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Guest Post: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Part One
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Part One
“Human history seems logical in afterthought but a mystery in forethought. Writers of history have a way of describing interwar societies as coursing from postwar to prewar as though people alive at the time knew when that transition occurred.” – Strauss & Howe - The Fourth Turning
Watching pompous politicians, egotistical economists, arrogant investment geniuses, clueless media pundits, and self- proclaimed experts on the Great Depression predict an economic recovery and a return to normalcy would be amusing if it wasn’t so pathetic. Their lack of historical perspective does a huge disservice to the American people, as their failure to grasp the cyclical nature of history results in a broad misunderstanding of the Crisis the country is facing. The ruling class and opinion leaders are dominated by linear thinkers that believe the world progresses in a straight line. Despite all evidence of history clearly moving through cycles that repeat every eighty to one hundred years (a long human life), the present generations are always surprised by these turnings in history. I can guarantee you this country will not truly experience an economic recovery or progress for another fifteen to twenty years. If you think the last four years have been bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Hope is not an option. There is too much debt, too little cash-flow, too many promises, too many lies, too little common sense, too much mass delusion, too much corruption, too little trust, too much hate, too many weapons in the hands of too many crazies, and too few visionary leaders to not create an epic worldwide implosion. Too bad. We’ve experienced horrific Crisis periods three times in the last 250 years and winter has arrived again exactly as forecasted by Strauss & Howe in 1997. The linear thinkers will continue to predict a recovery that never arrives. We have awful trials and tribulations, dreadful sacrifices of blood and treasure, and grim choices awaiting our country over the next fifteen years. Linear thinkers will scoff at such a statement as they irrationally view the world as a never ending forward progression towards a glorious future. History proves them wrong. We stand here in the year 2012 with no good options, only less worse options. Decades of foolishness, debt accumulation, and a materialistic feeding frenzy of delusion have left the world broke and out of options. And still our leaders accelerate the debt accumulation, while encouraging the masses to carry-on as if nothing has changed since 2008. Sadly, millions of lemmings want to believe they will not drown in the sea of un-payable commitments. Truth is a scarce resource on the planet today.
“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Entire populations taking comfort in their illusions transcends centuries. This is because all humans are driven by their emotions and react to events and danger in a predictable manner depending on their stage of life. Strauss & Howe in their 1997 opus – The Fourth Turning – utilized decades of studying generational dynamics to anticipate when our next Crisis would arrive and what core elements would precipitate it:
“The next Fourth Turning is due to begin shortly after the new millennium, midway through the Oh-Oh decade. Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.” – Strauss & Howe - The Fourth Turning
The American people are mentally ensnared by their decades of indoctrination from propagandists in government and on Wall Street, spoon fed to them by the corporate mainstream media. Many are afflicted with the diseases of normalcy bias and cognitive dissonance. Normalcy bias refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. The American people are mentally incapable of accepting the facts of our impending economic collapse. They somehow are able to convince themselves these facts as normal:
- We’ve increased our national debt by $5.6 trillion in the last three and a half years. It took from 1789 until 2000, two hundred and eleven years, to accumulate the first $5.6 trillion of debt.
- Our average annual deficit from 2000 through 2008 was $190 billion. Our average annual deficits since 2008 have been $1.3 trillion. Our deficits never exceeded 4% of GDP prior to 2008, but now they exceed 9%.
- The national debt will reach $20 trillion by 2015 and if interest rates normalized to the same level they were in 2007 (5%), annual interest expense would be $1 trillion, or 45% of current tax revenue.
- There are 242 million working age Americans and 100 million of them are not working. But don’t concern yourself. The Federal government reports that only 13 million of these people are actually unemployed. The other 87 million are just kicking back and living off their accumulated riches.
- The economic recovery has been so great that the 7.5 million people added to the Food Stamp rolls since the recession officially ended in December 2009 isn’t really an indication of severe stress among the 99%. Only 46.5 million Americans (15% of the population) need food stamps to survive.
- The unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security exceed $100 trillion and cannot possibly be honored, leaving future generations to fend for themselves.
