The long awaited debut LP from NYC’s FLOWER “Hardly A Dream” is finally set to arrive.
FLOWER’s tedious approach to writing/creating/drawing their debut LP was carefully thought out and the result is a monumental anarcho punk /crust record.
“Hardly A Dream” Takes us on a bleak journey through the dark side of society. As soon as you drop the needle a dark atmosphere is immediately created with a slow intro featuring arpeggio guitar work that builds into pummeling d-beat crust. The albums vocals then leave you with a feeling of being crushed by the ever-present weight of living through our modern world of late stage capitalism that was built on the falsehoods of the so called American dream, religious hypocrisy’s, nationalism, and the greed of humankind.
FLOWER take many cues from predecessors and are most often (and rightfully so) compared to NAUSEA but they also take a heavy influence from ANTISECT, SACRILEGE & other greats. The artwork has a very RUDIMENTARY PENI feel and the record comes with an amazing 24.5 X 34.75 CRASS style poster jacket. All art work was meticulously hand drawn and overseen by the guitarist Willow in true DIY style and spirit. Willow was also cool enough to draw up a special shirt for the record release featuring an alternative PROFANE EXISTENCE backprint!
Dark, heavy, galloping crust from the streets of London. AGNOSY is back to present us with a ferocious beast of an album that can only be forged by the anger and frustration of living in today’s world. “When Daylight Reveals The Torture” aggressively attacks evils such the current rise of fascism and animal abuse. It intelligently and passionately touches on the Afrin invasion and the revolution in Rojava and shows nothing but utter disgust toward the arrogance of humankind’s lust for greed and power that will inevitably lead us down paths of war and environmental devastation.
AGNOSY – Live at SCUMFEST in London. 2011
While lyrically AGNOSY are much more politicly straight forward this time around than on previous releases, musically they have expanded on their sound to create a dark and moody atmosphere while at the same time staying crust as fuck. To say they know what they are doing would be an understatement from this band of vets whose members have played in HIATUS, HEALTH HAZARD, and BEGINNING OF THE END.
Long galloping intros are followed up by traditional d-beat, fierce solo’s are then meet with vicious vocals and pulverizing bass in a brilliant recording captured by Lewis Johns at The Ranch Production House and was mastered by Brad Boatright at Portland’s legendary Audiosiege. We then pressed on deluxe heavyweight 150-gram vinyl, printed on reverse board jackets, and included an 11in x 22in gatefold insert to bring you a high quality and truly epic record.
PROFANE EXISTENCE – PO BOX 647 – HUNTINGTON WV – 25711 – UNITED STATES
The legendary crust classic is now available once again!
Authorized and released in cooperation with MISERY, S.D.S., & MCR Japan & Remastered by Jack Butcher at Enormous Door Studio we are beyond proud to make one one the most rare and sought after crust records available once again.
Fuck the scavengers charging punks exuberant amounts of cash on ebay and discogs. We worked meticulously with both bands and with Jack at Enormous door to bring you an updated version that kicks major audio ass while maintaining the original authenticity.
Released on deluxe 150 gram vinyl. With an 11×11 inner sleeve. Black Paper Jacket. Reverse Board Jacket.
Earlier this year we re-issued this legendary LP and sold over 950 copies in just 4 short months. For this second pressing we pressed 490 copies on Krystal Clear & 485 on Grey Vinyl with Black Mist.
Crystal Clear (Bullet belt no included) Grey With Black Mist (Bullet belt no included) PROFANE EXISTENCE – PO BOX 647 – HUNTINGTON WV – 25711 UNITED STATES
Stench crust the way it was meant to be played!
The UK crust scene of the 1980’s inspired band after band but no other band has ever reincarnated the sound of that time as well as SWORDWIELDER. Quite simply if you like crust, then this the album you have waited decades for.
Review by Craig Hayes from “Your Last Rites”… Swordwielder – System Overlord Heavyweight punk fanatics take note: System Overlord is a fucking triumph. The long-awaited sophomore album from Gothenburg stenchcore band Swordwielder is a brooding behemoth, constructed from the filthiest and heftiest strains of punk and metal. System Overlord shimmers with apocalyptic visions, and it’s overflowing with all the grim atmospherics and intimidating intensity that defines consummate crushing crust.
Too much hype? No way… And no apologies, either. Swordwielder deal in definitive stenchcore on System Overlord, and much like their full-length debut, 2013’s Grim Visions of Battle, the band’s latest release is a knockout. Swordwielder’s harsh, gruff and dark sound owes a significant debt to old school icons like Amebix, Axegrinder, Deviated Instinct, and Antisect, and they mix and mangle their influences and leave ’em to rot on the battlefield.
