads for sugary drinks to include a health warning as of last year. Many cities around the world are also considering similar measures to restrict soda sales. However, the stance against sugar taken by WHO was perhaps considered one of the most serious. In a June 2015 email to Bowman, Malaspina expresses worry about negative publicity related to sugar-rich products and European soda tax plans.
Malaspina says WHO's actions can have "significant negative consequences on a global basis," and that "the threat to our business is serious." He also notes that WHO officials "do not want to work with industry," adding that, "something must be done." In response to Malaspina's request for suggestions on how to get an audience with WHO, Bowman replies that "someone with Gates or 'Bloomberg people' may have close connections that could open a door at WHO," USRTK writes.
"She also suggests he try someone at PEPFAR program, a U.S. government-backed program that makes HIV/AIDS drugs available through the sub-Saharan Africa. She tells him that 'WHO is key to the network.' She writes that she 'will be in touch about getting together.'"
Clearly, the soda industry is struggling to stay alive. But at what cost should they be allowed to promote their business? It's equally clear that the price for their unrestricted success is disease and death of its consumers, which is why these kinds of backdoor dealings are so unpalatable.
Without Conflicts of Interest, Could Junk Food Industry Survive?
In 2013, I interviewed Michele Simon, who has practiced public health law for nearly 20 years, fighting corporate tactics that deceive and manipulate you about health. Last year, she released a report that revealed disturbing ties between the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) — considered a premier source of nutritional science — and the primary purveyors of obesity and chronic ill health.
ASN is sponsored by 30 different companies, including Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, Monsanto and the Sugar Association, just to mention a few, each of which pays $10,000 a year in return for "print and online exposure, annual meeting benefits, and first choice to sponsor educational sessions, grants, awards and other opportunities as they arise." As noted by Simon:
"In other words, food, beverage, supplement, biotech and pharmaceutical industry leaders are able to purchase cozy relationships with the nation's top nutrition researchers."
Junk food purveyors gain even more influence by sponsoring educational sessions at various conferences and annual meetings, and featuring speakers that represent the industry. ASN's ties are particularly problematic since they also publish three academic journals, including the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN).
These ties can "taint scientific objectivity, negatively impact the organization's policy recommendations, and result in industry-friendly research and messaging that is shared with nutrition professionals and the general public alike," according to Simon.
Obesity researcher David Allison, Ph.D. tops the list of those with the most conflicts. Allison serves on the editorial board of the AJCN, ASN's flagship publication, even though he has ties to PepsiCo, the Sugar Association, World Sugar Research Organization, Red Bull, Kellogg, Mars, Campbell Soup and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.
According to Simon, "having Allison in such a critical gatekeeper role demonstrates how industry can potentially influence even the science that gets published."
'Just Say No' to Soda
"Just Say No" was a slogan created by first lady Nancy Reagan. The "Just Say No" advertising campaign against recreational drug use was prevalent through the 1980s. Today, the same slogan would be appropriate to discourage soda consumption, and a whole lot easier to implement as well.
If you struggle with weight or chronic health issues, replacing soda and other sweet drinks, including fruit juices, with pure water could be one of the best things you could possibly do. Granted, other dietary changes are likely needed as well, but for many, ditching soda can go a long way.
If you crave some flavor, try adding some lime or lemon juice to still or sparkling water. Tea is another option. Just avoid adding sugar, and steer clear of bottled varieties as they're usually loaded with added sugars. Ditto for so-called "designer water" like Vitamin Water.
If you find it difficult to quit, don't be discouraged. Many are indeed addicted to soda. To break free, be sure to address the emotional component of your food cravings using tools such as the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). A version referred to as Turbo Tapping tends to be particularly useful for eliminating soda addiction in a short amount of time.
If you still have cravings after trying EFT or Turbo Tapping, you may need to make some changes to your diet. My free nutrition plan can help you do this in a step-by-step fashion.
Remember, sweetened beverages, whether sweetened with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), naturally occurring fructose or artificial sweeteners are among the worst culprits in the fight against obesity and related health problems, including diabetes and heart disease. Ditching ALL of these types of beverages is a significant first step toward reducing your risk for chronic health problems and weight gain.
(N.Morgan) We have been being bombarded with False Flags, police brutality, shootings, racial tensions, and ongoing political corruption.
With all of this fakery, the Elite's agenda has spawned mass civil unrest and strife among the people.
To add to this Pandora's Box of a nightmare, information has come to light in regards to another one of the "victims" of these tragedies.
A man who has become known as ‘Alfonso’ has been reported dead in three separate terror related events by mainstream media and social media, yet the man in question is reportedly alive and well.
3 Tragedies in a Year
These new revelations concerning the man known only as Alfonso, were first reported by the international news agency France 24.
Alfonso was said to have died, in the EgyptAir crash, the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting and Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, from a combination of reports and posts that are now believed to be untrue.
This story comes after all three terror related incidents presented a number of questions that have still gone unanswered by officials.
21Wire has reported the thread of these highly suspicious events that can be read here, here and here, with an in-depth analysis revealing a host of anomalies in the aftermath of each event.
Also contained within the France 24 report, it states that Alfonso, was apparently caught up in an alleged revenge social media prank after he reportedly owed money to deceptive pranksters (said to be friends) believed to have plotted a scheme that was later dispensed by larger media outlets.
Daily Mail also reported about the major discrepancies after France 24‘s revealing report:
“He died in the EgyptAir crash. Then again during the Orlando shooting.
And last week ‘Alfonso’ from Mexico was tragically killed a third time in the bombing at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul.
At least, that’s what you might be led to believe if you followed news reports and social media scuttlebutt about these high-profile tragedies.
But the truth is, the man identified as a victim in all three attacks is still alive – and the victim of a ongoing revenge prank by former friends who say he owes them money, France24 reported.”
Was this truly some sort of revenge prank as claimed by media and social media personalities or is there something more sinister at play here?
‘Meet ‘Alfonso’ from Mexico?
Images of the man pictured above made the rounds on major media outlets and social media posts immediately after the EgyptAir crash, the Orlando Pulse shooting attack and the again after the heavily coordinated attack in Istanbul.