- Our leaders have fought two undeclared wars of choice since 2001 that have resulted in 6,400 unnecessary soldier deaths, 47,500 badly wounded, $1.3 trillion of borrowed treasure, with unfunded liabilities of at least $2 trillion more, and we are itching for more of the same with our coming war with Iran. A bankrupt empire still trying to police the world is the ultimate act of hubris.
- After causing a worldwide financial collapse in 2008 with their extreme risk taking, tangibly fraudulent mortgage schemes, and reckless pillaging of their clients and the American people, Wall Street used their complete systematic capture of our political and economic system to shift $8 trillion of toxic debt from their books onto the backs of American taxpayers. They have since become even more flagrant in their disregard for human decency by using the hundreds of billions in free money funneled to them by Ben Bernanke to take even bigger risks and pay themselves grander bonuses. Total unregulated derivatives (real WMD) outstanding now exceed $700 trillion.
- Since 2001 the Federal government has used fear to assume unprecedented and unconstitutional powers over the citizens of this country. They can now use surveillance to monitor your phones calls, emails, and websites visited, without warrants. You can be imprisoned without charges for as long as the government decides you are a threat. TSA agents molest little old ladies and children trying to fly on airplanes. The President can take over the entire economy through presidential decree. Predator spy drones can eliminate suspected terrorists whenever a general gives the command. An order for 30,000 spy drones to be flying over U.S. cities should make you feel safe. The $2 billion NSA Utah Data Gathering Center (code name Stellar Wind) will be able to intercept and store every electronic signal on the planet by 2013. Sacrificing liberty for perceived safety and security isn’t working out too well for the American people.
Anyone with an ounce of critical thinking skill would conclude our current situation is far from normal. We’ve become a cognitive dissonant nation. We convince ourselves the best way to solve a debt problem is to create more debt. We believe we are made safer by attacking foreign countries. We have convinced ourselves it makes sense for Too Big to Fail Wall Street banks that create systematic financial risk to get even bigger, after their fraudulent frenzy of greed virtually crashed our economic system. We actually believe the two party political system offers us a choice, when both parties genuflect to Wall Street, gratify corporate special interests, fight never ending wars, and spend money they don’t have. We choose to believe government statistics that claim inflation is running at 3%, when our everyday reality attests it to be 10%. We trust the Federal Reserve to maintain price stability even though their policies have resulted in a 97% depreciation in the U.S. dollar since 1913. We believe the future will be bright, even though 60% of workers have less than $25,000 in total savings.
In the ultimate example of cognitive dissonance the majority of Americans scorned and ridiculed the young people being beaten, maced and arrested for protesting the rampant criminality of the Wall Street 1%ers while supporting a billionaire banker bailout, 0% interest rates that punish senior citizens and savers while encouraging further debt accumulation, and not be outraged that not one criminal banker has gone to jail. They somehow are able to observe the data in the table below and still believe that America offers equal opportunity to everyone.
Americans have thus far been unable to deal with the reality of our desperate circumstances. They remind me of people who see the ocean recede from the shoreline and curiously venture out where the sea had flowed to pick up trinkets and pretty shells with no sense of what is truly happening. The deadly 20 foot high tsunami headed their way will be a complete shock when they are swept away in a torrent of bad debt and worthless currencies. We are about to enter phase two of this Fourth Turning Crisis still in denial and terribly unprepared for the frightful trials that await our nation. It’s not as if it hasn’t happened before, just like clockwork. William Strauss and Neil Howe were able to document turnings in Anglo-American history dating back to the 15th century. The life cycles of human beings and the moods of generations at different stages of their lives are consistent across time, resulting in predictable responses to events during a particular time frame. Fourth Turnings are a time of Crisis, danger and vulnerability. The Crisis periods in modern history are as follows:
- War of the Roses (1459 – 1487), Late Medieval Saeculum
- Armada Crisis (1569 – 1594), Reformation Saeculum
- Glorious Revolution (1675 – 1704), New World Saeculum
- American Revolution (1773 – 1794), Revolutionary Saeculum
- Civil War (1860 – 1865), Civil War Saeculum
- Great Depression & World War II (1929 – 1946), Great Power Saeculum
- Millenial Crisis (2008 – ????), Millenial Saeculum
Using a seasonal analogy, the Crisis is the wintry bitter dark era, where deadly blizzards rage and the citizens are pushed to the brink. In retrospect the three previous American Crisis periods seem easy to predict, but one year prior to their onset NO ONE could have predicted the epic sacrifices and horrific casualties of war to follow. In 1772 there were few people expecting America to declare independence and fight an eight year war for independence. In 1859 virtually no one expected the election of Abraham Lincoln as president and an ensuing war that would kill 700,000 American men. In 1928 no one imagined the stock market losing 89% of its value, an eleven year depression, and a world war resulting in over 60 million deaths. History is only logical in afterthought. The mystery of forethought is where we find ourselves today.
