Chan En at the Green Cow Farm in 2013, when I visited.
China is in the midst of a campaign to rid itself of small farms, in favor of supposedly more productive and safer large farms.
One victim of the current campaign is a small dairy farm outside Beijing, Green Cow Farm, which was started about a dozen years ago by an idealistic young couple intent on establishing a source of safe and nutritious food for themselves and their community. I was fortunate to visit the farm back in 2013, on a trip to China, and one of the owners, Chan En, gave my wife and me a fascinating day-long tour of the farm, the farm’s nearby restaurant, and several other businesses he ran.
All seemed to be going well, until recent months, when local government officials informed Chan En and his wife, Lejen Chen, that small farms with livestock were forbidden in the Beijing area. Green houses growing vegetables were okay. They had days to get rid of their cows, chickens, and pigs. There were no elected legislators to appeal to for intervention or protest demonstrations to be organized or courts to file requests for injunctions.
The couple’s plight was described in a recent New York Times article, which devoted much space to the efforts of American food rights advocate Abby Rockefeller to get four rare pigs sent to her dairy farm in upstate New York.
Here is how the Times described what is happening to the Green Cow Farm, and others in the vicinity:
“China is on a campaign to shut down small farms in favor of building large-scale commercial operations like the kind in the United States. Officials say the move will improve food safety and the environment. Last year, the Beijing government said it had shut down 370 farms in its suburbs, reducing major pollutants.
“An official from the Lixian Town Agricultural Service Center, which governs the village where Green Cow Farm is situated, said that in April the local authorities started making farms comply with a policy that farms with greenhouses can be used only for growing vegetables and cannot contain livestock. The official, who declined to give his name, denied that the authorities had given the farm only a few days to get rid of all of its animals.
“Supporters of Green Cow Farm say the new policy is hogwash. The real environmental enemies, they say, are large companies that confine hundreds or thousands of pigs, chickens and cattle, increasing the risk of water pollution and outbreaks of infectious diseases. They say the government should instead protect small family farms that grow heritage breeds.”
Of course, the U.S. is way ahead of China in pushing for consolidation of small farms into ever-larger operations. We know how large corporations use their economic and political power to gain the leverage necessary to make small farms economically unviable.
Yet we also know that small farms which figure out ways around the commodity economy can and do succeed economically. Often, that involves selling directly to consumers ever more eager to obtain safe nutrient-dense food. It’s an economic opportunity not necessarily available to Chinese farms.
Yes, American small farms may need to fight periodically against regulators who favor the forces of consolidation. But those that are adept at organizing community resistance and using the media and courts on their behalf can and do survive and prosper.
Yet it’s politically popular here to make light of voting and to ridicule the courts and media and legislators as corrupt and irrelevant. I always wonder who the bashers have in mind to make the big decisions about such matters as which farms stay and which go if we don’t have a system of institutional checks and balances. People like the apparatchiks in China?
I think if we’ve learned anything over the last couple of years it is that voting can make a huge difference in our political leadership, imperfect as it always is going to be. So take this as my personal exhortation to get out and vote Nov. 6.
Good Article David, Funny how those extremely large farms did not fare well in the Soviet Bloc, they’re not faring so well here either and certainly are not “good” players in the agricultural arena. CAFOs, as most of us know are just concentration camps for meat animals, that are also sources of huge pollution.I am very appreciative of the fact that we have avenues to utilize if and when a regulator over steps their bounds, it has happened to us a couple times in the past twenty years or so and was able to rectify the situation. Keep up the good work, I don’t post much anymore, but I DO rread your blog. John Dutcher
The American government was established to protect the rights of the people, those rights being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are unalienable rights, right that cannot be sold or transferred. However, what we have is far from that government. Rights granted by the state are transferrable. State rights are mere privileges that can be taken away, as we see year after year as State governments remove those rights through language (i.e., calling a farm an operation in MN), and overnight, farmers lose their rights. How is this different from China? What we are seeing take place is a transition to a One World Government, a merging of doctrine under a UN agenda. That is where we are headed. And unless we see it, we will make excuses that other countries or continents have it worse than we do. We no longer have a government that works for us when it comes to protecting inherent rights. That died long ago. The only freedom we have is the freedom we defend.
