The solution to the current economic crisis won’t come from “tyrannical” Washington, according to Rev. Franklin Sanders. Rebuilding the economy, he said, could start in your own back yard.

Sanders, author of the newsletter “Moneychanger” and author/coauthor of four books, traveled to Heritage Community Church in Severn from Dogwood Mudhole, TN to speak at The Institute on The Constitution’s First Friday event last night.

“Washington is never going to do anything to get us out of this depression,” Sanders said.

Sanders said government spending as a major problem in the US. He said that he gathered economic facts about 15 southern states and found approximately 48.8 percent of the states’ income goes to federal spending.

“I’m not going to mention to you what [the government] spends money on,” Sanders said.

Sanders said he thinks the people in the US government are arrogant, and that he has seen no humility in the government’s reaction to the economic crisis. However, he said there are two ways out, rebuilding the economy through decentralization, or economic collapse.

Americans could rebuild an economic network with their neighbors to move into a different world that no longer depends on government money, he said, and one way to do that is to “start just with the food,” as it will create a local cash flow.

“We’re standing on acres of diamonds,” said Sanders. “The answer to the economic crisis is decentralization.”

Sanders said before the Fordson tractor was introduced to the U.S. in 1917, the whole U.S. was not a national economy. It was, he said, a collection of local economies that were, for the most part, self-sufficient.

Farmers grew their own crops, Sanders said, so they raised most of what they needed. When they went into town, they spent money at the local shops, so the money stayed “mostly in the system.”

“As long as the farmer prospered, the rest of the town prospered," said Sanders.

He said that after tractors were introduced in the US, the cash flow started leaving the towns to go to companies like Standard Oil.

Sanders proposed The Food Freedom Movement as a solution to the economic crisis.

This movement, which encourages people to grow their own food and buy food locally, “is the most powerful movement for human freedom that has happened in this country for the last 150 years.”

The reverend said he drinks raw, non-pasteurized milk daily, and so do his children and grandchildren. “In Tennessee,” he said, “you get in less trouble for dealing heroin than for dealing raw milk.”

“Regulations put people out of business,” Sanders said. “I’ll take my chances if a farmer eats [the food he grows].”

Sanders also said “pasteurized milk will kill you,” and noted high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners as possible causes of obesity because they make you hungrier, he said.

Sueann West of Heritage Harbor agreed with Sanders.

“In reality,” she said, “we’re the ones that need to solve [the economic crisis]. It has to start with each individual.”

“I’m going to get educated on The Food Freedom Movement,” West said. “It comes back to self-government, taking care of yourself and your own local area. Big government will not solve this.”

Martha Rogerson of West River said she will be doing some local shopping after hearing Sanders’ speech.

“Who knows,” she said, “I might plant sweet potatoes.”

Cristy Eslick, the community outreach pastor of Heritage Community Church, said “We have a long way to go to undo what the government has done. We the people do not even know the rights the government has taken away from us.”

“People are going to criticize my ideas,” said Sanders. “They’re going to say that the problem is too big.”

He said, “We built the first [economy] by the grace of God. We can build it again.”