Plenty of hammering rage drives System Overlord tracks like “Violent Revolution,” “Savage Execution” and “Cyborgs,” and thundering epics like “Corrupt Future” and “Northern Lights” exhibit subtler strengths, mixing guttural growls and clean vocals with crashing percussion and dirge-laden riffs. Connoisseurs of corpse-dragging crust will love the brute-force belligerence of “Absolute Fear,” “Nuclear Winter,” and “Second Attack,” which rain down like merciless mortar barrages. As a rule, all of System Overlord‘s mammoth tracks chug and churn with grinding muscle, while reeking of squalor and decay.
Swordwielder exudes tightly coiled aggression from start to finish here—songs rise from the ashes of desolation, and resounding calls for action and resistance ring loud. If you’re a fan of heavy-hitters like Fatum, War//Plague, Carnage, Zygome, Cancer Spreading or (insert your favorite hefty crust crew here), System Overlord‘s trampling tempo and strapping sound are bound to appeal.
WILT combine old school metal and crust in a perfect hybrid that very few others have ever achieved. Prepare for a LP thats equal parts galloping d-beat crust reminiscent of bands like HELLSHOCK, and INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL, meets old school death metal in the vein of BOLT THROWER, MEMORIAM (old) SEPULTURA.
Here is a track from the upcoming LP
“Sermon for the Bootlickers”
Despite the inculcation of helplessness within each there remains great power. Ill at ease with such makes us ill. Learn to see the hand that feeds for what it is. You’ve been fooled if you think you’ve got no power. Refuse to be reduced to a consumer you’re a human being. Define yourself by more than wealth. Define yourself as a human. You don’t need what you’re being sold. Bend your knee to no authority but your own mind. You have the power to avoid the gilded trap. Avarice is what you’re conditioned for. Break the mold discover what’s really valuable to you.
WILT will be on in Europe this July / August will ELECTROZOMBIES From Chile
Wed, July 12 Hanover / Germany / Confirmed Thu, July 13 Bremen Fri, July 14 Mulhem / Germany / Confirmed Sat, July 15 Gent, Belgium / CrustPicnic / Confirmed Sun, July 16 Paris / France or Amsterdam / Nederland July 18 North-East France or West Germany July 19 Freiburg / Germany TBC July 20 Winterthur / Switzerland Fri, July 21 Zurich / Switzerland Sat, July 22 Biel / Switzerland July 23 Lausanne or Geneva / Switzerland
July 24 Geneva / Switzerland or Grenoble france
July 25 Treviso (or Milano or Bologna or Verona) / Italy
July 26 Ljubljana Slovenia Confirmed
July 27 No Sanctuary chilling day
Fri, July 28 NoSanctuary Confirmed
Sat, July 29 NoSanctuary Confirmed
July 30 Ilirska Bistrica/Slovenia or Vienna/Austria or Budapest/Hungary.
July 31 Wiena / Austrai or Budapest or / Slovakia
August 1 Brno / Czech Republic.
August 2 Prague / Czech Republic
August 3 Finsterwalde / Germany TBC
Fri, August 4 Leipzig / Germany TBC
Sat, August 5 Berlin / Germany / confirmed
August 6 Dresden
August 7 Wroclaw / Poland
August 8 Warsaw / Poland
August 9 Poznan / Poland
August 10 Szczecin/Poland TBC
Fri, August 11 Rostock / confirmed
Sat, August 12 Hamburg TBC
For this in the Seattle or surrounding area you can catch WILT this Saturday April first at Highline Bar with NOOTHGRUSH from Oakland.
This June / July the newest member of the PROFANE EXISTENCE family, Portland’s VASTATION will be touring the west coast of the United States. They will be teamed up with WILT from Seattle for the entirety of the tour. If that’s not enough crust to rip your face off, a few selected shows will also feature BÄDR VOGU and British Columbia’s legendary ISKRA!
VASTATION is a somewhat newer band that formerly went by the name NIGHT NURSE. Musically VASTATION play raw galloping stenchy metal crust reminiscent of old peacevile bands. Their songs feature elements of greats like BOLT THROWER and AXEGRINDER mixed with DISCHARGE and EXTINCTION OF MANKIND. Later this month VASTATION will be dropping two incredible split EPS. The first one is with Minneapolis’s WAR//PLAGUE. It will be released on PROFANE EXISTENCE RECORDS and on ORGANIZE AND ARISE. The second split is with MUTILATED VETERANS and will be released on MORBID REALITY RECORDS.