In the aftermath of the May 19th crash of EgyptAir flight MS804, an image of Alfonso was used in a BBC report just one day after the reported crash – yet curiously, in the report entitled “EgyptAir crash: The internet fakes and rumors,” the Alfonso-story was already being outed as fake by the major news outlet.
Here’s a passage revealing the person known as Alfonso as reported by the BBC:
“When news of the missing EgyptAir flight emerged on Thursday morning people began sharing details of the unfolding story – but not everything was genuine.”
“A Twitter user called “Perro” posted a photo purporting to be of his brother Alfonso, prompting several retweets from fellow users.”
The report continues by stating that Alfonso’s image had already been used prior to the May 19th crash:
“But a Google reverse image search showed that the photograph had been used before online, and had been linked to a series of different Twitter handles.”
The BBC wasn't able to confirm where Alfonso’s image first appeared, they did state the following:
“It is unclear exactly where the photo is from and who the man pictured is, but it has been circulating online since December 2015, sometimes in reference to a dispute at a shopping center in Mexico.”
A Twitter handle known Perro al–Baghdadi, (referencing the purported ISIS terror leader) appears to be purposefully misdirecting the public with distorted propaganda and very likely is a sock-puppet profile.
Here’s a strange post that illustrates the false nature of this account.
The Media Buys and Sells False Claims and Propaganda
To add to this already strange tale Alfonso’s picture still appeared in a NY Times video allegedly displaying images of some of the Orlando shooting victims on the very same day that the Pulse nightclub shooting occurred.
The image below is reporting Alfonso as an alleged victim of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
Pushed Media Propaganda: An Orlando shooting video published in a June 12th report, the same day as the reported shooting. (Image Source wydailynews.com)
After the France 24's report about the Alfonso discrepancy, the NY Times hastily removed the removed the man’s image previously featured at the 2:24 minute mark during their video report:
(Screen Capture of a NY Times video report)
Below is another another hoax social media image in the aftermath of the Istanbul attack – who really started the Alfonso meme?
The Alfonso story also appears to have also piggybacked another story that questioned the validity of an alleged survivor from the Orlando shooting in another media report that was outlined by 21WIRE:
Orlando’s Staged Elements & False Claims
Recently at 21WIRE, they discussed much of the corporate media’s theatrical depiction of the Orlando shooting and the widespread characterization of the event, which has been reduced to two categories – that of a “lone gunman” and a saddened community centered on the sociopolitical ramifications of the incident, rather than an in-depth forensic analysis of the alleged crime itself.
In addition, they also outlined some of the various Hollywood and media connections observed in the aftermath of the apparent Orlando shooting attack, as it was revealed that the world’s largest security firm G4S, who had employed the man named in the Orlando pulse nightclub shooting, Omar Mateen – is also client of the mass casualty and crisis actor staging company called CrisisCast.
If all of these shenanigans aren't enough we are now being fed that the alleged Pulse nightclub ‘survivor’ Clint Lampkin’s account of the shooting has now been called into question by the media.
The video below is from the Wochit news reviewing the inconsistencies found by the CBS-affiliated television station WHNT-TV…
One has to wonder why the elite and those responsible for coordinating these events don't get fresh faces for each event?
Is it they just don't care if we figure out these are staged attacks?
Laziness? Stupidity?
The following statement was released by FOX6 on June 21st, examining WHNT-TV’s findings over the weekend that have since been removed from the network’s website:
“On Saturday, hundreds of people in Alabama were captivated by an impromptu speech by Clint Lampkin, a man who claimed to be a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.”
“I was in the bar when it all happened,” Lampkin told the crowd at the Rocket City Pride Memorial Service in Huntsville. “It’s been hard on me… seeing people get shot.”
Lampkin said the hate he witnessed first-hand is still overwhelming.
“It’s really strong. I mean not just for my friend but all the others that lost their lives. It’s hard you know.
It really is. It’s really sad,” Lampkin says.
The recently published article outlined the contradictory nature of Lampkin’s comments made during a memorial service and a Facebook post on his personal account on the morning after the shooting:
A screen shot of Lampkin’s strange comment after the Orlando attack.
One of Lampkin’s Facebook friends sent WHNT a screenshot of one of Lampkin’s Facebook posts from June 12, which shows he shared the story about the shooting and wrote:
“Glad I wasn’t at that one.”
The details of the Orlando report appeared to reveal the FBI’s transcript failed to disclose any actual shooting occurring inside of the club during the night in question as 21WIRE stated the following:
“While the report has a basic outline of “America’s largest mass shooting” it fails to account for any of the shootings said to have occurred within the Pulse nightclub, with no mention of individuals being shot at or reportedly shot at in the FBI’s official narrative. It’s as if they just left out the biggest piece of the puzzle.”
21WIRE went on to point out: “The Orlando shooting details state “multiple shots [were] fired at Pulse nightclub at 2:02 am, as “Additional OPD officers arrived on scene,” at 2:04 am, with law enforcement engaging the shooter at 2:08 am – there is no other mention of shots fired until police exchange fire with the alleged suspect after breaching the wall at 5:15 am.”
Judge Andrew Napolitano exposes this fact about that event that has caused quite a stir over social media circles.
The improbable Alfonso stage play also brings to mind another recent triple-performance actor of sorts – Mason Wells, a young Mormon missionary who just happened to be a three separate high-profile terror events.
Wells is said to have allegedly attended and survived 3 separate terror attacks since 2013 – Boston, Paris and Brussels. Coincidence?
During the Boston marathon bombing in 2013, the Washington Post ran an article on the statistical odds of being in one terror event. Using data from from the National Counterterrorism Center, we learned that:
“In the last five years, the odds of an American being killed in a terrorist attack have been about 1 in 20 million (that’s including both domestic attacks and overseas attacks).”
In a BBC report in 2014, it was exposed how the very same child image of one the Sandy Hook victims matched a victim of the 2014 Peshawar School Massacre – prompting many critics and researchers to question how this could have come about.
Numerous new developments include a major political happening that occurred after EgyptAir, Orlando and Istanbul – the FBI’s case outlined against presumptive presidential nominee Hilary Clinton failed to snag an indictment.
It was also recently released that the US Senate fell 1 vote shy of granting the FBI access to browser histories without court order.
