Did you know that if you have even a small subsistence farm to grow and or raise food for your family it all could be confiscated. Did you know the government is currently trying to identify and register all food producers to support this goal? Whether you are aware or not, at any time the president deems necessary, the US can now confiscate key resources in the name of national security. In particular, the food you worked hard to grow or raise could be seized. Naturally, it makes no sense to spend your time and money developing a farming capability to insulate your family from hard times only to have it seized. By following a few basic rules, you can help to protect your food supply and ensure those that helped cause the collapse and refused to prepare aren’t fed on your watch.
President Obama also nationalized our nation’s food supply through executive order. (See: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness) This executive order effectively orders the heads of various agencies to include the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to identify critical resources under their purview and develop policies on how to ensure their production and procurement during national emergencies. As with most government regulation, this order on the surface doesn’t sound too draconian. However, the devil is in the details regarding its implementation. In order for the USDA to “secure” the US food supply, it becomes necessary to identify everyone involved in food production. Once identified, then upon order, the USDA can send nationalized goon squads to confiscate any and all “critical resources” deemed necessary for national security. National security may very soon include declaring “preppers” “extremists and depriving them of their stores of food. In this particular case, it could involve your entire crop.
Doubt this affects you? Consider this, if you live in North Carolina, you must register with the state if you have even one chicken. (See: https://growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu/2015/07/all-poultry-owners-large-and-small-must-register-for-farm-id-number/) This is ostensibly being done to rapidly inform, monitor, and protect the state’s poultry farmers from avian flu strains. However, as soon as anyone in government starts talking about “protecting” anything, one should suspect subterfuge. In this case, the government suddenly feels that you must be forced to “register” even if you have one chicken. By the government’s own admission, small isolated flocks have almost no risk to catching or passing the current avian flu strains due to their lack of ability to intermingle with wild waterfowl and then spread the virus to other birds. (See: http://www.ncagr.gov/avianflu/) As such, one must consider alternative reasons the government feels that it is necessary to pry so deeply into private citizens’ lives. I would entertain the government’s arguments if they were focused solely on large commercial poultry farms, but they are not. This North Carolina regulation targets even an owner of a single bird as a pet and as such, is far too broad to be considered justifiable. However, when considering the quiet push behind the scenes by the USDA to identify all food producers, it makes much more sense.
You may be thinking that North Carolina is an isolated incident or that this is only applicable to poultry, but it is not. Let’s look at Wisconsin, which now “mandates” livestock premises registration. (See: http://datcp.wi.gov/Animals/Premises_Registration/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1) Again, as in North Carolina, if the regulation was solely focused on large scale livestock operations, it could be justifiable for the monitoring and tracking of disease. However, just like in North Carolina, this applies to even the smallest of hobby farms and in fact applies to anyone that has even one animal. It is also completely unnecessary. Just like the family that has a few chickens as pets in North Carolina, the family in Wisconsin with a pot belly big or rabbits do not pose any demonstrated increased risk to the livestock of the state. As such, once again, the trend supports a motive more indicative of complete registration and tracking of “all” food resources vice monitoring and mitigation of livestock diseases. Wisconsin isn’t alone. Both Michigan and Indiana also mandate registration of “any” livestock of any number being kept anywhere. Digging a bit deeper, the state link to the USDA policy of registration, monitoring, and tracking of all livestock (under the guise of tracking infectious disease) becomes very clear. In fact, the Council of State Goverments blatantly tells us the states are in fact tracking all farms and livestock at the behest of the USDA. (See: http://www.csgmidwest.org/policyresearch/0213livestocktracing.aspx)
Again, I recognize that skeptics will assert these are nothing more than well intentioned regulations being taken out of context and that they would need to see more specific evidence. To rebut their arguments, I could write volumes about the numerous new government regulations relating to heirloom seeds, animal and plant propagation, food storage, small gardens, raw foods, off-grid living, and water rights. When these regulations are considered in their entirety they form a powerful body of evidence that supports my assertion the government is building a broad database to use in the event it decides to confiscate food. However, the willfully ignorant and blind supporters of government tyranny are not of my concern. No amount of “evidence” will overcome their cognitive dissonance. My concern is to warn and inform those of you amongst us that have proven immune to brain washing and still have free thinking independent minds. Therefore, the fact remains that there is a growing trend at both the federal and state level of forcing everyone with live stock, orchards, gardens, etc. to register with the government. Once this database is complete, the government will no doubt use it to extract taxes and fees, conduct inspections and raids, and ultimately, should the need arise, confiscate your food. To prevent mitigate possible confiscation attempts from both government agents and looters; one should consider employing my four rules of food security.
My first rule comes from the movie “Fight Club.” Don’t talk about your food production and storage. Although it may be obvious to neighbors you garden or raise a small amount of livestock such as hogs and poultry for personal consumption, the broader public doesn’t need to know. Continuing with that point, how much food you put up for long term storage and where it is stored should never be an open topic of discussion. Let them think you have nothing in food stores even if that means using disinformation.