If you have not heard VASTATION yet now is the time! Listen to the track“Don’t Uphold Their Law”
This has been an explosive week in the United States to say the least. We have seen massive protest in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Ferguson, Denver, San Diego and beyond. Due to these actions many comrades have faced the inside of jail cells. I can say from personal experience that a political arrest is a difficult situation and often a nightmare. I can not understate the importance of free legal aid. That is why we are donating 50% of the sales of PE TITLES ONLY to the legal defense of those arrested in this weeks uprising. This MAYDAY special will not just last Friday but for the entire weekend as well. Friday – Saturday – Sunday. And because we had trouble getting this email out yesterday we are extending this for Monday as well. If you have been holding out now is the time to order. Last night we witnessed fellow punks and other activist brutally taken down by vicious police live on various cable news networks across the land. Arrested for “Being out past curfew”. As one activist was carried away by police he told CNN how he felt about the curfew simply saying- “The curfew is bullshit!” We at PROFANE EXISTENCE have agree. He also spoke of the irony of being a baltimore citizen detained by an outside police force for sitting peacefully in a public space. Some of these individuals have been released but others are still sitting in jail facing bogus charges. They need legal support.
If you are not into buying records but still want to donate please give what you can to…
Cliquez sur « cc » pour les sous-titres en Français
This week we look at the student led mobilizations that have rocked the streets of Montreal and Quebec City. From large scale marches, to occupations of university buildings to direct actions, the spring 2015 coalition has re-energized radical organizing in so called Quebec. If you want some more background on this watch “Street Politics 101” our documentary on the 2012 Quebec student strike.
Some other samples from “Grin without at cat” “the Simpsons” “Game of Thrones”
Big ups to G.A.P.P.A.Madoc Studio and 99% Media and all the other video ninjas for documenting this uprising on the daily. How do y’all do it?!
“An International Culinary Conspiracy!” SOY NOT Oi! Volume #2
Over 200 Original Vegan Recipes Compiled by the All-New HIPPYCORE KREW!
Disclaimer – The title SOY NOT Oi! Was chosen 25 years ago during the rise in popularity of the right wing fascist Oi scene. The term NOT Oi! Is a direct fuck you to the Nazi boneheads infiltrating the punk and skinhead scene – both then and now! We would like to note that Oi in general is not racist, and some of it is quite good. There are many anti-fascist Oi bands that we support and love… Oi POLLOi, THE SHAME, THE OPPRESSED, HARD SKIN, COCKNEY REGECTS, BLITZ and the list goes on. So to end this little “disclaimer” lets just say fuck the fascist and up the punx!
Okay so lets start with the basics…
For those that do not know the history of SOY NOT Oi! The original book was compiled by HIPPYCORE 25 years ago. SOY NOT Oi! was an international effort with contributors mailing in recipes from all over the world.
The idea was to get affordable vegan recipes into the hands of punx. It quickly became well known and was spread throughout the punk scene like wildfire. Over the years the SOY NOT Oi! cookbook became legendary, a household item no proper punk kitchen or squat was without.
Over 2 decades later the main editors Joel Olsen and Jack Kahn discussed the idea of reprinting an updated version of SOY NOT Oi! However before they could collaborate on the idea Joel passed from this world. Jack got in touch with former contributors with the idea doing SOY NOT Oi!-2 with all proceeds directly benefiting Joel’s family. Everyone was more then happy to be board with both breathing new life to SOY NOT Oi! and also paying respect’s to Joel.
SOY NOT Oi!-2 contains over 200 vegan recipes as well as… nutrition information, grocery shopping tips, essays on punk rock and veganism, tips for dumpster diving, edible wild plants, recipes for making homemade cosmetics, and even a crash coarse in home brewing! Plus a section on canning food with a step-by-step guide for preserving tomato’s written by PROFANE EXISTENCE founder Dan Siskind!
The recipes contained in this volume are vast, and with contributors submitting recipes from all over the world you will find something different on each page. Every recipe is written with easy step-by-step instructions, although some might argue the most important step is what record to spin while you are chopping up some garlic. Well don’t fear, most contributors have been kind enough to suggest what soundtrack is best for his or her recipe. For instance Dawn Dyer suggest that you jam Adolescents and Media Children while putting together her “Green Chile, Spinach, Tofu and Mushroom Enchiladas” and Todd Meszaros highly recommends blasting PISSED- “Greatest hits” while baking his “Zucchini Muffins”.
Overall SOY NOT Oi! #2 is pretty damn amazing. The editors have successfully combined veganism, punk rock, humor, and love for a friend all in one book that is full of information. SOY NOT Oi #2 is a fun book to just sit down and thumb through. The recipes are enjoyable to make – and exceptional to eat! I made two recipes from the book specifically for this review. Adrienne Lowe’s “Smokey Eggplant Chilli“, and April Olson’s “Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies“. Both dishes are delicious but even better they are simple recipes that even the most inexperienced cook could easily complete and get some great results. Needless to say my dinner guest that night went home happy that night. Only time will tell but I feel like I can say with full confidence that SOY NOT Oi! -2 will become a staple on punk bookshelves all across the world just like the first one.
