The problem with industrial farming is that it is a one size fits all kind of situation, but different areas with different ecosystems and microecosystems do not really lend themselves to that mentality. In the last post, I mentioned that large scale agriculture will still be needed in the future, but I do need to emphasize that it cannot be corporate controlled industrial agrichemical-based monocultures, and certainly not with GMOs in which we currently are invested. Norman Borlaug’s ‘Green Revolution’ of the 1960’s was a noble effort to feed the world by initially using hybridized seeds with better yields. Alas, the Agribusiness corporate monster got its teeth in the process and what we have now is simply Big Ag pushing its authoritarian technocratic philosophy onto everyone with false promises and plenty of let-downs.
If it is not yet obvious, systems like food, medicine, and education should be rights of every individual and not left to the whims of market forces based on failed economic paradigms where profit is the only measure of success. Externalities of ecological destruction that include greatly diminished soil quality, water pollution from agrichemicals, soil erosion, reduced yields, and increased pest resistance to failing pesticides are just the tip of the iceberg of problems with Big Ag. Include reduced nutritional value of many high-tech crops, toxic chemical pollution of crops being ingested, and the unseen sociological consequences and the externalities keep mounting. And that is before we start to point out the vast numbers if people worldwide with poor to extreme malnutrition (estimates of 3 billion) and just plain starving (nearly a billion people) for lack of food that if not sold is destroyed to keep crop process high and you begin to see the obscenity of our corporate food systems.
It’s not technology specifically that is the problem. Many hybrid crops do raise yields, especially in agricultural areas termed marginal ecosystems. But when Big Ag has totalitarian control of even useful technologies, then the need to democratize food systems has to be a first order of business. It’s a fundamental piece of living – we all have to eat to live and letting that be controlled by a mindless corporate system borders on insanity. Actually, it is insanity, much like much of what we have allowed to happen worldwide as ecosystems teeter on the edge of collapse because of corporate driven greed.
It not a hard thing to change. First step is democratizing agriculture back to the people and using the historical wisdom that local farmers once knew about to manage local ecosystem farming systems. How that democratizing works will be different everywhere, but at the minimum it means giving the farms back to people to control. This is as true for the developed nations as it is for the developing ones. It’s a wholescale process of Relocalization starting with grass roots movements.
Not everyone has to go back to being a farmer, but we can all be involved in managing and being supportive of our control of our food systems. Just because you don’t farm doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a vested interest in the food you eat. In most developing countries, rural farming systems are largely intact and need only advice and help in determining which technologies are truly beneficial from those that are merely Corporate control scams. The big problem for many developing countries would seem to be the lure of the consumer paradigm – they only see its potential for affluence without recognizing its almost insidious antisocial dehumanizing effects. It’s one of the reasons so many third-world farmers buy into the dream sold by Big Ag that so many find out to late to be a nightmare. Even in a country as large as India, having 10,000 farmers committing suicide a year because of financial disaster after investing in the Big Ag dreams is still extreme.
In the developed world the problem is that people over a century went from being primarily farmers (85%) to a situation where barely 2% of the population are now farmers, and many of those are trapped in the Big Ag system. The democratizing of food systems here means for local people to support local farmers who still own their land to grow organic healthy crops, such as in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA’s) ventures, and homeowners with yards and gardens, working together to grow their own crops in their own small lots. And then add to that the growing numbers of urban farmers. It has to become a different mindset from the consumer mindset into which most people are currently locked. It simply has to be more than thinking of food as coming only from the grocery store.
People in developing countries know the cost of food and the poor and impoverished are often trapped into buying the cheap and unhealthy processed crap that passes for food in a modern society. Those who can afford food often are unaware of how addicted and unhealthy processed food is and most likely unaware of just how fragile the food supply system has become. I am encouraged at the numbers of people who now support the grocery stores that do provide organic and more healthy options. But the simply truth is that the supply chains can collapse at any time pending economic breakdowns. That in itself should be more than incentive to become more involved in one’s source of food.
The odd thing is that most people enjoy working with growing food. It always excites and amazes me how much kids love being able to eat something that comes out of the ground. Their enthusiasm usually goes back to their homes creating passion within parents. Indeed, if you want to start a local food system in your area, get the kids involved and the adults will follow them. It’s quite amazing as well how once you encourage kids with their own food sovereignty, they become involved with donating to food pantries, selling their produce at local farmers markets, and getting community gardens established – kids are quite the entrepreneurs if let loose without the restrictions of failure we adults have. You can grow food anywhere that is open ground, but even if you do not have much area because you live in an apartment, you can still grow things (like tomatoes) in a windowsill or on a small balcony in bags of soil.
In an interview with food activist Chef Q, “Across the nation, we’ve seen victory gardens pop up in yards of homebound upper-middle-class Americans, planted with hope, thriftiness and a creative outlet in mind. But for those who don’t have yards or ample space, shared urban gardens can still serve a local population. When people don’t have money, growing food is a solution to provide nutrition, and perhaps even income. And it starts with advocacy, volunteers and outreach. “Plant something in the windowsill,” suggests, as an entryway into small-scale gardening. “It’s essential. We can’t stop.”
To Be Continued ……………….
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