We are being herded into civil unrest, poverty, racial discord, martial law.
The Elite have now turned the people against each other and the police, in a sinister game of Divide and Conquer.
ORIGINAL LINK
Corporate media messaging about the war on Syria is corrupt to an unprecedented level, despite years of sustainable evidence that contradicts the lies. The “West”, including U.S.–led NATO, the Persian Gulf Monarchies, and Israel, are waging a proxy war against…
It’s ironic that some of the most honest words to come out of a politician’s mouth were, “When it becomes serious you have to lie.”
That was a quote from Jean-Claude Juncker, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the European Commission (the EU’s executive branch) in 2011 when asked about Greece’s financial crisis.
Greece was on the ropes and the entire system about to collapse, so, of course they lied. Then they lied about lying.
This raises a very reliable rule of thumb to keep in mind during (and before) a banking crisis: don’t trust anyone in the establishment, especially a politician.
It’s good advice these days. Europe’s banks and its governments are caught like Macbeth’s “two spent swimmers that do cling together / And choke their art.”
Or perhaps a less elegant comparison– two drunken sailors holding each other up.
As usual there’s quite a bit of deflection to steer people away from looking too deeply at bank balance sheets, and high sounding language that everything is just fine.
A review of a historical banking crisis would be highly instructive. So let’s go back to one of the absolute worst in history– the US banking crisis of 1982.
It was so severe, in fact, that as Nassim Taleb writes in The Black Swan,
“In the summer of 1982, large American banks lost close to all their past earnings (cumulatively), about everything they ever made in the history of American banking – everything.”
Richard Koo, the chief economist of the Nomura Research Institute and author of ‘The Holy Grail of Macro-economics: lessons from Japan’s Great Recession,’ recounts the crisis with extraordinary candor.
Koo was a syndicated loan desk officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York… so he was truly at the epicenter.
Late on a Friday afternoon in August 1982, his job, along with those of his colleagues, was to try and convince the rest of the world that the US banking system was solvent (even though it was clearly NOT).
The following is taken verbatim from his presentation:
“That was about the worst possible banking crisis in modern US history. Our conclusion was that seven out of eight money centre banks were actually underwater…
“It was so bad because everyone down from Mexico to the southern tip of Chile went bankrupt…
“Paul Volcker, the chairman of the Fed, called central banks and ministries of finance all around the world on that critical Friday in August 1982…
“The Bank of Japan Governor of the time was particularly difficult to locate. A Bank of Japan official who took the call from Volcker recorded Volcker’s exact words for posterity.
“The Fed chairman stated, ‘You better give me Governor Maekawa right away. If you don’t give me Governor Maekawa there might not be any US banks left on Monday.’
“What we at the New York Fed had to do was arrange for all the foreign banks to keep credit lines open to the American banks, knowing fully well that all these American banks were actually bankrupt.
“And we also could not tell the outside world about the situation because if you go out and say ‘American banks are bankrupt’ – the next day they will be bankrupt.
“And so we had to come up with these stories that ‘well, there are some Latin American problems, but they’re all good debt, not bad debt’. . .
“So by keeping this myth going, that everything is fine.. we had to do that for a very long time..”
You can watch Koo’s presentation yourself (it becomes extremely insightful after roughly 31 minutes)...
It seems to have become one of the most popular ways of ridiculing somebody’s argument or position, calling into question someone’s sanity or even somebody’s right to their very own existence in recent years are “You’re a conspiracy theorist!”, “That sounds like a conspiracy theory to me!” We hear such accusations let fly in TV and radio debates all too often as soon as anyone begins to question a perceived, generally excepted “truth”. The accuser always seems supremely confident that this accusation is enough to immediately put the accused beyond the pale of all human reason and that all participants and viewers of the debate should be expecting men in white coats to arrive at any moment and the accused to be led away in the interests of all for “corrective treatment”.
The definition of conspiracy of the on-line dictionaries insists on the “evil, harmful, bad” side of things. In other words; in the English language, it is impossible to conspire to do good. This is one of the reasons why the accusation of being a conspiracy theorist remains an effective put down as it implies that the accused believes that their government, company bosses and colleagues, military or police commanders, friends and acquaintances or even members of their own family and partaking in secret, evil deeds and plots for harmful ends which have happened or are going to happen and hence at best implies lack of good faith and paranoia and at worst, extreme negativity, treachery; being a fifth columnist. All labels with which most of us would wish not to be tarnished.
Here however are some alternative definitions of “conspiracy theorist”:
someone who has seen through the bullshit (David Icke);
someone who questions the statement of known liars (unknown).
It is clearly not possible to see these definitions as morally negative unless we are creators of bullshit or known liars.
Could it be that the time has come for a reappraisal of the definition of the word conspiracy because the following is palpably undeniable. Every development in politics and affairs of state, every war, every campaign within a war, every attack and counter attack, every putsch, every terrorist act, every revolution and even every democratic election manifesto and campaign, every new bill passed, every budget or construction project proposed on a national or local level ad infinitum, throughout human history has been born of human planning, plotting or conspiracy depending upon which side we were or are on or how you view the proposals! Effected to a lesser or greater extent by chance undoubtedly and maybe borne on a current of destiny as well! The latter I will not discuss further here. Not because I dismiss it. Heaven forbid. Simply it is not important for the points I want to make. One of the most important of which is this, in short: our history is littered with and shaped from, not conspiracy theories but conspiracy facts! One of the earliest and most famous that springs to mind is that of The Trojan Horse. A very cunning plot by the Greeks which broke the stalemate of the long siege of Troy and enabled them to conquer and ransack the city but by the current English definition, a conspiracy only from the point of view of the Trojans as for them it was “bad and harmful” but not for the Greeks. But who amongst us now really sees one side or the other as the “evil” one? So was it a conspiracy or not?
A Nazi soldier gets ready to murder two Soviet Slavic women during Operation Barbarossa, summer 1941. This incident probably took place in the Ukraine or Belarus.
