Kick Washington Out of Your Life

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) grades our drinking water a D in their annual report card. Local systems leak an estimated 7 billion gallons of water daily. And more than 850 billion gallons of sewage escape into surface water annually.

And I wouldn’t rely too heavily on our electric grid.

ASCE gives that a D+ due to outages and disturbances that cost up to $180 billion in annual economic activity. The electric grid is at risk of cascading failures until energy production becomes decentralized.

These risks are growing by the day. The government that is supposed to be protecting and serving our most basic needs is failing, while it remains only too eager to bow to the whims of lobbyists and big corporations with fat wallets.

We are vulnerable, but we don’t have to be. We can protect ourselves from what I call “Washington Risk.” With some wisdom, we can remove Washington Risk from our kitchens, bedrooms and bodies.

Our Financial Puppet Masters Make Me Nauseated  

Each day, our financial-centric system grows increasingly complex and fragile. Policymakers dictate the direction and volume of capital through open-market operations, interest-rate targeting, nefarious legislation and government-loan guarantees. Their actions are crowding out the market process.

Think of the “too big to fail” mentality and the $700 billion in bailout money promised to insure insolvent financial institutions like Citigroup, Bank of America and AIG. Or think of the roughly $70 billion poured into the boondoggle that is the Department of Education, which places the U.S. no higher than 14th in various global rankings that show South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong leading the world. Or just think of the $39 billion it costs to operate the Department of Homeland Security, which in its short life has garnered the fifth-largest budget of all Federal agencies.

And it doesn’t stop there …

Washington has Invaded Your Bedroom and Your Body

Just food for thought: Much like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is supposedly watching over the safety of our financial markets, the Food and Drug Administration is making sure our food system stays safe too. “Protecting and promotingyour health” is their mantra, yet they aren’t holding the rotten apples in agribusiness accountable.

They refuse to require labeling on genetically engineered food — while countries such as Germany, China, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia and 59 others already require GE labeling because of myriad potential health risks to humans. It’s worth noting that a long list of industry giants including Nestlé, Monsanto, Coca-Cola, General Mills and Kellogg’s have spent more than $70 million to fight individual states’ proposals that would require labeling.

Similarly, the Department of Agriculture has a vision to expand economic opportunity, promote nourishment in the U.S. and abroad, and preserve natural resources … yet they appear complicit in a biotech system that emphasizes quantity over quality. China, a country not known for stringent environmental and health regulations, since November 2013 has blocked import of more than 1 million tons of an unapproved GMO strain of corn (MIR162) produced by U.S.-company Syngenta.

That corn is likely destined to be used as animal feed, which is a problem because genetically modified corn poses health risks to the animals that eat it. Besides the fact that cows aren’t meant to eat corn, the risks are partly due to the genetic composition of the feed and partly to what’s used as a supplement for animals on a GMO diet. One such supplement, a beta-agonist drug called Ractopamine used to enhance livestock before slaughter, is prevalent in supermarket meats (beef, pork and turkey) and is banned in 160 countries — but not in the U.S. It and other beta-agonist drugs are known to affect a human’s cardiovascular system and cause increased heart rate, insomnia, headaches and tremors.

Our public officials and prominent federal institutions aren’t exactly feeling burdened by their consumer protection responsibilities. To the contrary, much effort and money is spent maintaining their positions of disproportionate influence. Last year, more than $150 million was spent lobbying agribusiness. And in the current election cycle, more than $13 million was donated to politicians by political-action committees in the agribusiness sector.

But you can say “no more.” You can easily sidestep all of the risks and the consequences, just as I have, with a bit of wisdom. Let me explain …

Make the Decision to Become a Sovereign Individual

I have four daughters; the oldest is six years old. My wife and I have taken responsibility for the environment in which we raise them. We strive to do everything within our power to provide for and protect our kids. Most concerned parents do.

For us, this has meant doing things to reclaim control of our food sources. We’ve learned to raise backyard chickens for egg production and even rabbits for meat. Those are merely steps toward what we believe will amount to greater resiliency. Eventually, we want to raise more animals, grow our own food and generate as much of our own energy as possible.

Until we’re in a position to make those things happen, our efforts are focused primarily on taking our consumer choices seriously, namely the things that affect our health and well-being. We eat food without common yet harmful preservatives and additives like monosodium glutamate (MSG), an excitotoxin that, among several other things, damages cells and aids the proliferation of disease. We buy or create our own cleaning products with castile soaps (olive-oil-based soap) and other ingredients so we can avoid phosphates, sulfates and phthalates, the latter of which are endocrine and hormone disruptors that influence the body’s development. We seek out farmers markets and local farms for foods that aren’t laden with pesticides and aren’t trucked hundreds of miles across the country or the world.

And you can do the same … without making massive life changes or spending hundreds of dollars.

Reclaim Your Sovereignty, Restore Your Life

Luckily, a movement to take back control of our consumer choices is gaining traction. It’s less difficult to access foods that aren’t corrupted by the self-serving interests of agribusiness and politicians. Alternatives to the products we use every day are little by little making their way onto shelves in our local stores. Information on the benefits of living a life that’s more natural and sustainable is spreading too.

We all just have to get on board.

We at Sovereign Living are here to facilitate this movement by inspiring you to reclaim your personal sovereignty and help others do the same. Together we must believe in the need to improve the quality of our lives and then make a commitment to walk the walk.

Understanding how government initiatives crowd out the private sector and understanding the market process will increase our natural desire to live healthy lives independent of the directives thrust upon us by Machiavellian policymakers. Sovereign Living is designed to easily show you how to remove the Washington Risk from your daily life. I’ll do the research, seek out the industry experts and make sure you’ll have simple access to the best tactics, solutions and more.

To kick off this initiative, I’m crafting a series of exposés about how to keep Washington out of your life. I’m still assembling my research, but my goal is to have them ready by the end of July.

Recognize the Dangers

Stop making choices that threaten your health.

It’s been estimated that 70% of the American diet is processed food.

With that in mind, I want you to raid your kitchen this week. Find out how much chemically-processed food you’re eating (hint: the majority of prepackaged items fall into this category). Specifically, try to determine if you’re consuming a lot of foods containing hydrogenated vegetable oils, sodium nitrates or nitrites, and enriched flour … three of the most common and threatening ingredients in processed food. Between them, they’ll damage cells and inhibit the natural processes of the body. Basically, your ability to stay fit or ward off illness and disease is dramatically compromised.

As a society, we are called on to inspire and encourage one another to choose quality … lest we be sold a cheap excuse to surrender the ability to choose for ourselves.

Regards,

JR Crooks
Editor, Sovereign Living