5-12-09 Lights, Camera, Food Fight, Farms, and Revolution

Greetings Wayfarers

Well here I am resting in a BED!!!

Its been a long trek across the country and my travels have left me in a hotel room near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

climate control, bountiful fast food, hot water, BUT most importantly ….
…….h-h-h-HOT TUB!!!!

Honestly wandering back in the civil world from the farm and tent life feels kinda reminiscent of coming out of the bush back in Niger.

What? Where? How?
Wasn't I just in Santa Cruz?

All valid inquires.

Here is the skinny. I’m here in MN to meet the local agriculture community, participate in a fundraiser for the Veterans Village, but most importantly do an production evaluation for the potential future farm.

Very Exciting!!
The wayfarer inches further down the rabbit hole

Last night I spoke at the "Food Fight" screening at the Santa Cruz film festival, in attendance were approximately 300 farmers, foodies, and freaks who rolled up the proverbial red carpet for a spectacular extravaganza which outlined our nations current food "insecurity", the military industrial "food" complex as well as the epicenter of America's local food movement….chiefly being San Francisco.

In earnest, not my most riveting address, I'll leave that to exhaustion, unpreparedness, and the fact that I gulped about a liter and a half worth of water during the film without relief.

The night prior to the screening I was fortunate enough to meet and spend the night slugging down a couple pints with Chris Taylor, the wonderful director of the film. In attendance at the pub was my good buddy, who is also an Iraq veteran and perpetual surf bum living in his van.

Without trepidations our trio delved into the conversational realms of veterans affairs, historic and contemporary models of civilizations' successes and failures due to food production, and least but not forgotten the creation of a new advocacy group dedicated to stopping continental drift.

I'll be a monkey's uncle if I’m going to allow France's western beaches to invade our beloved eastern seaboard!!!!
"Stop Continental Drift!!" ….."Stop Continental Drift!!!"

We invade France, not the other way around.

Anyhow, it was an incredible opportunity to make a new friend out of Chris Taylor, as a director he is socially conscious, attentive to detail, and witty in his story telling. As a person I consider him an exceptional human being and I remain all the better for having the opportunity to meet such a dynamic person.

Lord knows, at the beginning of this omnivore's odyssey there were no preconceived ideas of where the breezes would blow me, speaking to 300 folk at one of our nation's epicenters of quality food is not one of them…

So here I am in Minnesota one step closer to my end goal. Start a "farmily" Village, but most importantly working sideways to take down.... "The Man"

His food taste like poo!

Well its about 0200 I’m wiped and ready to decompress,

Kwana da Alhieri!!
"Sleep with Peace"