Unless they can mechanize every aspect of the food production process, which of course they can't, they will eventually run out of willing and able workers to do their inhumane production work. It will wither away, the effects on pricing will be just the beginning. There will be no food.
It is not surprising that the attempting to profit-maximize corporate slavers and their servile educational and technological grunts have a total disdain for humanity in any aspect of their agriBUSINESS. They probably operate as loss leaders in highly diversified mega-corporations that falsify their records to show profits that don't and increasingly can't exist, eventually in all sectors of their fictitious entities.
The plight of farmers that you describe does not surprise me. As you ride the bus through Iowa, without exaggeration, one of every three farmsteads is abandoned and that does not count the ones that have been torn down.
Agriculture has always been a form of slavery and like I said, the enslavers will push it to the point of impossibility and we will all starve, unless we freeze first.
Ah, life in the gluttonous Pink Car Nation...
In Peace, Friendwalkin', Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, August 7, 2009
Letter to "Funders for Sustainability"
Dana,
Just got finished watching "The Story of Stuff". Annie Leonard did an excellent job. Thank you for your contribution to the funding of this short film. I have made a small donation in support.
Apparently, the short is getting much viewership, hopefully it is not exclusively "preaching to the choir". Fundamental behavior change is essential to any hope that we have towards achieving sustainability in our communities and our world.
But awareness and behavior change of "consumers" is not enough. We must regain our humanity and we must radically alter our economic relations. Such will be extremely difficult because the Capitalist Growth Machine has centuries of momentum which has accelerated drastically in the last generation. The tragic growth pradigm of an economic system is one that eschews the reality of a finite planet, that eschews the teachings of ecology, that eschews the true needs of the majority of the people on the planet, and eschews environmental/public health and humanity towards people/workers and other living things.
We need a fundamental paradigm shift to an EcoSocialist Economy based on the principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life (in lieu of standard of living), sustainability, and peace. We need to radically rearrange the way resources are allocated to and within communities and among and within economic sectors. Such a "plan and implement economy" would have the neighborhood as a locus and work assiduously to develop and maintain inter-community, inter-regional, and world cooperation and unity. A strategy of ecological economic redevelopment would be employed and realized. In the United States a goal of walkable neighborhorhoods, reversing a century of sprawl, by reducing automobile usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years, rebuilding neighborhoods/town and village centers (or building the latter in many cases) and reallocating the production and distribution of goods and services so that almost all can get what they need within walking distance of their homes.
I have attached a paper entitles "Restructuring Our Financial System" which proposes an alternative to the current dominant paradigm. Please take a look at this.
I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this letter and the attachment. I would be very glad to share more of my work with you. I have a 25 page concise, comprehensive plan that you may want to look at. Please do not hesitate to request this, or to communicate with me on any issue or concern related to this communication.
I am not seeking funding, I am seeking exposure for my ideas. To whatever extent we can collaborate would be of great interest to me.
Thank you.
I hope to "hear" from you soon.
In Peace, Friendship, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
(541) 343-3808
Just got finished watching "The Story of Stuff". Annie Leonard did an excellent job. Thank you for your contribution to the funding of this short film. I have made a small donation in support.
Apparently, the short is getting much viewership, hopefully it is not exclusively "preaching to the choir". Fundamental behavior change is essential to any hope that we have towards achieving sustainability in our communities and our world.
But awareness and behavior change of "consumers" is not enough. We must regain our humanity and we must radically alter our economic relations. Such will be extremely difficult because the Capitalist Growth Machine has centuries of momentum which has accelerated drastically in the last generation. The tragic growth pradigm of an economic system is one that eschews the reality of a finite planet, that eschews the teachings of ecology, that eschews the true needs of the majority of the people on the planet, and eschews environmental/public health and humanity towards people/workers and other living things.
We need a fundamental paradigm shift to an EcoSocialist Economy based on the principles of inclusion, equity, humanity, quality of life (in lieu of standard of living), sustainability, and peace. We need to radically rearrange the way resources are allocated to and within communities and among and within economic sectors. Such a "plan and implement economy" would have the neighborhood as a locus and work assiduously to develop and maintain inter-community, inter-regional, and world cooperation and unity. A strategy of ecological economic redevelopment would be employed and realized. In the United States a goal of walkable neighborhorhoods, reversing a century of sprawl, by reducing automobile usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years, rebuilding neighborhoods/town and village centers (or building the latter in many cases) and reallocating the production and distribution of goods and services so that almost all can get what they need within walking distance of their homes.
I have attached a paper entitles "Restructuring Our Financial System" which proposes an alternative to the current dominant paradigm. Please take a look at this.
I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this letter and the attachment. I would be very glad to share more of my work with you. I have a 25 page concise, comprehensive plan that you may want to look at. Please do not hesitate to request this, or to communicate with me on any issue or concern related to this communication.
I am not seeking funding, I am seeking exposure for my ideas. To whatever extent we can collaborate would be of great interest to me.