There are times in history, usually more recent history, (examine and discuss) when there seems to have clearly been a good and evil side. One such example I would posit is Operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union! While this was of course a life saving event for Great Britain, even the most diehard anti communist must surely see that the invasion of Nazi forces into the USSR was unequivocally bad and harmful for the peoples of that empire as it promised no liberation at all; only abject slavery or total oblivion whatever their position in Soviet society. It was clearly planned or plotted in advance but according to the English language, it was only a conspiracy from the point of view of the peoples of the USSR and the Soviet government, not from the point of view of Nazi Germany and her allies as they perceived that attack as beneficial to them at the time which, of course, is why they contrived and went ahead with it.
What about Operation Overlord- The Normandy landings or D-Day? This massive military undertaking was literally years in the planning or plotting. Was it a conspiracy? According to the current English definition, only for the rulers of Nazi Germany as it can be argued that it was actually beneficial even for most Germans not actively involved in the Nazi hierarchy as it lead to their liberation as well as to that of the other nations of western Europe. In spite of this, the German army fought like tigers on the western front to the bitter end but I digress. I will however be returning to the D Day landings a little later for reasons that will become clear.
Surely therefore, it is obviously undeniable that the accusation of being a conspiracy theorist is in fact totally subjective and because of that, totally spurious from an objective, truth seeking point of view concerning any, as yet, unsolved or disputed events in human history or actuality and hence it follows that those using this accusation to discredit the ideas or theories of others have an agenda for doing so. This agenda maybe conscious or subconscious but it is always there.
The purpose of this article is neither to prove or disprove any famous conspiracy theories and, although I, like anybody else, have my own ideas and suspicions, I am not putting them forward here. What I am putting forward here is the fact that if you hear someone publicly dismissing somebody else’s ideas as conspiracy theories and especially if the “dismisser” is a western journalist, government spokesperson or a politician they are trying to prevent you thinking about something by ridiculing you into not delving further.. The unconscious agenda of such accusers I mentioned earlier is the cognitive dissonance caused when presented with information that contradicts long held and emotionally charged beliefs. The conscious agenda is of course blatant lying in order to cover up the truth.
Let us look at a concrete example. In Toronto Canada there is a high profile televised political discussion called the Munk Debate. Here is the link to the particular episode I’m going to concentrate on.
The motion proposed on this occasion was “Be it resolved, The West should engage, not isolate Russia”. As you can see this motion assumes that Russia is somehow wrong and the only question is how best to deal with Russia’s wrongness. Given this obvious slant from the beginning the pro team of Vladimir Pozner and Stephen F. Cohen did a reasonable job but were unable to fend off the barrage of 100% truth inversions (all of which conforming to the strictly controlled and censored Canadian mass media slant) from the rabid, foaming at the mouth, jumping up & down, Jihadi anti- Putin and Russia team of Anne Applebaum and Garry Kasparov. At around the 16th minute Applebaum starts to speak about the Kremlin’s “massive” investment in their multi-language media “disinformation machine” including RT television. At around 17.12 minutes in this recording she then states that “When Malaysian airliner MH17 was shot down by a “Russian missile” over Ukraine this media machine immediately came up with all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories such as planes taking off already full of dead people” and explains that this is done deliberately by Russia and only by Russia in order to cloud people’s minds until “they” don’t know what to think any more. Well! Sure! Planes taking off full of dead people does sound pretty crazy doesn’t it. I couldn’t believe my ears when I first heard that one actually but let’s look more closely at what she said before coming back to that. How many conspiracy theories does she mention? One? Well, I count three and a half. The above mentioned plus two and a half more. The statement that Russian media is disinformation is also a conspiracy theory as is the position that they alone came up with all these conspiracy theories. Many of them are proposed and published by westerners. The accusation that MH17 was shot down by a Russian missile is also a conspiracy theory as well as propaganda because all weapons at that time on both sides were either Russian made or Soviet made. Who is using them, how and why is the pertinent question which the western media always seeks to obfuscate. And yes, well, okay, true. I admit that the last sentence I’ve just written is another conspiracy theory at least for some of you. Are you beginning to see how deep the rabbit hole goes and how ridiculous the allegation of conspiracy theorist is under any circumstances?
Fact. The “official” version of 9/11 is every bit as much a conspiracy theory as all the others!
Especially as it has proved impossible to prove over the years and seems indeed, ever easier to disprove. When governments and the mainstream media tell us a version of events after a terrorist act or invasion or murder etc they then accuse anybody who voices doubts or proposes another version of events of being conspiracy theorists but the governments and main stream media are themselves conspiracy theorists until, I repeat, there emerges incontrovertible proof and evidence to confirm one of the conspiracy theories as the conspiracy fact.
Back to Applebaum’s “planes taking off full of dead people”. When I first heard that one I was literally seething at the sheer stupidity of such an insane theory being voiced almost immediately after the disaster. At the time I was still only just emerging from an umbilically wet, comforting “womb warmth” world where our western governments were working for our best interests but were just rather incompetent at doing it. In the immediate aftermath of that tragedy I reluctantly assumed that the self defense forces had mistaken it for a US backed Kiev bomber or that a guided missile had locked on to the airliner by error or evil destiny. After all at the time, they were being attacked by the air-force of the US installed Kiev government everyday and, in spite of having no aircraft themselves had been increasingly successful in downing their attackers. Then came the immediate barrage of western press headlines. From Britain for example: The Sun: PUTIN’S MISSILE and PUTIN’S LOOTERS ROB BRIT VICTIM The Daily Mail: PUTIN’S KILLED MY SON The Daily Mirror: PUTIN’S VICTIMS to name but a few. US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that the US had proof of exactly what kind of missile was used and where it was fired from. He stated, as reported by The Guardian, that “all the evidence surrounding the downed Malaysian airlines flight MH17 points towards pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine being to blame.” Well. All those newspaper headlines are simply conspiracy theories and as it turns out, more insane than the dead-bodies-taking-off idea. While Kerry’s accusations could have seemed feasible at the time, the fact that not one jot of “all that evidence” has been made public twenty two months later reduces his words to a conspiracy theory too. The headlines are totally insane because of the lack of motive. The fact is, after taking into account the ill fated crew and passengers of MH17 and their families, loved ones and friends there is simply not one human being on earth out of all seven billion of us who had less motive to get involved in shooting down a passenger plane anywhere in the world, let alone over Eastern Ukraine than Russian president Vladimir Putin and his government followed by The Donetsk Republic’s armed forces who were and are fighting at home, on their own land for their very existence. In the shock of the immediate aftermath, European governments some of whom had been resisting US pressure to impose sanctions on Russia as punishment for having saved Crimea, at the behest of Crimeans, from invasion by ultra racist Ukrainian US backed rebels bent on their eradication one way or another, caved in and sanctions were imposed. Anyone placing themselves in the position of detective would see straight away, that the new Ukrainian government had massive motive for and massive profit to gain from MH17’s downing if it could be pinned on Russia, followed by those governments who had plotted and helped the coup in Kiev -the US, UK, Dutch, Polish, Swedish and EU baron’s to name the main players. That in itself is of course not proof that they were complicit but it would be one of the areas where any real investigation would concentrate a lot of effort and inquiry.