Chapters include…
Staples and Foundations(Spice mixes, Vegan egg replacers, how to make Seitan and more)
Breakfast
Snacks and Appetizers
Quick Fix Meals
Salads
Soups and Stews
Main Dishes
Pissed. recording in Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 1991. Left to right: Dan Siskind, Joel Olson, and Newt Rayburn.
Side Dishes
Saucecore
Spreads and Dressings
Breads and Muffins
Deserts
Brewing
Foodways and Funstuff(includes recipes for homemade deodorant and facial masks, edible wild plants and more)
In this week’s show an homage to women everywhere, a look at the trolls from the Men’s Rights Movements and how the Gulabi Gang in India who are beating down rapists with big ass sticks. On the music break, Bambu with “The Queen is Dead.” Our featured guest is journalist Dawn Paley, talking about her book “Drug War Capitalism”
In this week’s show an homage to women everywhere, a look at the trolls from the Men’s Rights Movements and how the Gulabi Gang in India who are beating down rapists with big ass sticks. On the music break, Bambu with “The Queen is Dead.” Our featured guest is journalist Dawn Paley, talking about her book “Drug War Capitalism”
It is very sad news to hear that Todd Serious, the vocalist of Vancouver’s The Rebel Spell passed away March 7 2015 in a tragic rock climbing accident.
Todd was a wonderful human being a dedicated activist, excellent vocalist, and a good friend to many people. He contributed immensely to the punk community and positively impacted the lives of everyone he came in contact with. It is always widely felt when we loose another a member of our tight knit community; and Todd was definitely a positive part of this community. His passing will be mourned by many people across the continent.
I want to take a moment to reflect on my own interactions with Todd and share those experiences. I first met Todd and Rebel Spell in about 2006. I primarily knew Todd through his band, who I worked with back when I was a promoter setting up DIY punk shows in Victoria, a west coast town on occupied Coast Salish Territories. I believe I first met them when traveling with another favorite band of mine, Leper, on a mini tour with 2 other Victoria bands, Grey Army and Blood Nasty. Right from the beginning it was Todd and Erin who were the ones I felt genuine friendship from. Todd was great at making sure that all the outcasts felt included, and had a genuineness I have rarely seen in anyone else. This was a wonderful relief from the often clique and elitist aspects that are all too common in the underground music subcultures.
The Rebel Spell has always been a band who exhibits a lot of integrity; both as a band and as individuals. Despite this they have often received more than their share of criticism from diy-anarcho punks and crusties for not sounding dirty enough, or for playing with more mainstream bands like Rancid; yet from what I have witnessed the Rebel Spell more than any other band seemed to take accountability for making sure their shows were inclusive and safe. Often Todd would make time between songs to remind people to make the pit a place everyone who wanted to could use, or to call out shitty behaviors that others would have been content to ignore. He was committed to his values, and inspired many others with his compassion for both animals and people.
I consider myself lucky to have known him and worked with him, Todd and Rebel Spell were alway wonderful to work with. To his family, his bandmates, his close friends and the rest of his community; we send our condolences from PE. Todd has and deserves our deepest our respect. Let’s make sure to support those who are greiving this loss and to continue his work in building community and helping animals.
Yes! Finally, after what turned out to be a gigantic task of moving the PROFANE EXISTENCE distro from Minneapolis to Denver, transferring tons of data, and rebuilding the web store, we are finally set to open back up. To access the new store follow one of the many links from profaneexistence.com or access it directly at http://profaneexistence.storenvy.com
The first official PROFANE EXISTENCE title of 2015 is out and ready for order! We are proud to bring you the RIFLE DIET – “NO SOLACE”LP
Rifle Diet’s No Solace is a 12in 45 that combines the Classic Minneapolis crust sound with Swedish hardcore, D-beat and Epic crust (think somewhere between Servitude and Wolfbirgade, with hints of Tragedy and Fall of Efrafa). The beautiful cover art by Hannah Benoche sets a bleak mood for the dark music within, plus a cover of His Hero is a Gone – Chain of Command (ex-members of InDefence and Garmonbozia) This LP is a joint release between PROFANE EXISTENCE and BLOOD OF THE YOUNG RECORDS
To honor both the opening of the new store and our first release of 2015, we are giving a free copy of the RIFLE DIET – No Solace lp to everyone that spends more then $50 from Monday January 12th to Monday January 19th!!! This deal is for one week only. DO NOT MISS OUT!
*Note*Rifle Diet are playing a record release show 1/17/15 at the Dogplex in Minneapolis with Kontrasekt, Aziza, and Fucking. To coincide with that show all orders that contain the RIFLE DIET – No Solace lp will be shipped out on Monday January 12th.
