Surviving Capitalism (Not) : 3 Pillars of a Food Revolution

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, August 20, 2010

3 Pillars of a Food Revolution

by Anna Lappé from Yes! Magazine.

I think she has some great ideas about how the food/agricultural system will need to be revamped to fit into the sustainable world that working people will create--or maybe I should say, "must create" if the human race is to survive capitalism.

However, she seems to suggest that we can change this subsystem without changing capitalism. This viewpoint illustrates a typical liberal shortsightedness, an inability or resistance to looking at social issues from a systems perspective.