Stealth Farming is all about the idea of doing more for yourself with respect to your food choices. It is about growing, producing and sharing what you produce with those around you. I’m a firm believer in the concept that we should do all that we can for ourselves and make the surplus that we produce available to others. A Stealth Farming principle supports the ideas of both charity and capitalism and that the producer gets to decide what he or she should do with their surplus. Give away a portion; sell a portion to support yourself. Both have their place in the SF life.
Recently, I came across the Ezra Taft Benson Institute which has been teaching that same concept for more than 30 years. Named after the Secretary of Agriculture during the Eisenhower Administration, the Benson Institute “has developed unique programs teaching village farm families and others in the Developing World how to become nutritionally self-sufficient and to greatly improve their economic circumstances.”
That’s awesome! Not only that, they use university students and have them travel to developing countries and teach the folks there how to produce good, wholesome food for themselves, enhance their nutrition levels and at the same time help them to become more economically sufficient by selling the surplus. Doesn’t that sound like Stealth Farming to you? It does to me.
Their Mission Statement from their website, www.bensoninstitute.org, is “To Improve the Quality of Life of the People of the Earth Through Improved Practices in Agriculture and Nutrition.” That’s a huge mission.
You know, I’m going to let them work with the whole earth while I try to help those in my little corner. I can’t do what they are doing, I’m just one guy. But I can do what I can do. If I can help one person, one family, one neighborhood to eat better, enjoy the passion of raising their own food, make a buck or two by selling their surplus, I’ll be happy.
I recommend that you read through their simple and straightforward website. It has some real gems of ideas that can easily be transferred to your corner of the world. The principles are the same, it’s just the application and administration that changes.
Good for you, Benson Institute!
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