The next release in the works is the new full length lp from APPALACHIAN TERROR UNIT – “We Don’t Need Them”.
We Don’t Need Them is the second full-length record from West Virginia punx Appalachian Terror Unit. ATU have become known throughout the years as being one of the most politically charged bands in the current punk scene. This new record is an all out attack on today’s society that takes ATU to a new level of intensity both lyrically and musically. The combination of the beautiful and thought provoking gatefold cover art designed by Stivart along with the brilliant recording and mastering job by Jay Matheson at the Jam Room take this record even further. Song subjects include the horrors of war, police brutality, destruction of the environment, rape culture, consumerism and much more. Expect a very heavy and much angrier approach from a band that has been around the block and matured their sound. Seven raging new tunes including the epic fourteen and a half minute track “We Don’t Need Them”, a song that will one day be ranked among similar greats as the SUBHUMANS “From the Cradle to the Grave” and AUS ROTTEN “And Now Back to Our Programming”.
APPALACHIAN TERROR UNIT – We Don’t Need Them will be pressed in the United States on PROFANE EXISTENCE & in Europe on SKULD /RUIN NATION
WARWOUND – “A Huge Black Cloud-The Demos 1983“
Another record we are very excited about is the upcoming WARWOUND – A Huge Black Cloud-The Demos 1983. Recorded in 1983, this record contains 15 songs from three sessions. With a few different takes you get a total of 25 blistering tracks. For those unfamiliar with WARWOUND they are a UK band formed in 82, and released 2 demos in 83. Members went on to join THE VARUKERS and form the almighty SACRILEGE. Warwound are one of the first bands to take the politics and d-beat influence from DISCHARGE and combine it with the blown out sound of CHAOS UK to achieve total destructive raw d-beat ear bleeding chaos!
WARWOUND – A Huge Black Cloud-The Demos 1983 will be a split release between PROFANE EXISTENCE and ORGANIZE AND ARISE.
It will be available in the spring of 2015.
Other records and projects we have in the works for 2015 …
VASTATION (pdx formally night nurse) vs WAR//PLAGUE Split EP
Including a resurrection of the PROFANE EXISTENCE printed zine!
Stay tuned – Stay Active – Stay Punk
PROFANE EXISTENCE 2015
…MAKING PUNK A THREAT AGAIN!
Make sure to catch PROFANE EXISTENCE bands ROAC and WAR//PLAGUE at this years crustock 3. Also keep a look out for an APPALACHIAN TERROR UNIT West Coast tour of the United States and Canada this July.
When a band get’s back together after disbanding we tend to use terms like “Back from the dead”. However in the case of Richmond’s PARASYTIC I don’t think that term fits. If you ask any member of the band they will say that PARASYTIC never broke up but suffered from a period of inactivity. Mainly due Nick’s aggressive tour schedule in his other bands, Ethan’s travels abroad, and Matt recently becoming a father. However after a long two-year hiatus the good news is that PARASYTIC is back. They have kept the reunion somewhat low-key while practicing old material and writing new songs. In the recent weeks however PARASYTIC let the proverbial cat out of the bag by announcing not just their long anticipated return but also a mini tour of the northeastern United States to coincide along with it.
For those of you that have not heard PARASYTIC, I suggest you remedy that situation as soon as possible. PARASYTIC play an absolutely brilliant blend of metal, punk, thrash, and crust. They have been referred to as the United States answer to bands like CONCREATE SOX and THE ENGLISH DOGS. PARASYTIC’s lyrics range from animal rights, to the horrors of war, disgust at puppet politicians, human liberation and much more. With amazing riff’s, harmonizing solo’s, pounding bass, and thunderous drums, combined with Ethan’s onstage antics it is impossible to see PARASYTIC play live and not be impressed. I was fortunate enough to drive PARASYTIC on their first tour in February of 2008. We spent a few weeks on the road starting in Richmond VA and working our down the east/gulf coast all the way to Mexico City and back up the Midwest. Every night was a blast and it never got old seeing these guys play. Spending time getting to know them was even better. PARASYTIC toured extensively in the following few years playing shows all over the United States and spending a month playing the European squat circuit in 2011.
Tonight PARASYTIC take the stage at Strange Matter in their hometown of Richmond VA for the first time in over two years. They will be joined by VISIONS OF WAR (Belgium) NO/TOMORROW (RVA/SC) SEX DWARF (Sweden) and WRATHCOBRA (Pittsburgh). On Thursday they head to New London Connecticut to begin a short mini tour. In my opinion PARASYTIC is one of the most important bands to ever come out of the United States. I for one am completely thrilled to see them active once more. It’s rare these days to see a band that is political and sincere as well as extremely talented and energetic. If you have a chance to see them at any of their upcoming shows you wont be disappointed. LONG LIVE PARASYTIC!!!
