" I will admit farmer's gal tends to write novels in her posts. She ner attacks anyone and has a smart point of view on things. "

" Aubres, look at it this way - you are getting much greater value this way, especially considering what our money is worth these days. Two cents won't even buy a penny candy these days. Consider yourself lucky. "

" Note to www.auburnpub.com readers:

Due to technical difficulties with our Internet connection, we are not able to post today's major site update at www.auburnpub.com on schedule. We are working as fast as possible to correct the problem and apologize for the inconvenience.
"

" "Two Cents" is the launch pad -- the ideas sent by mail, e-mail or phone to The Citizen and posted at the top as topics for conversation. Our reader comments below can be as long or short as we want them to be; sometimes we get real discussions going on here. Welcome. "

" Once Again...It's called My Two Cents..not my twenty four dollars. Holy Cow Farmers Gal! "

" FG, thanks for the Steingraber info. I just added to my Amazon wishlist for my next order. Looks like an extremely important book. It's nice to know she's a local, and the book has gotten great feedback from readers.

It sounds like some areas at least, in PA, know what is best for them and are doing the right things. As you note though they are up against some serious money and power so it remains to be seen how their efforts turn out, but if they succeed it would be a great example for others to follow.

Do you know of any stores in the area where you can buy meats and veggies which are produced "sensibly"? I'd love to support those efforts and be assured I'm not buying garbage, even though it might cost a bit more.

"

" Farmer's Gal,

Again with the Constitution. . .

I like you more and more.


My main problem with the election is trying to determine which is least scary, Obama or McCain.

I would rather see Obama vs. Paul, but I am not sure that is going to happen, since most people get their political "education" from the major news media.
"

" BTW, for those interested in pollutants in the environment, whether for water, breathing, or in our food supply, there's a community in PA which recently passed local ordinances protecting residents from "chemical bodily trespass." It's a bold move and sure to be challenged, but I will be watching their case closely and cheering for them. Check out: Mahanoy Township, PA, Bans Corporate Sludge Dumping, Chemical Trespass: http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=507
"

" AJ -- Bees and bats both, each with critical roles to play in our food supply.

Have you read "Living Downstream" by Sandra Steingraber? It's a very tough read, partly because it is so packed with facts/data and partly because it is such a downer, but it's an important book.

(I read the whole Wolf book and have already passed it to a colleague to read today, and recommended it to friend living in another state).

Farmer Guy sells hay, straw and wheat only. (Wheat he sells only to the mill). Most of his farm could be certified organic, but he decided not to jump the official hoops because there is no price difference for those products if they are organic or not.

But he gets his meat mostly from friends who grow it in humane and what I call "sensible" conditions -- not certified organic, but not injected with steroids or constantly dosed with antibiotics. Some he buys, as when he gets a whole beef, other stuff people just share with each other, but he seldom has "store boughten" meat.

(We do have friends who just started a large organic farm, and Farmer Guy helped them with plowing and fitting this past year -- we'll see what kind of produce they do this coming season).

There's a whole old-time culture among real farmers (I am totally discounting corporate agribusiness), where people just help each other. Farmer Guy tells stories about how his dad told him he could remember who was the first farmer in the area to actually charge another farmer for use of his equipment and what a change that was -- before that, they just shared each other's labor and tools as needed. Now there's one guy locally who makes his living doing "custom" work for other farmers. Times have changed, and not necessarily for the better.

It's similar for food -- if one person is growing green beans, he shares the extras with other farmer friends, while another shares squash. They all know whose sweet corn is ripe when and they follow after the pickers to take up the less-than-perfect ears which are left behind.

So, we eat lots of excellent, fresh, healthy food, (and pickled and canned stuff too) and much of it we get for free or barter from friends, while the Farmer Guy shares it with his buddies at the Utopia Club -- about once a week or two he cooks up a meal and takes it out to serve -- for free -- and gets disgusted when someone comes in there charging for food.

Someone once thanked him for "putting food on the table" - he takes that very literally, and loves to share food with friends -- lots of them!

As a city girl from Detroit, this is a whole new culture for me, and I think I am catching a last glimpse of it. When Farmer Guy's generation is gone, so will that culture of free cooperation and sharing disappear completely. "

" FG - OJT = On the job training.


"

" FG, I'm glad you read at least enough of Naomi's book to recommend it - it is a must read for all IMO. When you get a chance, watch "Orwell Rolls in His Grave".
You can find it on Google I believe.

On the subject of food, it's too bad you're not selling organic meat and stuff - I'd be buying! I get so disgusted when I think of what has been done to our food supply I almost gag.

The lack of respect for our environment and health by industry is apalling. Where is Rachel Carson when you need her anyhow, and what happened to the bees??? "

" Leon and quiveringthigh -- my grandmother had a toy poodle whom my uncle had teased mercilessly as a pup. My grandmother spoiled it and refused to believe what a horrible, nasty animal it was, even when it chewed the bejeezus out of my little brother's leg. Breed means nothing -- it's the animal's temperament and how it was raised.

justaround -- Your salmon is sadly full of mercury, just as your beef is full of steroids. I feel blessed to have access to meat grown locally under healthy conditions via the Farmer Guy, but for most people, organic is just plain too costly. (And there are people out here who work hard to eat healthy who can't stand seafood of any kind -- yuck! -- personal prejudice).

Venison is good -- hardly any fat and not fed steroids or anything like that. Neither the Farmer Guy nor I are hunters, but he lets people hunt on his land in exchange for giving us some of the meat (and helping hay it).