In a recent article, Neil Howe provided insight into why he believes the current Fourth Turning began in 2008, sixty-two years since the end of the Depression/WWII Crisis, which was sixty-four years after the Civil War Crisis, which was sixty-six years after the American Revolution Crisis:
“I believe the catalyst occurred in 2008. The year 2008 marked the onset of the most serious U.S. economic crisis since the Great Depression. It also marked the election of Barack Obama, which could yet turn out to be a pivotal realignment date in U.S. political history. In fact, if I had to give the catalyst a month, I would say September of 2008. The global Dow was in free fall. Banks were failing. Money markets froze shut. Business owners held their breath.” – Neil Howe – Dating the Fourth Turning
Howe uses the term catalyst to describe the trigger or event that initiates the Crisis. Strauss and Howe determined that a Crisis progresses through four stages during its life cycle, as described below:
- A Crisis era begins with a catalyst – a startling event (or sequence of events) that produces a sudden shift in mood.
- Once catalyzed, a society achieves a regeneracy – a new counter-entropy that reunifies and reenergizes civic life.
- The regenerated society propels toward a climax – a crucial moment that confirms the death of the old order and birth of the new.
- The climax culminates in a resolution – a triumphant or tragic conclusion that separates the winners from losers, resolves the big public questions, and establishes the new order.
We have countless valleys to cross and mountains to ascend before reaching our ultimate destination. There are no guarantees the outcomes will be positive or that the nation as we know it will even exist. It is certain that in twenty years the social order of this country will not resemble what exists today. The transformation could be positive or negative, depending upon whether we make the right choices during this Crisis.
“The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed. Or America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition. The rhythms of history do not reveal the outcome of the coming Crisis; all they suggest is the timing and dimension.” – Strauss & Howe - The Fourth Turning
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All this fucked up data amd projections WOULD drive me crazy. Except I've accepted it. Prepare and get the most out of life while you can.
"All work, no joy, makes Jack a dull boy" Malcolm McClaren
Malcolm McClaren? That 'quote'? Please. Being a one-time manager of the Sex Pistols, I would figure he'd certainly have a host of sayings that would be a bit more 'approppo'. I'd quote Jack Nicholson, before Malcolm.
Although the spirit of this proverb goes back further, the 'modern' version of this saying appeared first in James Howell's "Proverbs in English, Italian, French, and Spanish" (1659).
Today's market chart has the same ramp angle as the lemming slope. Lemmings bailing off the slope I'm jumping on. Will get off if ever the day arrives.
I looked up after reading this, and guess what, the sky isn't falling.
The TPTB can keep this illusion going until the last possible second, then the unwind will happen so fast everyone will wonder WTFH?
The illusion can go on for another 30-50 years, until then, spend happiliy, and hope you'll be long gone for giant unwind. Warn your kids as they grow up to the giant federal ponzi scheme, let them know that they too can spend happily, but when the giant unwind comes, hopefully they had spent a little on home defense, gardnening, backyard farming, hunting, and have learned a tradeable skill.
Game back on.
I looked up after reading this, and guess what, the sky isn't falling.
The TPTB can keep this illusion going until the last possible second, then the unwind will happen so fast everyone will wonder WTFH?
