by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

On July 1^st the Ministry of Agriculture sponsored its annual mini-conference at
Muhammad Farms. Representatives were present from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and
North Carolina. After a morning of picking vegetables and watermelons on the farm, the group set
down to a meal prepared by Sister Anne Muhammad using squash, sweet corn and cold sweet watermelon.
The Farm Marketing Coordinators/Ministers of Agriculture presented Dr. Ridgely with a navigational
devise to help him find his way as he delivers produce to the various cities.

After the meal we sat down for a conversation on the progress and future of the ministry and our
food buying clubs. The group’s major concern was how to keep members in their buying clubs. Most
of the buying clubs dropped back from weekly to bi-weekly purchase and deliveries because
participants could not adequately utilize the fresh fruits and vegetables that came in their boxes
in one week. It seems that fresh fruits and vegetables have a hard time competing against either
eating out at restaurants or pre-packaged processed foods from the grocery stores. Getting Black
people back in the kitchen to prepare and cook their own food is still problematic even after movies
like "Super Size Me" and books like "Fast Food Nation" have pointed out the
perils of putting your stomach in the "massa’s" kitchen.

In particular it would seem that those of us who claim to follow the teachings of the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad would be the first to buy into the idea of cooking our own food. Although there
might still be those who argue against the theology presented by him in "Message to the Black
Man" or the history of "Mr. Yakub", the scientists and doctors of the western world
are bearing witness everyday to the dietary plan presented by Mr. Muhammad in "How to Eat to
Live".

So what is the problem? After "How to Eat to Live" ignorance of what you should eat and
not eat is not an excuse. After Katrina, believing in and depending on America to accept Blacks into
the "American Way" and treating them like wanted citizens has been exposed to be a shallow
dream not based on reality. So why do we persist in trying to live the "American Dream"
with no means to participate accept to cut up one another or cut out essential personal and family
life functions like cooking?

It is interesting to observe how white women are taking up cooking and home making, while black
women are searching for a "career" or being "discovered". Why are there no black
"Martha Stewarts"?

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has declared that Black people in America have made a
"covenant with death." He states, "We have already made an agreement with hell and
that is why hell is in our lives. We have made an agreement with death and that is why death is in
our communities."

It is my responsibility as the Minster of Agriculture to carry out the goals of our Mission
Statement. Our major goal is "to develop a sustainable agricultural system that would
provide at least one meal per day, according to the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad
for the 40 million black people in America." To do this requires that we produce
then distribute food. However, if our potential customers prefer the artificial man-made food given
to them by their open enemy instead of fresh wholesome food provided by our system, then we have a
problem. The Ministry of Agriculture has three choices. We can produce raw products and attempt to
sell them to the "system" so that they can turn them into the poisons that our people
enjoy. Or we can set up the processing plants to make the poisonous but convenient foods that they
are used to. Or we can try and change their "culture of death" and break their
"covenant with death" so that we can service them from what we would prefer to produce,
good wholesome fresh food.

In the Ministry of Agriculture we promote the utilization of modern home appliances and kitchen
aids to make the cooking process easier and more efficient. This is why we are promoting and
marketing bread machines, so that our customers can make the best use of our 100% whole wheat flour
from Muhammad Farms. We are researching other items which we can make available to our customers to
make their cooking experience a more enjoyable one. My helper and wife, Sister Anne would also like
to encourage sisters to start cooking clubs, where groups come together to prepare food for freezing
and canning along with cooking days worth of meals at one setting for them and their families.

So how does one begin to break the gravitational pull of this "culture of death" which
uses all means of education, communications, advertisements and distractions to keep Black people
and the world on the fast track to hell? I have noticed that when Minister Farrakhan enters a room
or comes before an audience, he brings life and a love of life. The people in his presence light up
and for a moment seem to want to live. But evidently the light that Minister Farrakhan shares with
us soon fades in most of us once he leaves.

I personally believe that Minister Farrakhan is teachings us what he believes and it is that
belief which sustains his life and produces the extra "life force" that we can feel while
in his presence. So since he teaches us in a very clear manner what he believes, then what is the
impediment to our belief? I try to put myself in the mind-set of both a believer and a disbeliever.
I try to put myself in the shoes of the disbeliever and the weak believer so that I can understand
the blockage.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote on the back of the Muhammad Speaks Newspaper and Minister
Farrakhan still presents this on the inside back of the Final Call that, "WE BELIEVE that the
offer of integration is hypocritical and is made by those who are trying to deceive the black
peoples into believing that their 400-year-old open enemies of freedom, justice and equality are,
all of a sudden, their ‘friends’." After Katrina, how could one be fooled today? Personally
I continue to do a lot of studying which proves to me that what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught
and now Minister Louis Farrakhan is teaching is 100 per cent correct. However, I have noticed that
many Black people don’t even want to know the truth, if that truth is not going to get them a job
with white folk or make them more acceptable to white folk.

I never really understood this type of sick love for white folk until I got a dog. My dog would
fight any perceived enemy to myself and would jump up and down with joy just to see me walk into the
backyard. All I had to do was rub his head and feed him his one meal and he was happy. Of course I
kept my dog in a fence and did not let anybody else feed my dog. The fence for Black people is the
educational system, religious system, t.v. programming, movies, sports and entertainment. These
systems keep the people looking outside of themselves for happiness and acceptance. The people live
in a type of "virtual reality" or vicarious living. In America life is about living the
life style of the rich and famous. This type of selfish lifestyle is neither African nor Islamic and
only possible as long as something or someone or both are being exploited.

I have a "dream" too. I still have dreams about this girl I was infatuated with when I
was in Junior High. I wonder where she is now, and if I finally have "what it takes" to
attract her to me so that "I can live happily ever after"? Oh, let me wake up and live. I
have a mission to fulfill of service to my people and my God. What about you? Oh, I see. You are
waiting for somebody to serve YOU. Or maybe you are still waiting on someone to bring you that pot
of gold that the slave trader used to trick you onto those ships headed west.

Then again maybe you really believe that dying and going to "heaven" is the only way to
get "streets of gold", peace and happiness. We feel sorry for you, but we in the Ministry
of Agriculture will continue to build the infrastructure for good food and happiness down here on
God’s earth in case you decide to wake up and break your covenant with death.