My second rule is to disperse your food stockpiles using food caches. If you have stored adequate amounts of food for your family properly, even a complete confiscation of your current harvest shouldn’t push you to food lines and soup kitchens. Just like with firearms, don’t store your food all in one place. Food preserved properly can be cached in the ground just like most anything else and store literally for years. In fact, well camouflaged in-ground storage areas similar to mini-root cellars are excellent places to store food. Just make sure you don’t mix foods like apples and potatoes, which will cause the other to go bad quickly in your food cache. The simplest of these food caches can be constructed by digging a hole below the frost line big enough to store what you want. Then load your cache, cover it with a board, add a layer of insulation, and cover it with a layer of dirt (dirt alone can be used to cover and insulate). To finish it, camouflage the cache site any remove traces of a trail to it. I favor using a technique where you cache a mixed bundle of food stuffs capable of supporting the basic nutritional needs of your family for a month. This method allows a cache to remain undisturbed until you actually are going to use it and includes all of your food staples. It also justifies the investment of energy making the site.
My third rule requires developing the skills to identify and use wild and edible plants. As I have written many times (see: http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/?s=survival+gardening), about any government bureaucrat with an accompanying goon squad or looter can identify a cellar of potatoes and a field of corn. However, very few will ever be able to recognize wild spinach, pokeweed, dandelions, chicory, huckleberries, and common milk weed as “food.” In fact, most will walk right past these tasty, super-nutritious wild plants assuming them to be weeds in a fallow field you didn’t plant this year. Further, even if they recognize them as potentially being cultivated, they wouldn’t have enough sense or knowledge to know when to pick them, what parts to pick, and how to prepare them without potentially poisoning themselves. Like the bureaucrats and looters though, if you don’t study this knowledge on your own, you will not be capable of employing this critical food security technique. I find that the best way to employ this technique is in a deliberate fashion. Leave small plots of your garden or fields to appear “fallow,” but in reality, plant these plots with a natural mix of wild edibles. This requires you to collect the seeds from various edible plants the season before and store them in a cool, dark, dry location. In the spring, till up the soil in that plot, mix the wild seeds, and broadcast them throughout the fresh soil. Then lightly cover the seeds and allow nature to do its work. The plot will grow up appearing as if it is a natural mix of weeds typical of any fallow field or recently disturbed ground, but in reality will be a dense mix of mutually supporting edible plants that require little to no further gardening. In fact, the yield may far exceed the yields of your cultivated plant species, will naturally choke out undesirable weeds, and require no additional work aside from harvesting. I apply the same basic concept to my fruit and nut trees. Naturally, having an orchard setting is smart, but also intentionally plant Black Walnut, Butternut, various hickory, apple, pear, plum, and pawpaw trees throughout your property and forest. These trees will also blend in to the natural flora and an untrained eye will never be able to pick them out as fruit and nut bearing trees outside of an orchard setting. Respective of livestock, one faces more difficult challenges keeping their existence hidden. One technique to leverage is to raise free range animals, which are difficult to completely account for and round up. In the event of an inspection, theft, or confiscation, it is unlikely that without the owners help, the offender will be able to locate and completely coral and capture all of the free range livestock. For animals such as ducks and chickens, this can be accomplished pretty easily; especially, if non-traditional coups are used and they are dispersed throughout the property. However, with grazing livestock and hogs, a fence must be used to limit their range. Still though, with enough property, one can let their animals roam as they graze and forage like the old cattle ranchers of the West. Ultimately, if confiscations were to begin, one could simply release their livestock to become feral and be hunted rather than allowing their livestock to be stolen or seized.
My fourth rule is to register absolutely nothing unless you absolutely have to. Whether or not you choose to comply with government regulations is a matter you must individually assess and decide upon. If registering your farm, livestock, or garden isn’t mandatory, this is a no brainer…don’t. However, when it becomes “mandatory,” one must consider the pros and cons. For example, maybe it is best if you just register “some” of your livestock to give legitimacy to your farming operation, but not draw unnecessary attention from authorities. Maybe you simply want no trouble and are willing to risk confiscation so you comply 100%. Maybe the risks are not the issue and you decide that your moral and ethical code to resist encroaching tyranny at all opportunities is more important so you register nothing. I cannot make this decision for you, but you must make it. Either way, my first three rules are designed to work equally well whether or not you decide to comply when the time comes.
In summary, the USDA working in conjunction with the military and the Department of Homeland Security have set in motion plans to identify and track all critical resources in this country to include food. The impact of this could mean that in a time of crisis, if the government deems it necessary, it will confiscate your food. To ensure your food security, I have provided you four basic rules to follow that will help you cache your food, diversify your crops, and provide for better overall food security in the face of looting or confiscation.
By Guiles Hendrik
October 13, 2015
