Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Industrial Agriculture: Too Big to Succeed

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, May 9, 2014

Industrial Agriculture: Too Big to Succeed

Click here to access article by Paul Weinberg from Inter Press Service.

...experimentation in agricultural practices is less likely to happen in North America where farming operations, because of their size, are tied up in loans and big contracts to corporations in agribusiness and their unsustainable practices, says food security specialist Danielle Nierenberg, president of the Chicago based Food Tank, a food security think tank.

But small farmers, especially in developing countries, are better able through necessity to innovate and so, “we have a lot to learn from them,” she told IPS.

Many farmers have been encouraged to practice more industrial methods and they are finding in the face of drought and extreme flooding that going back to more traditional and indigenous practices they are able to better combat climate change, says Nierenberg.

I think the author exhibits naïve optimism by failing to understand that the Empire and other capitalist countries are vigorously promoting industrial agriculture, and this powerful force is creating dramatic climate destabilization in which small farmers, like the rest of us, will no longer be able to cope. Therefore, we must rid the planet of the scourge of capitalism if we humans hope to survive.