rural social justice – Page 4 – Rural Tompkins County

“The World According to Doctrine” — Their favorite cover crop is bullshit

The Town of Lansing is about to turn the rural community into an AG Zoning District for the sole benefit of a handful of rich farmers. Non-farming residents [the poor 95%] have had all their land uses removed except for having a house – this will force them to sell all other land to famers; or face the regressive tax burdens of AG structured assessments. The rural community have had no meaningful participation, representation, or respect from the unilateral planning authorities.

This is how Progressive government works: the rich get richer – and the poor get stepped on . . . and demeaned . . . and disposed of

“The World According to Doctrine” — They keep changing lenses

Tompkins County policies are all about following the money – and their policy making is all about finding a usable lens that excuses it.

The Town of Lansing’s AG Zoning District re-zones agricultural activities along the lake to Lakeshore residences: because those areas “are environmentally sensitive” and “potential problems related to steep slopes” [and because rich people want lakeshore houses] – but ignores mile after mile of equally steep slopes of unbuffered agricultural activity along nearby Salmon Creek: one of the major sources of agricultural pollution and impairment of the lake.

Preservation of agriculture is so important that the AG Zoning District radically changes the zoning and allowed activities of a 200 year old rural community: leaving poor non-farming landowners no choice; but to sell out to the rich farming interests – or go under through a regressive tax structure.

And behind it all is Cornell: making lenses for their friends.

Tompkins County: where the rich get richer – and the poor get stepped on — all according to plan.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Agricultural Law is a Hate Crime

Non-farming rural residents in New York straddle a line between unborn children: who are not human beings by law – and farmers: who are preferred by law — they are a forced-to-admit-they-are-human classification that is demonized and disposable – the grit in the smoothly oiled Agricultural lobby.

“A hate crime is a crime that is motivated in whole or substantial part by bias against certain personal characteristics.”

Agricultural bias is documented in every policy statement they make, and every regressive zoning law they support – But according to New York State law, there must be an underlying crime in order for an incident to be classified as a hate crime — and if you are disposable: you can’t be a victim – so there can’t be a crime.

In our uncaring society: the line between good and bad is licensable — and Agricultural Law is bought and paid for.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Agricultural Regulations?

Agricultural interests always talk about regulations; because they never want to talk about the results. Agricultural regulations legitimize polluting by creating worthless standards that legally shield the polluters.

The TDML [Total Daily Maximum Load] paradigm sets the maximum level of pollution possible before environmental disaster – and then requires polluters to “try” to meet it.

Decades of Voluntary Guidelines and Nutrient Plans have proven worthless to curb Agriculture’s destruction of the environment – and the health of the rural communities they politically dominate.

The Agricultural sector is the only sector in the US that is still increasing its polluting; and increasing it across the board – from use of fossil fuels, to methane emissions, to nutrient pollution of our water: they are the fuse for global destruction.

The next time you see one of those “green” farm promotions; realize — it’s the polluting that you don’t see that will kill you.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Feet of manure

The foundation of modern animal agriculture is a lot of manure: in both the literal and metaphorical sense.

Industrial farming practices have same relation to traditional manure spreading as the BP oil spill to a grease spot.

Modern farming is a destructive and greedy giant: leaving a toxic print on the rural landscape – a bully trying to sell the image of a much abused victim while getting more perks and privileges than any other interest group.

Take a good look at the feet that our agricultural “progress” is standing on — a shitload of money.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Tompkins County: Corruption isn’t denounced

When the County Highway Director proclaimed a blatant untruth to block a through-truck regulation – and it was proven to be untrue – he never changed or retracted his statement — and not one member of the County Ethics Committee, the County Transportation Committee, or any Town or County official at any level would even mention it. There was just a wall of silence.

And not one of them would speak on the reason for their silence.

Why won’t any of them respond?

Sometimes not saying – is the same as lying.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Salmon Creek Drug Sanctuary

Like the “Landfill Park” in The Mask – the public is always the recipient of that which is unsuitable for “people of influence and obligation” – a bureaucratic wrapping up of garbage for those “gift giving” publicity photos. So what does local government do with a dark and polluted bit of rural woods at the bottom of a steep valley? Make a gesture.

It’s a gesture that rural people are familiar with.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Agricultural Law

A picture may be worth a thousand words – but there are some pictures that the public doesn’t see.

Farmers are sometimes just referred to as the “rich people” in the poor rural communities. One dental technician told me that she knew the farmer crying for subsidies on television: he has a 40-ft yacht.

“Farm Friendly” doesn’t begin to describe the deliberately biased and un-equitable treatment that exists in the rich farmer – poor unrepresented and disposable “non-farmer” rural communities.

Agricultural Law protects farming; like beheadings protect a tyrant.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Ithaca: the place where everybody wants to live

Ithaca is the place where everybody wants to live: because it’s the only place in the county where people have individual worth.

While Ithaca rules the county – it never leads by example. Their plan to blanket rural Lansing with CAFOs is balanced by their own petition to the New York State Supreme Court: enumerating serious concerns about lack of CAFO and Agricultural regulation and oversight, lack of disclosure, and the possible effects of modern farming practices on their own residents and the their own town’s environment. Lansing’s puppet government has expressed no concerns at all.

Ithaca is Camelot: A castle community where people dump their slop on the unprotected commoners outside the walls – without a second thought.

Where would you want to live?