The illusion can go on for another 30-50 years, until then, spend happiliy, and hope you'll be long gone for giant unwind. Warn your kids as they grow up to the giant federal ponzi scheme, let them know that they too can spend happily, but when the giant unwind comes, hopefully they had spent a little on home defense, gardnening, backyard farming, hunting, and have learned a tradeable skill.
Game back on.
Trying to convince the reader with such claims totally ruins the credibility your story could have had. Why not point out the relevance of inflation right here, while you do so later on when it does serve your own view? Now all your claims seem untrustworthy.
Abnormal is a perfect code name.
To Jim Quinn:
"n 1859 virtually no one expected the election of Abraham Lincoln as president and an ensuing war that would kill 700,000 American men. In 1928 no one imagined the stock market losing 89% of its value, an eleven year depression, and a world war resulting in over 60 million deaths. History is only logical in afterthought. The mystery of forethought is where we find ourselves today."
Well that not exactly the case. By the late 1850's most Americans knew they were drawing to an end of compromises and that the country was going to be divided. War was consider a significant possiblity, just no one could pinpoint when the union would divide or when the war would start. The same was with WW2, by mid 1930's most nations expected another major war as there was a significant expansion of military equipment. There was a lot of political change as the fascists took power in Western Europe. Spain at the time was already in a civil war. The Soviet Union was looming threat as it promoted communism political parties in Western Europe. Many expected war to break out, but didn't know when and were powerless to do anything about it.
I suspect that many Americans fear something bad is going to happen. TV is loaded with doom and gloom shows ("world after people" series, Doomsday preppers shows on NGC and History Channel, and now Doomsday bunkers on Discovery). Obviously it on the minds of many Americans. Just like the previous events, the majority of people are powerless. Real incomes for Americans have been declining since the 1970s, and they have little options to save money. Fewer are saving now because of being squeezed from flat wages and rising food and energy prices. Many also feel saving is a waste because of inflation. Most do perfer to bury there heads in the sand simply because there is nothing they can do to stop it, and they don't want to be in a state of permanent mental depression. What can the average American do that is stuck in debt and few options to dig out of their hole?
"“The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed. Or America could enter a new golden age"
Unfortunately the choice is clearly the first option. For a new golden age would require a new region of expansion and untapped energy resources to promote it. The world is more than fully populated. There are no new regions left to expand into, and global resources are in permanent decline. The human population consumes 400 years of solar energy (in the form of fossil fuels) every day. It took hundreds of millions of years to store the fossil fuels provided but it will take less than 250 years to deplete them. As resources become harder to find, it will be harder for countries to maintain a peaceful state. Unemployed, Hungry, and cold citizens put ever increasing pressure on gov't to act or be overthown. So far this has begun in the poor middle east nations (arab spring), but it will work its way up develped nations, that have the means to take resources from other nations.
Potable water not oil ,will become the cause of conflict next.
For a new golden age would require a new region of expansion and untapped energy resources to promote it.
If you believe that any kind of "golden age" requires the conquest of lands and plunder of natural resources, I guess you're right.
It doesn't have to be part of the definition, though. That's only true for the rentiers--the "plantation owners" who can't perform labor of their own because they're rich and demand payment for their wealth.
Judge Douglas did regarding the civil war.
At the time Lincoln was running for a senate seat from Illinois.
The US has plenty of expanision area within its borders. And lots and lots of energy sources. But it also has a totaletarian government, and they are nortoriously poor at operating an economy.
"The US has plenty of expanision area within its borders. And lots and lots of energy sources"
LOL! That explains why the US substantial miltary forces in the Middle East, specifically ME regions with Oil and Ngas reserves.
You sound like you a client of the SNAKE^h^h^h^h SHALE OIL saleman. Snake and Shale Oil are interchangable. "Step right up. I got a cure all for your energy ailments! It cures it all!" said the saleman to the town folks.
Expansion? Where do you expect to find new farm land that isn't water challenged and isn't already developed or dedicated to timberland?