In the Munk Debate, broadcast on the 11th April 2015, more than eight months after the tragedy, Applebaum is careful to avoid pointing the blame specifically at Putin personally while using language that generally insinuates instead. Could it just be that legal advice has something to do with that. Another video, which judging by its title indicates that she “apparently” knew all the details of what happened, seems to have disappeared completely from the net: “Anne Applebaum: MH17 attack | what happened. How it happened and who was responsible.” If anybody saw it or has a transcript it would be great to know what she actually said here.
Meanwhile as more and more theories as to how this tragedy occurred were coming forth , spurred on by the lack of any evidence being made public, including the content of the black boxes, some aspects of the plane full of already dead people theory were beginning to seem, well, just slightly less insane. On March 8th 2014 Malaysian airlines flight MH370 disappeared on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It’s fate remains a mystery to this day. Such a story is the very oxygen of conspiracy theorists, some well intentioned and some undoubtedly less so and the internet and You Tube is not lacking in explanations. Many posit the idea that the plane was hi-jacked to the closed US military island base of Diago Garcia and many, made and published before the downing of MH17 and all those I saw, none of which were made by Russians or the Russian media, predict that this missing plane would turn up being used in a future false flag event. After the downing of MH17, it didn’t take long for the idea to gain circulation that it was in fact the missing MH370 and that it had been transported to Donbass and blown up on the ground maybe with the preserved bodies of the ill fated passengers of MH370 inside or that it had even taken off from Amsterdam with the bodies inside etc! Well dear reader, maybe you, like me find all these theories pretty far fetched if not ridiculous or maybe in very bad taste. The fact however is that neither you nor I can absolutely rule them out no matter how far fetched they seem because there is a small window of possibility. The US and her allies have the means to pull off such an operation and the motive. We would do well to remember the film of an explosion on the horizon that was broadcast by all the world’s mainstream media, including Russian, as the explosion of MH17 hitting the ground. As many quickly pointed out, a plane, still over half full of fuel, blown up at high altitude by a ground to air or air to air missile would have left smoke trails in the sky as it fell. That seems beyond all scientific doubt but absolutely no traces in the sky appear in that video so that would seem to suggest that either it does not show the impact of MH17 but something else (more likely in my opinion) or, well yes, the plane was in fact blown up on the ground. There has also been a historical precedent for such an idea albeit on a much smaller scale physically but, nonetheless of great historical significance.
Operation Mincemeat which was made famous as a book and a film called The Man Who Never Was. This was a plan executed in April 1943 to fool the Germans into thinking that the allied invasion of Sicily would in fact happen in Greece. A dead body was procured, dressed up in a British officer’s uniform, given a false identity and a briefcase chained to his wrist containing “top secret” documents about the allied invasion of Greece not Sicily. The dead body was made to look like the victim of a plane crash of the coast of nominally neutral but in fact pro German Spain. In reality however his body was delivered to the area by a submarine. The plan worked so well that when the actual allied invasion of Sicily began the German’s thought it was just a diversion and didn’t respond having transferred the majority of their forces to Greece. When, the following year, just after the D Day landings, the Nazis found genuine top secret plans in an abandoned landing craft, they refused to believe them being sure it was another such ruse as operation Mincemeat. Here’s a link (now promise not to laugh) to a Daily Mail article on the whole subject. It does just suggest that the idea of already dead bodies in planes might have a certain feasibility after all which is something Anne Applebaum, among many others, doesn’t want you to think about.
I repeat that I am not supporting or debunking any conspiracy theories here. I cannot prove, or disprove just as you cannot prove or disprove any of the above mentioned theories or, for example, that Aliens exist or that they don’t exist therefore we cannot dismiss or confirm one hundred percent those theories involving aliens either. It really is that simple.
As for the conscious or unconscious agendas I talked about earlier, I would, in spite of his virulence, put Garry Kasparov in the unconscious camp. He so often loses control of his emotions and his discourse which is clearly out of all reality. I wonder if he has ever asked himself why he thinks and feels that which he does, I very much doubt it. Berezovsky was someone with a very similar mind set in my opinion. Anne Applebaum on the other hand seems to be squarely in the conscious camp. In other words, she is deliberately lying in order to, not distort the truth but totally reverse it in true Orwellian style. I don’t claim to know exactly what her motive is. Due to the fact that her husband was the Polish foreign secretary (he was one of the EU politicians who brokered and signed the ill fated deal with the Yanukovych government in Kiev that didn’t even last twenty four hours), her finances had to be made public and, as many pointed out, she benefited from a huge spike in earnings as soon as the Ukrainian crisis began in 2013 followed by an ongoing scandal concerning the disclosure of their earnings in subsequent years but I find it hard to believe somehow that her motive is solely financial. Maybe simply anti-Russian racism and/or a commitment, ideological and self interested, to financial world takeover of the US, western debt based fractional reserve banking system. Whatever the reason is, it has to be admitted that she is a very effective propagandist who’s discourse remains coherent, controlled, pointed but utterly premeditated and false. In fact her tirade in the Munk Debate against Russia since Putin became president is in reality one of the most concise and accurate descriptions of today’s USA and also post putsch Ukraine that I’ve ever heard. Her total insistence that the western media is truthful and objective is also a 100% truth inversion. Russian media has become infinitely more truthful and objective than its western counterpart which has descended into out and out double speak. I have never seen or heard her lose her temper or be overtaken by emotions of any kind. It must be said however that I’ve never seen her in debate against someone who actually takes her apart as it would be eminently possible to do. That, of course, is anything but coincidence.
“Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear” – Mahatma Gandhi.
As many of us have already noticed it is not a comfortable experience when our emotionally charged, often, long held beliefs are challenged by adverse, contradictory information which we are unable to ignore. It takes the kind of courage not given to all to accept and analyse the cognitive dissonance that comes in such situations and to ask why it is happening and many people, including plenty that I know personally, simply refuse to believe anything that contradicts the, invariably “cozy” world which they have allowed to be constructed for themselves. Such people often become defensive and sometimes down right aggressive when pressed. This is because they can’t ignore the information, only smother it or block it from their conscious mind. The reason that some information is impossible to ignore is a very important phenomenon as basically this means that it is fundamental truth or at the very least the grain of truth that can lead us out of the pit of lies. If, for example, somebody tells you or I that the Earth is flat, we are not going to feel any surge of panic or cognitive dissonance of any kind for obvious reasons but try telling an American who comes from a staunch, traditionally Democrat family and has a deeply entrenched – indoctrinated belief that the Democrats are “the good guys”, the ones who care about other people and the poor at home and abroad and are anti-war etc, that, in fact, Obama and Clinton are among the most dangerous warmongers in history, responsible for illegal invasions and that they are just puppets of the military, industrial complex, Wall Street and “some people” called the Illuminati and sparks will certainly fly. There is an excellent video on-line called “Confronting Cognitive Dissonance – The Eyeopener”:
At 5.11 an American lady begins to describe her physical reaction when she understood that she was receiving very uncomfortable information about 9-11 which, much as she wanted to, she just could not ignore. Her reaction is courageous and very moving and anyone who dismisses her as a conspiracy theorist can only be mal-intentioned or seized by cognitive dissonance themselves. It is our intuition or as some like to say “our gut”; in truth, our connection to universal intelligence, that tells us whether such information is real or not. This is the same phenomenon as the moment of inspiration that artists and scientists have when a new scientific understanding or invention, poem, novel, song, symphony is born. First the moment of inspiration and insight; then starts the hard work of creation, building, experiment, investigation, trial and error and bringing forth. Every single human being is connected to universal intelligence, not just an elite few, but intuition, just like any other human faculty, becomes stronger the more we use it. The vital fact here is that we all know the truth when we here or see it whether we like it or not. Again, “Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear”.
We live in a time of massive change where the world seems to have been turned upside down at such lightning speed that many of us feel that we can’t keep up which is of course disturbing. I use words like “seems” and “feels” because this is an illusion. In fact this situation has been growing for a long time. Centuries in fact and some would say millennia. This particular moment in history started, was started (examine & discuss) at the beginning of the 1990s. I would liken it to a wave that as it comes in slowly to shore, grows and swells inexorably until it finally crashes leaving that which was on the top, on the bottom. That which seemed democratic and free, undemocratic and tyrannical, that which seemed to be built on solid foundations, built on quicksand, that which seemed good, evil and vice versa. Above all, there are no ideologies left although for those with the aforementioned long held emotional attachment to this or that ideology = products of Man’s ego, this is pretty hard to accept. What’s left on the shore as the wave recedes is simply right or wrong, good or evil, truth or falsehood. In fact a world of fundamental polar opposites. Many. Especially in the western world lulled by the media bubble of unreality are seemingly, on the surface, unaware of these massive shifts. My own awakening only came with the Ukrainian crisis as I have already documented in “NATO Through the Looking Glass”. I now live in a totally different world and it is much more frightening than the one I was living in up to three years ago but I’m getting used to it and in no way want to return to unconsciousness. I now question everything and am exercising my intuition and faith, in the true sense of the word, every day. What this reveals is infinitely more terrifying than the cozy “womb warmth” I used to live in but the payback is that things line up and actually make sense and I feel much healthier for it. The many layered onion skins that were enveloping my perception are falling away one after another and I’m very aware that this process is very far from over but the idea of crawling back into my former mind set is impossible for me. It would be akin to committing suicide. I’m also very aware that, thank God, I am very far from being the only one undergoing this process.
Of course, like so many others during these times, I’ve got used to being called a conspiracy theorist which is probably why I was moved to write this article. I am proud to be in the camp inhabited and moved by people such as the lady in the “Confronting Cognitive Dissonance” video who states that she felt physically sick when she understood that her government, which she had more or less trusted up until that moment might have been behind 9-11. Such people are searching for truth and discovering themselves. The other kind of conspiracy theorists are those who invent or propagate conspiracy theories for money and power and, or because they want to convince us that their particular prejudice is the one and only true prejudice whoever it be directed against. “It’s all the fault of the people I’ve learned to hate and you must agree with me.” Perennially popular targets remain: The blacks, the Jews, Monarchs, business people, immigrants and Russians to name but a few and these conspiracy theorists are of course the 100% polar opposite of the former. One looking for the truth and the other, deliberately trying to destroy it. The American Lady reluctantly facing up to her realization that the official government conspiracy theory about 9-11 doesn’t hold water and the fear of looking into what seems to be at first glance, the darkness of the abyss or: Anne Applebaum’s constantly and professionally reiterated conspiracy theories about Putin being a tyrannical dictator and mafiosi obsessed with world domination who has to be stopped by the “free, democratic” West before he, followed by his “brainwashed” millions in Russia will march in “good old” WWII style to enslave us all. I leave you to contemplate these two examples. These two absolute, polar opposites. The seeker for truth and the bald faced liar for gain!
I recently visited Will Harris' farm White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia. Harris is a pioneer of grass-fed products and what he calls "a kinder, gentler agriculture."
His farm is a great demonstration of how you can convert conventionally farmed land to a healthy, thriving farm based on regenerative methods. Conventional chemical agriculture typically involves the growing of a single crop, such as corn — a strategy that decimates the soil.
Harris recently purchased the land I visited, where he's in the process of implementing regenerative principles to rebuild the soil and make it productive again.