The idea of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” was put forth in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The U.S. Constitution, which wasn’t adopted until 11 years later, after the Revolutionary War, is a guide to how the states and federal government will operate. The preamble to the U.S. Constitution has much more about working together, and much less about rights than we often assume. The preamble states: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The main rights listed are the first 10 amendments, the so-called Bill of Rights. Rights that are explicitly spelled out there are taken very seriously, like the Second Amendment about firearms. Those not mentioned, like food rights, are taken much less seriously, and we’ve had to fight hard for any recognition of them. Given all the difficulties countries of the world have cooperating on even pressing issues like refugees and climate change, I’d say One World Government is a long ways off.
David,
This pursuit of a One World Government or New World Order if you will, has experienced a number of setbacks in the last several years with the growing appeal for Nationalism in many countries such as England, Poland and the US etc… Then again, we dare not underestimate the chicanery of the establishment elites. As Democratic Congressman Larry McDonald correctly stated, “The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining super capitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control…. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.”
One could argue that Donald Trump’s nationalist objective has certainly awakened the American people and appears to have thrown a wrench into the gears of a one-world government plan. Like it or not, Trump and his “Make America Great” plan has nurtured a scenario that would not have transpired under a government (Democrat or Republican) controlled by “The Establishment”. Indeed, an establishment that is preoccupied with instilling a menacing and overbearing one-world government.
Sorry, Ken, the whole notion of One World Government is one of those crazy fear-mongering scenarios that doesn’t have a chance in hell of going anywhere. You say “such a plot” is “generations old in planning.” You can’t be serious. Until 1945, the civilized world fought huge wars, some of them global in scope, practically every generation, over the course of many centuries. How could countries regularly fighting with each other ever hope to join together in common governance?
The only reason the concept can even be discussed with sort of a straight face today is that we haven’t had a world war since 1945, when WWII ended. That war was so awful in its destructiveness that the memories have inhibited another world war (the presence of nuclear weapons have also discouraged mankind’s tendencies to fight first and ask questions later.) Indeed, it was so awful that the two countries that started WWII (Germany and Japan) committed to pacifism and disarmament.
Alas, the rise of nationalism is threatening world peace, not One World Government. We have the cruel irony of an American president threatening Germany and Japan with tariffs and other penalties for failing to buy armaments, when they committed to disarmament at the behest of the U.S. (and committed as well to rebuilding their economies, which they did extremely successfully).
The fact that One World Government can even be discussed tongue in cheek is quite encouraging. But at the end of the day, human nature tends toward greed and suspicion and aggression and ignorance so that we are much more likely to veer toward war than One World Government in the near future, sad to say.
David, there are two definitions given for “nationalism”… one being “an extreme form of patriotic feelings, principles or efforts especially marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries, the other being, “advocacy for political independence of a particular country.” I was referring to the later CERTAINLY NOT, this notion of superiority! I should have been more explicit in my comment to you and used rather the words “patriotism and independence”. Donald Trumps slogan “Make America Great Again” is about independence freedom and prosperity. I would hope and I hardly think that the majority of the American people, including Donald Trump, consider themselves or their country superior.
With respect to Congressman Larry McDonald’s statement that the push for a One World Government is “international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent ” That I agree with.
I really do not think China would ever agree to a one world government unless China was the government in charge!!
But I certainly do agree that our government does NOT work for the people, but work for banks,insurance companies,etc.
Our greatest losses are silently occurring right now with the appointments of federal appeals courts judges through a process which by passes any sort of by partisan review.
We are going to awaken with a country unlike anything ever envisioned before. A country with out checks and balances run by the rich and for the rich with the poor, the next generations and the environment ? paying the costs.