Thank you.
I hope to "hear" from you soon.
In Peace, Friendship, Cooperation, and Solidarity,
Mike Morin
Eugene, OR
(541) 343-3808
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Expanded "Community Supported Agriculture"
Expanded "Community Supported Agriculture"
I am really, for the most part, borrowing the name Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) (or maybe I'm lifting it).
Maybe it would be better to come up with a new name like, Locally and Regionally and Inter-regionally Community Supported Agriculture (LARIRCSA) ;-) .
"Conventional" CSAs are well intentioned in that they strive to have community members share the risks associated with farming with the farmers. Fair enough, and my plan shares that objective. However, the problem with CSAs and buying your food by the pound is that early in the season, you'd probably get more strawberries than you can eat (unless you have the luxury time and resources to make jam), there are varieties of tomatoes so those can be stretched out over at least part of the growing season, but most crops tend to come to fruition in relative batches, so the variety in food boxes probably is not optimal. I'm not a farmer, and have limited experience with gardening, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Secondly, mixed cropping implies more labor intensive farming, really extended gardening. While such a system would be much more healthy from many perspectives, it would be difficult for farmers employing such methods to compete with conventional farms.
Third, there are distribution issues. Who is responsible for getting the food box from the farmer to the "member"? It would be uneconomical for the farmer(s) to be responsible for the distribution, and it defeats the purpose of demand-side management relative to "consumer" activity to have the members drive all the way to the farm. Now, if members live in close proximity, then this would not be a concern.
Fourth, in places like Oregon, and even more northern climes, the harvest season is very short. It, like the growing season can be extended slightly, perhaps, by building hot houses, but only slightly.
Fifth, the extra planning involved would probably be too cumbersome for farmers.
I envision, and it may be happening (I don't know), farmers within regions and from different regions forming unions to gain control over the distribution of their products, working with cooperating truckers, warehouse handlers and associated cooperating retail outlets (perhaps incorporating pre-order systems (wouldn't electronic systems be helpful)), in a system of community/worker hybrid cooperative associations.
Similarly, relationships could be built relative to the recycling of organic wastes (of course, the objective would be to minimize such, as it would be to minimize packaging).
Now, the issue of seasonal farm workers needs to be dealt with. Migrant farm-working should be eliminated. Seasonal workers need to be accommodated to their needs during the off-seasons, so that they can have the quality of life of a sedentary community. Again, I don't know the status of such a proposal. Maybe it is already happening... Certainly, a year-round living wage, equity inclusion, and educational programs so that the young can assume more progressively responsible and more highly compensated roles in the food system will need to occur.
I am really, for the most part, borrowing the name Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) (or maybe I'm lifting it).
Maybe it would be better to come up with a new name like, Locally and Regionally and Inter-regionally Community Supported Agriculture (LARIRCSA) ;-) .
"Conventional" CSAs are well intentioned in that they strive to have community members share the risks associated with farming with the farmers. Fair enough, and my plan shares that objective. However, the problem with CSAs and buying your food by the pound is that early in the season, you'd probably get more strawberries than you can eat (unless you have the luxury time and resources to make jam), there are varieties of tomatoes so those can be stretched out over at least part of the growing season, but most crops tend to come to fruition in relative batches, so the variety in food boxes probably is not optimal. I'm not a farmer, and have limited experience with gardening, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Secondly, mixed cropping implies more labor intensive farming, really extended gardening. While such a system would be much more healthy from many perspectives, it would be difficult for farmers employing such methods to compete with conventional farms.
Third, there are distribution issues. Who is responsible for getting the food box from the farmer to the "member"? It would be uneconomical for the farmer(s) to be responsible for the distribution, and it defeats the purpose of demand-side management relative to "consumer" activity to have the members drive all the way to the farm. Now, if members live in close proximity, then this would not be a concern.
Fourth, in places like Oregon, and even more northern climes, the harvest season is very short. It, like the growing season can be extended slightly, perhaps, by building hot houses, but only slightly.
Fifth, the extra planning involved would probably be too cumbersome for farmers.
I envision, and it may be happening (I don't know), farmers within regions and from different regions forming unions to gain control over the distribution of their products, working with cooperating truckers, warehouse handlers and associated cooperating retail outlets (perhaps incorporating pre-order systems (wouldn't electronic systems be helpful)), in a system of community/worker hybrid cooperative associations.
Similarly, relationships could be built relative to the recycling of organic wastes (of course, the objective would be to minimize such, as it would be to minimize packaging).
Now, the issue of seasonal farm workers needs to be dealt with. Migrant farm-working should be eliminated. Seasonal workers need to be accommodated to their needs during the off-seasons, so that they can have the quality of life of a sedentary community. Again, I don't know the status of such a proposal. Maybe it is already happening... Certainly, a year-round living wage, equity inclusion, and educational programs so that the young can assume more progressively responsible and more highly compensated roles in the food system will need to occur.
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