With the rise in popularity of the ideas of urban gardening, deep ecology, and permaculture amongst activists, anarchists, and subcultures such as punk often questions of ethics seem to have become simplified to the equation of SUSTAINABLE = GOOD. Yet often all kinds of cruelty can be hidden behind the veneer of that buzzword sustainable.
The unfortunate reality is that simple fixes rarely offer much beyond false hope and easy ways out. Perhaps they help people to ease their personal guilt by assuming they are not part of the problem (everyone else is), but is this any more than a self serving delusion?
The farm I grew up on near Kitscoty Alberta. This picture looks out the window of my mothers bedroom over the garden and barnyard
I grew up on a small family run farm in Alberta, 10 miles north of a town you have likely never heard of, with a population under 700. My mother grew up on that same farm with her two brothers. Her dad and his family lived there for many years, they had immigrated up from Nebraska where the family had farmed for a few generations since their original migration from Scotland, where again they had been farmers. It would be fair to say that farming is in my blood, so to speak (or perhaps I have just been reading too many Vampire The Masquerade books as of late?) Either way, I feel at least semi-competent to write about some of the ‘sustainable’ realities of small scale farming, drawing on my personal experiences.
I have many memories from growing up on the farm, from playing in the garden and eating carrots straight out of the ground with the dirt still on them, to collecting eggs from the chicken house, or chasing the turkeys for fun, being chased by the turkeys (which wasn’t so fun), or moving cattle from one pasture to another by horse back. There were some great memories too; picking saskatoon berries, wild raspberries that grew in the coolie, or building forts and campfires in the bush by the ravine. However, there were also just as many memories that were not so wonderful to look back on. Branding cattle with a hot iron as they screamed, or castrating steers — many city folks don’t realize you do not eat cows, and you do not eat bulls, you eat a male who had it’s nuts cut off so the flesh will taste better. All of which could be argued as sustainable.
Now I recognize that not all this is relevant to the popular trends I see amongst self styled alternative people over here on the west coast, as most of the folk punks are more into having pet goats and living on boats rather than farming beef or dairy cattle for auction. So I will try to keep more focused on the aspects of small scale farming that would be more of interest to the DIY crowd with their fantasies of farming and sustainable farming.
Chicken Squawk
One of the more popular trends amongst the urban radicals is having back yard chickens, to collect and eat their eggs. Where I live, in the Cascadian bioregion, it has become almost as cliché to have 6-10 birds pecking around your back yard of your community house as it has to wear Carhardts, have a large dog, and all black clothing, or to play banjo. Unfortunately, I also live in an area where one thing that is not popular is sticking around. The radical community here tends to be quite transient in nature, with lots of college kids, traveler punks, and others folks who often didn’t come from here and even more often don’t have much intention of putting down roots. This is a common frustration to those who are part of long term projects propelled by volunteers, but none the less, it has its pros and cons. However for the chickens pecking the dirt and laying those golden eggs, it is a much bigger problem. An average chicken may live up to 8 years, which is far longer than the school term, or even a bachelors degree. A quick peruse of Craigslist at the right times of year will give you a good indication of just how expendable these animals are to many of the people who are excited in September (at the beginning of the school term) to build a chicken coop for their back yard. But even for those who don’t intend to go traveling or tree planting soon as the summer hits, few want to care for a chicken until it dies naturally of old age. You see, chickens only lay a lot of eggs when they are still fairly young, as they get older they will produce less and less. For many of the urban agriculture enthusiasts, a chicken that doesn’t lay eggs is just work with no pay off.
But the plight of the urban chicken doesn’t end there — or more accurately; it doesn’t begin there. You see, chickens don’t just appear, and they are not brought by the stork to deserving families, they come from somewhere – or in other words, someone breeds them. Few of the breeds of chickens people farm have any resemblance to wild breeds, and wild chickens are pretty rare these days due to our destruction of wildlife habitat for cities and farm land; never mind that there was chickens, like Europeans, are an invasive species to this part of the world. So most of the domesticated birds come from a hatchery; either directly – or indirectly.
I remember how exciting it was for me as a kid to order chicks. We would get a catalog in the mail, with pictures of the full grown birds, and you would select them by recording the order number of which breeds you wanted to buy. A few weeks later, you would get a large cardboard box in the mail which would be chirping. Upon opening it, you would see it packed full of fluffy yellow chicks, divided and layered with cardboard dividers so they could fit more into each box. Every so often a couple would die while in the mail, so you would get a few dead ones in every box.Kinda like two scoops of raisins, right?