A country that plays cover for Monsanto as our earth biome dies and our gut biome is converted to a wasteland and colostomies become the norm.
Not sure where to put this so I’ll leave it here:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/nafta-deals-leave-us-dairy-farmers/story?id=58745503
” Minnesota farmer Paul Fritsche can no longer afford health insurance as he struggles to sustain a dairy farm that has been in his family for nearly a century. With U.S. milk prices in the fourth year of a slump due to chronic oversupply, Fritsche, 58, is unsure whether he will be able to pass his 30-cow farm onto his sons and grandsons.
“Do you pull the plug? We’ve been at it for 90 years,” he said. “I’d hate to lose that.”
“We need to be aware…we need to take a stand” against this calculating and cunning medical tyranny aided and abetted by the mainstream media!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As the presenter of the video stated “it was time to take a stand 20 years ago”.
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE REVEALING VIDEO PRESENTATION INCLUDED IN THE ARTICLE.
“For the past 15 years or more, David Stephan has been actively involved in the field of natural medicine through the organization of “Truehope”. This company largely focuses on nutritional supplements aimed at helping mental health. As part of his involvement with Truehope, David has found himself at the forefront of many activist movements that have prevented Health Canada and the Pharmaceutical Industry from stripping Canadians rights to effective and scientifically validated natural treatments which fall outside of the mainstream allopathic drug model.”
“One has to wonder if there is collusion going on between the media and the government agenda to make sure parents are in medical compliance and are vaccinated? Unbelievably the parents were found guilty and now face up to 30 years in prison. This is quite likely the most ground-breaking case in the history of Canada for establishing medical tyranny.”
http://www.thelibertybeacon.com/has-medical-tyranny-arrived-in-canada-video/?fbclid=IwAR2qBIQc71PCLLrIgPJy5BoPOH6kmSgMFblF7I6SZFiyvQxwaNjta0jZ0NU
“Further to the previous update, regarding the milk marketing board (Dairy Farmers of Ontario)’s motion to join the constitutional case as a full intervenor against us, an adjudicator has denied their motion. The ruling found that it would be inappropriate for this organization to participate as an adversary, given that it may in future be responsible for overseeing the legal sale and distribution of raw milk in Ontario. The ruling is good news for us, as the participation of the marketing board would greatly increase the volume of evidence introduced, i.e, the length and cost of the proceedings. We are grateful to our legal team for representing our interests so diligently, and successfully”
https://www.gofundme.com/legal-raw-milk-canada?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-154074720165-38cbcb2bd2074cc2&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cta_button&utm_campaign=upd_n
Mr Conrad : thanks for the update re the Constitutional Challenge to the raw milk law(s) in Ontario. when I tried to post a comment on their page, it requires me to have a FaceBook account. I don’t do FaceBook. so I wonder if you’d be good enough to publish on this-here forum a few details about the lawsuit / Petition?. Court Registry in which it’s originated ; the court file docket number ; precise Style of cause ??
… perhaps a URL link to a website on which the Claim and govt. Response are available? In the ad biz, we say = “the more you tell the more you sell”. Potential donors would like to know what we’re getting for our $$
thank you
Gordon, I’ve submitted a request for that information…
A member of parliament has requested safety data and also raw milk benefit studies from RAWMI.
Are these signs of hope for Canadian raw milk producers and consumers.
I would beg the Canadians especially the DFO to rethink their view on raw milk.
The DFO should think of Raw Milk as a brand new opportunity for their producers in a legal Cottage Niche Industry with quota.
It could be a brilliant way of offsettting losses given up under the USMCA bad trade deal lost under Trump Trade.
When the DFO wakes up and realizes two things:
1. Raw is very safe when done properly …and it was a BC Canada Pubmed peer reviewed study that showed this to be true!!
2. Some consumers simply can not eat processed milk…the only way to fully serve Canadian consumers is to offer raw dairy products.
Come on DFO, lead a little. Raw milk is not a threat, it is a huge market opportunity!