True, lasting change is NEVER painless. To affect a different course Americans must be willing to sacrifice and accept a completely altered psychology based upon the reality that accumulation and 'stuff', success, celebrity and the deeply rooted self-absorption mentality have to go and hopefully and ultimately be replaced with a more practical approach to not only life, consuming and our innate humanity, but an approach which actually insures our survival as a species. We are being 'led' by madmen, truely destructive and homicidal sociopaths who possess absolutely no respect not only for human life, but for all life upon our planet. I may sound presumptuous, but our first step?: Beginning to disengage from the madmen's new and insanely destructive version of capitalism which, more than ever before, relies chiefly upon inflicting as much misery as possible upon human beings everywhere. This conscienceless application of personal wealth gathering is quickly and irrevocabally damaging not only the world around us, but our collective futures as well. Are Americans, who lead the pack in consumption, able to live with less of a global impact? Are they capable of telling people like the Koch freaks, Trumpists, Obamaists, Bushists that their time of rape and ravaging is over and new ways, processes, methods will be explored? I don't know. That my personal 'audacity of hope'.
15 to 20 more years before an economic recovery?
No...I don't buy it. The currency won't suvive. We will re-prosper under a new currency. 2-5 years max.
Ref: ___ SERE -- KUBARK Manual -- Cofer Black [Yoo, Addington, Flanigan & Haynes] -- 'CAT' [Convention Against Torture/ Geneva]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival,_Evasion,_Resistance_and_Escape http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUBARK#CIA_manuals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_and_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_Against_Torture http://en.wikipedia.org/Cofer_Black
amazing,... simply amazing, what's coming our way!
oh, and here's a bonus,... a 'SAD' tale of horror___http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Activities_Division
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukeHdiszZmE&feature=related
15-20 years my ass. Things will be much better in 7-10 years. If Obama goes down in November we have a good shot at things looking much better in 7. If Obama is elected again, things will go somewhat slower, and it may take 10-12 years to recover.
I've been preparing for this period for almost 20 years. My projection of the real estate crash was off by 14 months. Not bad, and I got out of the problem holdings in time. I was an investor in two bank startups, managed to sell out with just months to spare.
Now I'm 75% Galt, and starting to pick up real estate again at 30% of it's price from 7 years ago. Going to Arizona to buy next, Marc Faber is right. Arizona real estate is a better buy than gold.
If Obama goes down in November we have a good shot at things looking much better in 7.
That's interesting. Which of Romney's policy ideas you think are going to really help turn things around?
Stagnation in DC is all it takes for thing to improve. Yes; it would be better to have a reasonable government, but failing that give me one that's doing less.
Then you'll just LOVE this. "Jump the shark" came to mind.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/ND03Dj05.html
That is some good stuff. I mean for sure wherever you look, and as they're constantly reminding you,
it's all just SO GODDAMNED INSPIRING!
Meremortal
If Obama is elected again,
We are toast PERIOD.
IF he gets the Senate and House,and if we are fortunate enough to do that, then they will have to finally grow a set, and stop him in his tracks.If not, it will end bloody.
I'll tell you what is coming our way: Man made photosynthesis, which will be an economical capture of the sun's energy.
Duck and cover , and kiss your ass goodbye,you mean.
What this guy fails to understand in constructing this "Turning" myth narrative is...
Each of these revolution points were in fact a scamming operation by the ruling bankster oligarchy to bleed wealth from the populace like cattle...
Myth: A widely held belief that is in fact false...
Rent Seeking Parasitic Ruling Class
If you look at the historical facts, these "Turnings" are not some grand Kondratiev wave, but a generational indebting and looting operation by the parasitic ruling bankster families fleecing any surplus wealth from the populace again and again...
The only wave is the time necessary for compounding interest to debt saturate the given economy followed by collapse and looting...
The grand invention of Shakespearian characters or Tolkien legends affixed to each Turning is unnecessary romancing of the facts and essentially inaccurate, even though demographics always play a role in economics...
Using demographics in such a way would be the Fallacy of the False Premise...
Why those filthy no-good wanking bankers.