An important thing to note is, that they also were separated not just by breed, but also gender. See chicks are born about half females and half males, but most people don’t want to order males. Roosters don’t lay eggs for one, and for two, if you have more than one (or maybe two) roosters, they will kill each other. So the chicks are bred, the females are sold through mail order and the males are killed. Yup, right into the wood chipper. When people get back yard chickens, they often order from a breeder or hatchery. I know some get “second hand” or even call them “rescues”, but where do you think those birds came from before you got them? Buying chickens is putting money into the industry that breeds them for profit. This is the industry of commercial chicken breeders, and they are often the same places that supply big farms, as well as small farms and your average urban gardener with their new found interest in permaculture. And I didn’t even talk about the forced insemination.
Permanent Agriculture?
The study of words can reveal a lot. If you look at the etymology of the word Garden, we discover it is related to the German word for guard, and to words for walled, or closed lot. It doesn’t take a lot of thought to begin to see the relationship between these terms. As anthropologist Layla AbdelRahim explained in Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams, domestication requires the domesticator to control access to food and land. When you begin to garden a space, you must control what other species have access to that land or you will likely not have much of a crop to harvest. Whether we are talking about other non-human animals that might desire and easy lunch, or even competing plant species, insects, or other humans – gardening requires us to control what species are able to access the space. On an even more basic level, gardening usually begins with removing undesired plant species to prepare the land so we can plant seeds of the species we desire.
It has always amazed me how uncritically many Green Anarchists, Vegans, and Primitivists seem to embrace and support permaculture. Yet permaculture is in its essence another system of domestication rooted in anthropocentric desires. In other words, permaculture might be presented by its proponents as being sustainable (and therefore ethical) and based in local ecology, but in fact it is once again about human wants and needs. As well revered permaculturist Erik Ohlson explained in his interview in the book Tangled Roots: Dialogues Exploring Ecological Justice, Healing, and Decolonization, “Permaculture, which could be permanent—agriculture or permanentcultureis about designing human culture that is beneficial to both the land and to human at the same time.” That might sound great on the surface, but look at it a bit more closely and it follows all the same old patterns; humans are in control, Erik posits us as the managers and designers, and in the end it is about human needs first and foremost. Animals are not even acknowledged in this relationship, even though you would be hard pressed to find a permaculturist who doesn’t argue that domesticated animals are needed in order to maintain a healthy closed circuit. The implicit goal of permaculture is to make this human domination of wildlife spaces, plants and animals – sustainable and thus permanent.
I am fully aware that not every radical out there agrees with the anarcho-primitivist critiques of domestication, which sees domestication as not only the control of the wild, but also as the root of many other systems of domination such as patriarchy. It took me a long time myself to come to a place where I was open to those conclusions and the difficult questions they lead to. However there are many lenses to view the question of ‘sustainable farming’ through. From an animal liberation lens, another set of problems presents itself in that permaculture like other forms of gardening for human consumption involves turning wildlife habitat into farm lands that are exclusionary to certain wildlife, and even further permaculture also uses domesticated animals.
This is where it really becomes a problem for me, as it perpetuates the use and domestication of non-human animals for human benefit. But due to the SUSTAINABLE=GOOD formula, we choose to not see its implications for animals: both wildlife and domesticated. Often when I have presented these arguments to proponents of permaculture design, the response I get is akin to the lesser of two evils. The same argument often used to justify voting for shitty, racist, business friendly politicians.
I am by no means arguing that permaculture is worse for the land than monocropping, factory farming, or industrial agriculture, rather I am arguing that it is not the be all end all simple fix that many seem to desire it to be. Permaculture still means wildlife habitat is destroyed and used for human benefit that does not allow wild species full access and use of the spaces. Permaculture still involves captive breeding and continued domestication of animals for human consumption, whether it be chickens to scratch and turn the soil, or goats, pigs, or other species. Many of those animals will be from commercial breeders, and the care of those animals will continue to support industries that profit off of animal agriculture. Many of those animals will also still be killed in the end either so humans can consume their flesh and bodies, or because they have quit producing at the rates desired by the domesticators. Most of those animals will also be of breeds that simply did not exist in the wild, did not exist until humans interfered with their reproductive strategies to cause them to develop traits deemed more desirable. Did you know that wild pigs were never pink skinned, that sheep didn’t produce a harvestable amount of wool for hundreds of years after domestication, or that cattle bred for meat are different breeds than the cattle bred for dairy production? Wild cattle don’t produce as much milk, the animals we farm today are the product of thousands of years of selective breeding.