Farmer Guy looked into organic, and didn't go that route (he no longer has his own cows, but did most of his life). The organic rules say you can't give a cow meds if she's sick. This is to counter the practice in factory farms where they give all the animals antibiotics all the time rather than keep them in clean, healthy conditions. But it's not really any more humane or sensible. Sensible farming says you give you clean the barn twice daily, take care of your animals, but when they get sick, get mastitis or something, you give them meds and toss their milk until they are well again. Sensible farming makes for healthy milk and meat without all the sometimes absurd hoop-jumping of organic, and it need not go to market with the outrageously high price tag that is needed to pay for raising organic meat.

cm -- I look for the tag, knowing that the handicap can be less obvious in some. Like some others here, I have my physical problems (the 14 pieces of metal in my left leg, for example), but I push it as much as I can -- use it or lose it, and when you start losing it, you just keep at it as much as you can until forced to give something up (like I had to give up running, which breaks my heart).

Right, vic, people don't walk, right justaround, people have terrible eating habits and are constantly bombarded by every form of marketing encouraging them to eat garbage, including the American propensity to "supersize" portions, right, Missy our food (and our environment) is full of bad chemicals and we are marketed all kinds of rubbish which promises an easy way to a gorgeous figure without work or discipline -- and we have a lot of obese people in this country as a result of all of the above. It's easy to judge the slobs (and a lot of them are), but I try to make myself remember that there are lots of good, decent people among the obese who are just trapped in bodies that don't work right -- there but for the grace of whomever....

Maybe the already-embalmed guy will keel before we get to the election. He's scary -- another hundred years in Iraq? Never-ending war is another way to subvert the Constitution and the checks and balances (read Naomi Wolf's "End of America"). I don't like ANY of the candidates any more, but some are scarier than others.

OJT? New one on me -- what's it mean? "

" Back in the 50s there wasn't a McDonalds, Burger King, etc etc on every main drag and in every mall. Yes some people are overweight because of genetics, thyroid or other medical issues and one can have sympathy for those. For the rest....Honestly, you are what you eat. If they don't have the willpower to not stuff a Milky Way bar or two in their mouth instead of an apple and a bottle of water, they have no one to blame but themselves. If you want a steak then eat it but a nice filet of salmon does more for your mind and body than that steak will. "

" Many more people are fat now because few people walk places. You go to NYC where most people have to walk places and you see few fat people. "

" Pitbulls ARE NOT Bred to maim people. When is the public going to get it thru their heads? Maybe they are bred to be bred and live in unfit quarters until they are sold. I have a Pit. She is a Champion, and has passed her temperment testing. She has produced 3 litters where a good amount were shown and have not hurt anybody. People need to do a little research before they see a news clip from a dog fighting. The only thing I worry about is her licking people. Let's use that thing that rattles around in our skulls. Don't rely on the "media" to do thinking for us. "

" very true LEON, the sweetest of dogs cannot be trusted!
I had a male mini-dachshund that would chew you to pieces if you dare go near his woman while she in heat! Or try to take a snake he just killed!
yet tell him to sit, roll over, give kisses, he obeyed and was loving as could be!
Any animal can turn vicious depending on the situation. "

" I have a handicap tag--sometimes I use it and sometimes I don't --it depends of my level of pain that day.
To look at me, since I am not over weight--you wouldn't think so--but I have had 3 knee surgeries, angioplasty, and sciatica kicks in when it feels like it.
So just because someone doesn't appear handicap--as in not having a wheel chair--don't condemn them, you don't know their personal history!

"

" In 2000 I was severely injured in a house fire. Today I have a below functioning left hand, and drop foot in both feet as well as a few other issues. I've never had a handicap parking tag and I think 50% of the people that do....shouldn't. "

" I will take the guy who's ready to be embalmed with his experience and knowledge. Besides he's proven to bring both sides together. The breath of fresh air will become stale fast and an OJT President is not what the U.S. needs right now. "

" Right, billions of dollars spent on diets that don't work. Billions spent on exercise programs that don't work.
Many people are fat because of the sugar, corn syrup, and hormones that are added to the foods we eat. In the 50's there were not a lot of Fat people because you could trust the food that you were eating. That said , unless they have a sticker, they should not park in the zone. Also many Fat people may have heart conditions.
Be grateful you are not Fat and have a little compassion for some who are. "

" I could train a chihuahua to maim people too, or a golden retriever, or standard poodle (the nasty beasts). "

" I think the State gives out way too many of those handicap parking tags. I had one briefly for when I was in the wheelchair after my injury, but stopped using it when I was again mobile, even though it was still valid. I have a dear friend with a degenerative muscle disease. His mom drives him in a van and it takes quite a lot of work to get him and his chair in and out of the vehicle. After assisting with that project on several occasions, I got pretty disgusted by people who take up those spaces who don't need them like my friend does.

BTW, some fat cannot be controlled by exercise and diet. There are medical conditions which cause weight gain which is not reversed by a good diet and proper, regular exercise. Judge not, as they say -- thyroid, hormones, exposure to certain hormone-mimicking chemicals in the environment and genetics can also play roles in obesity. However, that's no excuse not to exercise and eat right -- if you have these conditions, you'll be even worse if you don't take care of your baseline health.

(Maybe fat-caused diabetes can be classified as a handicap for which someone can get a permit? I still park way out and walk, both for the exercise, and to avoid the maniacs who'd run down their own grandmother so they can park one space closer to the door). "

" I know I’m going to get it with this one but here it goes. I was at BJ’s this weekend waiting for my wife to come out I just couldn’t help noticing how many people were using the Handicap parking zones that didn’t’ appear to be handicap. Actually many of them were “FAT”. My question is are they handicapped because they are FAT or are they FAT because they are handicapped? Many appear to move around very easily with no assistance from a walker or cane. Seriously is being FAT a handicap? It shouldn’t be since it can be controlled with exercise and proper diet. Sorry to use the word FAT, but obese or overweight just doesn’t seem stick in as much, does it? "