This one is about food. It can’t have escaped many people’s attention that this is a massive issue being orchestrated around us. Globally, nationally and locally. It’s high on the priority list and seems to be making the news a lot. To start with local and national issues, it seems foodbanks are a big thing and to me were the first signs of issues coming. It’s no secret that foodbanks have been a growing in number in the last few years, even before the ‘pandemic’ was rolled out. The cost of living putting the squeeze on many a person and family. And rather than look at the cause of the problem and sort that out by lowering costs and the corporate profits, they just think a quick fix solution will see it through in the short term. Prevention rather than cure they used to say, not anymore apparently. But I would like to examine a few things around the foodbanks, as I see the for and against argument in action and know of the issues, because people are people. I have struggled in my younger days to afford food, and had a patchy upbringing initially for consistency, so can appreciate some of the social issues that feed into this (no pun intended).

The argument is that people who can well afford food are using them, but just so they can save a bit of money, or use said funds for something else. If someone else will pay for your dinner, then why not? What’s the harm in taking what is on offer? Do people consider that someone else may miss out because they are in line? Maybe. But the counter argument could be, they are avoiding missing out themselves by getting in there first. And as we well know, many who need it won’t even try, through shaming of themselves for reasons known to them (lots of people see it as a failure if they can’t afford food, and won’t want to share that fact). No-one else required for that shame it would seem, they hold themselves back on that one which in itself is a shame. It would have been shocking in my youth to see someone with a full-time well-paid job, queuing up for charity handouts. The idea was, if you work hard you can provide for yourself. And it was that way once, until they decided that they didn’t want people having enough, or being comfortable. And what was once well paid, does not even cut it now. The idea that you could sustain a household and family on one income is pretty much a myth now, a story of times very much past. We can only dream of that kind of luxury now.

But I used to think it was a combination of pride and shame that kept everything in check. Not the rules, or the systems themselves, but people and their attitudes and outward demeanour. I know social attitudes haven’t always been for the better, but I believed this one worked. Because of the community set up. Pride and shame would sometimes get in the way, as people wouldn’t always ask for help (and is still the case as mentioned above), and they wouldn’t want to be seen as a failure, either to themselves or to everyone else. It can be hard. But I fully believed that if you couldn’t feed yourself, you would have to ask for help, either knock on someone’s door and ask, or try and beg for food. I thought the community was meant to be there to help, but it is only a community if people know each other, and there is a common purpose within it. So once someone had sorted themselves out, people would know if they were then taking the piss. The levels of greed and selfishness people can employ is staggering, with little or no thought, compassion or empathy towards others. And it seems that lots of people who genuinely do need help, are also too shy or afraid to ask. Having a brass neck gets you more, and being quiet and reserved doesn’t. This we know. But my grandpa gave me another piece of advice I took very literally and used throughout my life “If you don’t ask you don’t get, and the worst that can happen is people say no”. Simple and effective. It’s a skill though on top of that to prepare yourself for that possible no, as well as being mature enough to understand and gauge if it is really necessary to ask, and if you are within the etiquette of the relationship you have with the person or entity you are asking for something from. And being able to accept the ‘no’ in a gracious manner and move on. Imposing on people, or using their good nature against them is not good etiquette.

But as with the folk who will let shame hold them back from asking, there are those who seem to have none. At all. So can we find a balance in all that? Is there a way to educate people to understand the difference between need and want, to have better knowledge of land management, land practices and be more actively involved in them? Some are trying, with self-sustainability a view, but as the authorities cast their net of control even further, those are part of the things now under very real attack. Supermarkets are being overhauled, the meat industry being hampered, new rules and regulations to license everything even further, meaning there is always a way to get rid of your competition, or just competing ideas. The increase in utilities in the UK appears to be the last sure-fire way to decimate lots of businesses that managed to hold on throughout the last few years. Many are shutting down as they simply can’t afford to provide heat and light or pay their bills. We really have come far, haven’t we? It’s shocking we continue to look to the same people and establishment that caused this, to fix this. As if it is some error of judgement they made, or that they mean to help sort it out. Neither are correct. And once you accept they have an overriding plan in place, things make more sense. Food is going to be the big one. Some people can do without their travel monitoring, some don’t need their medical ‘care’, or the education system they offer. So how do you get the people who aren’t tied in via other means. The one thing that literally everyone has in common. Food and the need to eat.

I have already covered lots of the angles they are using and how they tie together in my previous article It seems an attack, trying to explain the how and the why for the people who can’t seem to see it.

It’s relentless now though, paying UK farmers to retire early, trying to push Dutch farmers off their land so they can buy it, multiple corporate purchases of farmland in the US. India has also had its farming attacked in recent years, and others if you start to look around the world. Fires of food plants, burning of wheat fields, power cuts so previously stored food has to be chucked away. Paving the way nicely I might add for those corporate giants to unroll their ‘new menu’ for the masses. Deciding for some unknown reason that they are in charge of nature, the world and of its management. Which is terrifying by itself, but factor in that they have no interest in humanity or saving anything. They want a sweep and clear operation, out with the old and in with the new. But it’s so heartless, and empty what they foresee as our future, so I am not on board. I still believe that people can take responsibility for themselves and others, and can start to right some of the wrongs being inflicted on a level not seen in our lifetime. But they have paved the way for the worst in people to come out, laid the foundations, created imagery and propaganda to stoke those attributes, so we will see if humanity can avoid the trap we have been set. There is a strange future coming…

(c) K Wicks