These 220 acres he recently purchased for his expansion are adjacent to his old farm, which has been in his family for 150 years. He expects to be able to bring the current organic matter in the soil from its current baseline of about 0.5 percent to about 5 percent over the next two decades.
"This land has been farmed in what I call the trifecta — cotton, corn and peanuts; cotton, corn and peanuts, over and over again. All three crops are really hard on land for different reasons," he says.
"This soil is, in my mind, completely dead. The biological life just doesn't exist here anymore, because of intense tillage and the tremendous amount of chemical fertilizers being used on it, as well as pesticides ...
What we've done is fenced the property. We put about 1,000 cows on the land. There's nothing for them to eat out here [right now] so we feed them hay and haylage during the period that we're asking them to transition this land for us. They will be out here for about a month."
Animals Are an Important Aspect of Regenerative Agriculture
Indeed, animals are an important aspect when it comes to achieving healthy soil in which to grow crops. By urinating and defecating on the land, the animals provide important nourishment for soil microbes.
Harris also spreads perennial grass seed on the bare land, which the cows will help trod into the ground. Besides adding manure, the hoof activity helps break down the hard cap on the land.
"We call this using animals or animal impact to bring about the desired result, which is ultimately to turn this into a pasture, and then later to turn it into a savannah, which we feel best utilizes the rain ration, the energy cycle, the water cycle, and the mineral cycle," Harris explains.
To get the animals to cover and "treat" the entire 220 acres, Harris entices the cows to move across the land by placing the hay at one end and the water at the other. This helps maximize the impact of their hooves on the land, and helps distribute the waste (manure and urine) more evenly across the property.
Now and then, they also move the feed in order to encourage the cows to take a different path. In short, the idea is to imitate nature as much as possible, which includes the migration of wild herds across the land.
"Nature abhors a monoculture. Nature won't allow it ...Nature wants a smorgasbord of many different microbes and plants and animals living in symbiotic relationships with each other," Harris says.
"The only way we can maintain a monoculture is through the use of the tools the reductionist science has given us — chemical fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones. The monoculture falls apart if you don't use those things ...
Industrial farming has horrible unintended consequences and it is absolutely in conflict with nature. What we do here is an effort to emulate nature. Our best emulation is not good and our worst emulation is horrible. But we get better and better at it."
Redefining Animal Welfare
As noted by Harris, no farmer sets out to destroy the land on purpose. Everyone believes they're doing the right thing; that they're growing the best crops they can and manage their livestock well.
But what does animal welfare really encompass? According to Harris, this term really needs to cover more than the most obvious bare essentials.
"[G]ood animal welfare used to mean you don't intentionally inflict pain and discomfort on the animal. You keep them fed. You keep them safe. You don't hurt them. All of us believed that was good animal welfare, and most people still believe that.
To us, now, that is no longer sufficient. For me and my family and my employees, good animal welfare means it is incumbent upon us as herdsmen to create an environment in which the animals can express instinctive behavior.
Cows were born to roam and graze. Chickens were born to scratch and peck. Hogs were born to root and wallow. Those are instinctive behaviors. If they're deprived of that aptitude, that is poor animal welfare.
If you have a cow on a feedlot, a hog in a gestation crate, a chicken in a battery cage, they're safe, they're reasonably comfortable, but they can't express instinctive behavior.
It's like putting your childin a closet and saying, 'This is great. I keep the temperature at 72 degrees. I leave the light on. He'll never break his leg playing football. He'll never be abducted. He'll never be run over by a bus ... That may seem like great child rearing — except it's not."
Factory-Farmed Versus Pasture-Raised Animals
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have also changed what people know and expect from a healthy animal. A cow fed on pasture, which is its natural diet, has a lifespan of about 24 years — all without added drugs or vitamins.
Feedlot animals, on the other hand, are typically slaughtered at the age of 17 months, at which point they may weigh in around 1,275 pounds instead of the typical 1,000 pounds of a mature cow.
As noted by Harris, that's really an unnatural and obscenely obese creature that would not only fail to survive in nature, it wouldn't even occur.
"If they were left beyond their 17 months in that feedlot environment where they're gaining 4 to 5 pounds a day, they wouldn't live very long. I've never done that experiment, but I'm sure they wouldn't live to be 4 years old. That's the difference," he says.
"When you eat one of these (grass-fed, pastured) animals, you're eating a healthy animal in the prime of their life. When you eat that feedlot animal, you're eating an obese creature that is dying of all the diseases of sedentary lifestyle and obesity that kill people."
The situation is even worse for pigs and chickens, as the smaller the animal, the more intensive the factory farming methods.
"A cow in a factory farm does not have a great life. A hog in a factory farm has a worse life. And I don't think there's a factory farm animal that has as bad a life as a chicken in a factory farm," Harris says.
In the video below, you'll find two segments showing how Harris raises his chickens and pigs — a far cry from the sad "prison cells" in which CAFO chickens and pigs spend their lives. Will has 14,000 birds that lay about 10,000 eggs a day, which makes it the largest pastured egg operation in the U.S. The damaged eggs are recycled and fed to the pastured hogs who relish the treat; plus it enhances their diet.
Total Video length: 14:21
Animals Can Rapidly Regenerate Land
Another part of the property (see video at top) has already undergone the animal impact phase and you can clearly see the difference between the two areas. Here the animals' hooves have broken up the hard soil cover, and feces and urine have been well-trodden into the soil.
Perennial grass seed (about 15 pounds per acre) was spread out, and after being trodden into the ground by the animals for a few short weeks, the animals were removed to allow the grass to grow and mature. These perennial grasses are what will turn this area into a productive pasture and later savannah, as it grows taproots that are nearly 8 feet long — much deeper than annuals.
These mixed grasses will help nourish the soil microbiome, which need the plant interaction. Shallow-rooted annuals are also mixed in to increase diversity, but it's really the perennials that are the long-term solution. As the annuals become more invasive, Harris will move the cows into the area to "flash graze" on the annuals so they don't choke out the perennials.
They'll do that a number of times each year until the perennials have grown deep roots and taken firm hold. At that point, the perennial grasses will outcompete the annuals naturally. It's really magnificent to see this whole process in transition, and how they're transforming the landscape.