Nothing new here, and some deeply flawed statistics--The suggestion that there is 100 million unemployed is complete and utter nonsense. My wife is of working age, she stays home with the kids. She is not "living off of the system" as was implied. I'm sure there are plenty of other working age Americans who don't work for various reasons but are not any sort of drag on the system.
I'm tired of all the doom and gloom. Let's talk about solutions, not rehashing the same tired crap for the sake of Baby Boomers who refuse to change or admit that problems could be solveable.
Geriatricide ,the only final solution.
Until the narcisastic,spoilt,baby boomers are gone there
can be no answer to this problem.
They have robbed the futures of the human race,by their
greed.
A generational conflict is ,and will be coming.
Winston Churchill
Until the narcisastic,spoilt,baby boomers are gone there
can be no answer to this problem.
Fell for the propaganda bait huh?.
The ones responsible for the shortfalls are all sitting in Congress or retired from, died,Boomers just paid in like every generation before them, they did not get a say in its spending, nor its mis-management.
This goes way back before ANYONE on this site was born, to blame just a few generations is a show of ignorance on your part.
I actually agree.
The cycle needs to be broken.
As a baby boomer myself,I do not much like the solution either.
True, but the boomers presided over the real debt ramp up, and sat idly by, electing the same Repubocrats who continued to tank the ship, all the while reaping the spoils of the debt party. Maybe they don't get 100% of the blame, but they do get a nice fat share of it.
Infanticide a better solution for the likes of when you shot out of your hairy mothers butt.
What an idiot non-savant.
He's right except for the fact that gold is getting spanked right now at all metal quotes bitchez.
So? Means it's cheaper to buy.
The only hope against entropy is the sun. It is not much of one.
This is true. It isn't much of one -- only a billion years worth. Although our sun won't turn into a red giant for another 4.5 billion years (when the sun expands and will be essentially 'touching' Earth), we've got aprox. 1 billion years until the Sun's temperature increases and all of the water on the planet boils off. No oceans = no fun. Sunscreen, bitchez.
"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" by Mackay.
We need leaders beyond linear that can think in Venn Diagrams - convergenace of forces
Strange how he simply ignores World War One... because it doesn't fall conveniently into his 80is year repetition period?
WWI solved nothing. Fourth Turning Wars are decisive and conclusive. Read the book rather than act like you know what the fuck you're talking about.
Warm-up act.
William Strauss and Neil Howe were able to document turnings in Anglo-American history dating back to the 15th century.
_________________________________________________
That is great.
Anglo-american history... What a concept.
That is great.
A history of roadside excretion in China... What a concept.
Wait, is it on Kindle yet?
Not yet, but there are some preview chapters online at:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_citizenism
“Oooh! Dat big wheel be a turnen Boss!
Americans are completely unprepared psychologically for the hardships that lay before us. The American mass population is brainwashed by the N.W.O main stream media into a false security that there isn’t anything wrong and everything is normal- we only live one day at a time and when we wake up, we expect the day to be like all the days in the past.
Americans have never experienced death and destruction like what we brought to Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Iran, etc. The US unjust wars and murder of millions on TV does not concern most Americans; it does not disrupt their day- they can’t feel the pain.
America’s days of pain are coming via the CIA, UN and NATO, as planned by the Trilateral Commission and the Counsel on Foreign Relations. Their strategy is simple: divide and conquer; today’s race baiting is a good example.
Historically, once Fascist (corporate/government) overthrow Democracy (government of, for and by the People) and install tyranny; the people revolt when their threshold for pain is reached.
The harsh reality of starving to death in America is real in the near future. American people do not farm like they did 90 years ago; most are completely dependent on the grocery stores for food.
The good news today is that Smart & Final has 20 lb bags of premium American rice on sale for $16.50. Most American’s are not rice eaters and their cupboards have a one month food supply. Generally, when I tell people about the great deal on 20 lb bags of rice; they are astonished because that is more rice than they consume in two years! “No Thanks” they say, they will stick to the boxes of Rice-A-Roni!
That's some fuckin' expensive rice, yo. What's "premium" about it?
Look for the union label.
Hah! Awesome. (I admit, I'd never heard of union farmers. I thought they still used slaves....)