It is indisputable that modern industrial agriculture is anything but sustainable as it depletes the infrastructure of the landbase for higher temporary crop yields. Such a system by definition is incapable to sustaining itself indefinitely and would eventually lead to a collapse as once fertile croplands become less and less able to produce, due to nutrients in the soil being depleted. Technological fixes such as fertilizers may increase yields in the short run, but only work to deplete the health of the land in the long term. Permaculture on the other hand aims to be sustainable, which may be its most insidious trait. It seeks to make permanent the ability of humans to dominate the wild, and thus maintain industrial civilization. Advocates often argue that permaculture can allow us to use less land in order to grow crops to feed our populace (which is a population of not just humans, but also of the animals we domesticate for our use). However, promises of abundance aside, we live in a society of exponential growth. Capitalism is an economic system that requires such growth, both in profits and in populace which will consume the products of the capitalists. Permaculture does nothing to challenge or disrupt this growth, and in fact may allow it to continue far beyond the limits of industrial agriculture in its current form.
Capitalism kills animals. Industrialism kills animals. Civilization as we know it is based on the domestication of animals and destruction of the wild. I have no doubt that permaculture may live up to its promise of sustainability, I would even go further and suggest that many older practices of agriculture (such as crop rotation and choosing crops based on soil conditions) can also allow long term sustainability, yet like permaculture these techniques do nothing to challenge the relationship of human dominance, capitalism, growth, or cruelty to animals. The system always seeks to recuperate easy reforms in order to maintain itself. If we do not actively work to disrupt these power relations and include questions of ethics, sustainability will just become another way of hiding our violence and rationalizing our domination of other species.
At the very root of agriculture is the domination of other living beings by humans. At the very core of ethics is the question of domination and hierarchy. For me, any system that perpetuates these historical patterns is a system based on violence. I am always reminding myself that agriculture is a relatively new invention in the timeline of human existence. The world I would like to work towards in one that encourages and fosters the growth of wild species and habitats, not the subjugation of them.
I don’t know what the solution to all of this is, but I do know that if we hope for total liberation it can not perpetuate the oppression of others.
For those of interested in finding alternatives to these oppressive systems we need to consider more than simple solutions. Directness of our relationship to our food, and sustainability of our practices is only one part of the question we need to be asking. Another key question is, what is the outcome for non-human animals and for other species? Do the ‘alternatives’ we are promoting make any difference to the chicken in the cage? How about to the Wolf? the Trout? The Orca? Or Mycelium? Are they better off because of our actions? Or does our liberation continue to come at their expense? How can we begin to foster relationships that benefit wildlife? And how can we imagine our relationships to other species in ways that have the potential to be liberating and symbiotic?
Many humans all around the world live in ways that are sustainable and respectful to the land they live on, and through most of human history that was how we all lived. The last couple thousand years is a blip in the time humans have been on this earth.
Constantly I see people who live in urbanized, industrialized places, within a colonial country, and have learned those ways – will turn around and say that it is just human nature and will go on to compare humans (as a totalizing group) to parasites trying to kill their host. This kind of misanthropy is a dead end and a trap that naturalizes colonialism and destruction and by making it simply part of who we are it creates the illusion that we can not be anything else. That we will always destroy, always kill, and always colonize, so we may as well not even try. The argument is not only a self prophesying dead end, that nullifies other possibilities it is also an ahistorical argument.
Giving up is the easy way out. It is escapist and removes all and any responsibility. Meanwhile, there is animals being vivisected and slaughtered, there is burial grounds being built on, old growth forests being clearcut, pipelines being pushed through sensitive ecosystems, women (especially native women) going missing or being found dead, more prisons being built, and all kinds of other shit going on that needs our energy and demands we take responsibility. Things some may personally benefit from do to our privileges but that future generations of humans and other animals as well as plants will need – and may not be able to live without if we don’t do something about this shit
see, chickens don’t just appear, and they are not brought by the stork to deserving families, they come from somewhere – or in other words, someone breeds them. Few of the breeds of chickens people farm have any resemblance to wild breeds, and wild chickens are pretty rare these days due to our destruction of wildlife habitat for cities and farm land; never mind that there was chickens, like Europeans, are an invasive species to this part of the world. So most of the domesticated birds come from a hatchery; either directly – or indirectly.
Roosters don’t lay eggs for one, and for two, if you have more than one (or maybe two) roosters, they will kill each other. So the chicks are bred, the females are sold through mail order and the males are killed. Yup, right into the wood chipper. When people get back yard chickens, they often order from a breeder or hatchery. I know some get “second hand” or even call them “rescues”, but where do you think those birds came from before you got them? Buying chickens is putting money into the industry that breeds them for profit. This is the industry of commercial chicken breeders, and they are often the same places that supply big farms, as well as small farms and your average urban gardener with their new found interest in permaculture. And I didn’t even talk about the forced insemination.
Profane Existence 