You have to understand how the cycles work in order to manage the process properly, but once you do, you can rebuild soil quality at a very efficient rate by using regenerative agriculture principles. He is literally creating healthy topsoil hundreds if not thousands of times quicker than it would occur in nature.
Percentage of organic matter in the soil is a good indicator of quality, and Harris has been able to increase organic matter in other areas from less than 0.5 percent to as much as 5 percent in a 20-year period. The cycles are complex however, and there are cycles within cycles that work in a symbiotic fashion. For example, there's the:
Energy cycle: with the sun, where photosynthesis is used to produce grass that feeds the cows. When sunlight hits bare earth, it's of no use.
Carbon cycle: the grass covering can be likened to photosynthesizing tissue that breathes in carbon dioxide, sequestering it in the ground and breathes out oxygen, which is critical for animal and human life. By sequestering it in the soil, where it's needed, the plants help remove excess carbon dioxide from the air where it does harm.
Water cycle: when the soil is hard and degraded, any rain that falls simply runs off and takes topsoil with it. When the soil quality is good, with high amounts of organic matter, it soaks up the water like a sponge. That not only helps retain water, but also the topsoil.
Embed this infographic on your website:
<img src="http://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/grasslands-facts.jpg" alt="Grassland Facts" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;"> <p style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin:0 auto; text-align:center;">Check out the infographic "<a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/grasslands-facts.htm">Why Grasslands Are Important</a>" and find out why grasslands are an important ecosystem that is essential to your health and the environment. Share it on your website using this embed code.</p> <pre style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin: 20px auto 0 auto; padding:10px; border:solid 1px #999999; background: #ffffff; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap:break-word;"><code><img src="http://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/grasslands-facts.jpg" alt="Grassland Facts" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;"><p style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin:0 auto; text-align:center;">Check out the infographic "<a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/grasslands-facts.htm">Why Grasslands Are Important</a>"and find out why grasslands are an important ecosystem that is essential to your health and the environment. Share it on your website using this embed code.</p></code></pre>
Click on the code area and press CTRL + C (for Windows) / CMD + C (for Macintosh) to copy the code."
Economic Challenges of Regenerative Agriculture
Economic challenges are often what prevent farmers from taking the course Harris has taken. It requires an investment of time, effort, energy and resources to regenerate an environment, and for a time it may be difficult to sustain a profit. Part of the solution is to incorporate animals on the land. According to Harris, having healthy, grazing animalsis profitable. But it takes a while to get here. You don't get here in a year or two.
"Unfortunately, here in my part of the world, and I think it's probably true throughout the world, industrial agricultural practices have degraded the land dramatically," he says. "The land beneath this grass is an organic medium that's teeming with life.
It's just full of living things; some of which you can see; some of which you cannot see. But it's teeming with life. If you go right across that forest to another field and got a handful of that soil, it is a dead mineral medium. It's like a handful of tiny glass beads and nothing is living there ... The transition from that to this is very expensive, very slow. It requires knowing what you're doing."
That said, farmers like Harris not only demonstrate that it's possible, but that it's possible to farm using regenerative methods on a large scale. You don't have to follow a monocrop system just because you're dealing with large land areas. He also demonstrates the ultimate payoff, not all of which can be calculated in mere dollars and cents.
How does one put a dollar value on healthy, happy animals, a thriving environment and the subsequent increase in food quality produced from both? As noted by Harris:
"I'm a land steward and livestock man. I focus on the health and well-being of the land and animals. The good food that comes from that is almost like a byproduct, but it's the byproduct we need because consumers buy it and provide the money that allows us to continue to operate and expand in this way."
Many Objections to Meat Consumption Are Quelled by Pasture Farming
Harris' practice also addresses some of the primary objections many have to eating meat: that animals are raised inhumanely and that they're loaded with chemicals, hormones, antibiotics and pesticides, which you then ingest when you eat the meat. It's important to realize that those objections really only apply to CAFO animals.
Livestock raised within a regenerative agriculture setting are raised as nature intended, live a "full" life in which they're allowed to express their instinctive behavior, and will actually contribute to your health in profoundly important ways when you eat them. I believe we were designed to eat some form of animal protein. I recommend avoiding CAFO meats, eggs and dairy for the same reasons listed above, but pasture-raised animal protein is, I believe, an important part of a healthy diet.
That said, I also believe you don't need very much meat. Most Americans eat several times more meat than required for health, and most eat poor-quality CAFO meats. I believe the average person needs 40 to 60 grams of protein a day. That's a 4-ounce steak at most. And if you eat less meat and other animal products, the cost differences between CAFO and pasture-raised disappear.
"The third thing I think causes people to refrain from eating meat is the concern over animal impact to the environment," Harris says. "I agree if you're talking about the confinement animal factory farm model. But I would suggest to you that animal impact is essential for turning this dead land back into productive farming."
Grazing Is the Most Sensible Way to Manage Productive Land
To give another example of the important role animals serve within the regenerative model, take goats for example. One of the primary purposes of keeping goats is to strategically manage vegetation in lieu of toxic herbicides, as they gnaw weeds down to an extremely low level. There are even companies from which you can rent a herd of goats and sheep to clear a large lot of land of vegetation, or to keep vegetation under control.
"The plant species that goats and sheep prefer are different from the ones cattle prefer. We have virtually no weeds in our part of the world — maybe one — that even goats, sheep or cows won't eat. Using the three in combination allows us to avoid using herbicides and pesticides on the pastures," Harris says.
"In my part of the world, land will go back to forest unless you do one of five things: spray it with pesticide (which has many problems), till it (which leaves it open for erosion and requires fossil fuel), burn it (which puts organic matter open to the atmosphere), mow it (which requires fossil fuel and has other problems with organic matter) or grazing.
Of those five possibilities, the one that makes the most sense is grazing. It's the most environmentally regenerative of the five as well.
I'm 61 years old. My generation never learned how to use animal impact to shape land. My father's generation was exposed to it, but they fell so deeply in love with internal combustion engines and the tools reductionist science gave us, like chemical fertilizers and pesticides, they forgot about animal impact.
Now that we, my generation, are learning of the unintended consequences of industrial farming, we have to relearn how to use animal impact."
