Blog 4 Nicole L

Selection 27: The Argicultural Crisis As Crisis of Culture

This article talks about how in the past farms used to be family run and that people not only lived on top of the land they owned, but in and off it. Although this old system was imperfect, it provided building blocks for agriculture such as community that instead of being built upon were forgotten. In the 1950’s farming adopted more and more technology. This technology along with the free market has been ensuring land abandonment and the decrease of farm diversity. With less farming people are having to rely more heavily on what they buy as opposed to what they grow. New laws for sanitation have eliminated smaller farm markets and the article points out that we’ve taken germs out of our food and replaced them with poisons.

The more modern farming techniques became, the more farm families and communities degenerated. Politian’s that were so against the forced removal of people in communist countries have no issue with the free market forcing people out of the rural areas. With the free market it all about getting big or being forced out of farming. This community destroying form of agriculture has been encouraged by bureaucrats and agri-businessmen that value quantity over quality. However, this article point out that you cannot separate the two ideas because with more quantity comes less quality. Food is a product of culture and can’t be made through technology alone. People who believe that food production problems can be solved through technology alone are making the problem too simple. They need to conceive of everything as one body and that you can’t break up issues into little pieces. Like a healthy culture, healthy farming culture will only come of knowledge gained over generations of working with the land. This knowledge can’t be replaced with technology.

The movement from farm to city is simple, but going from city to farm will be difficult and can’t be done in just one generation. Good farming requires a true farmer, and this farmer can only be made of culture. Because the universe is one, good farming can only be similar in unity. Agriculture cannot continue to exist at the price of the natural systems that support it. A culture can’t exist without agriculture. Each system of life exists in another.(1)

Selection 28: Food Scarcity: An Environmental Wake Up Call

The current environmental degradation cannot continue on its path without affecting the world economy. So far, effects of the degradation have only been local to the issue, but as the scale of the damage grows it will threaten the world on the global level. Effects of the damage are also becoming clearer, but will we only stop these trends when the economic power driving it collapses? Food quantity will most likely be the sector in which environmental damage will become economic decline. This is a historical precedent as other civilizations have been destroyed this way.

The article explains that what will begin as environmental damage will soon become political instability because households unable to feed their families will hold their governments responsible, disrupting economic activity as well and making the problems plaguing the poor the problems of the rich as well. Already in the world over 800 million people are hungry and an increase in the price of gain would only throw millions more into starvation.

As populations around the world continue to grow, the ability to expand cropland and irrigate it decreases and threatens to fall below the level needed for food security. For hundreds of years farmers have used many ways to expand farmland, however with the frontiers reached there has been a huge decrease in the area planted for grain, an amount that peaked in the 80’s. With population growth this amount will only fall further.

As water is pulled away from agriculture the production drops and countries will be forced to import grain. The way land scarcity has shaped international grain trade, similarly water scarcity will do the same. As crop and irrigation become scarcer, both prices are going to rise raising grain prices with them.
All the important food-security indicators are calling for a shift from food surplus to food scarcity. It is this shortage that may provide the much needed wakeup call that we need to reverse our trends of environmental degradation before the emerging political instability obtains a level where economic progress is a thing of the past. Making sure future peoples have enough food is no longer solely an agricultural issue.

The two most difficult changes to make in the effort to secure future food supplies and build an environmentally stable economy will be balancing the population and stabilizing the climate. The first will rely on a revolution in human reproduction habits, and the second will rely on a revolution in energy efficiency.

The change from food surplus to shortage will mould land-use policy to better protect farm-land from non-farm uses. Food security also depends on decreasing soil erosion. Overall, future food security relies on making an environmentally sustainable economy.(2)

Selection 29: Environment, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems

Our modern heavy reliance on artificial chemicals for farming is having serious health and environmental impacts. Pesticides are being found in ground water and farm run-off is connected with the collapse of fisheries and water dead-zones. This excess of fertilizers and chemical pesticides is costing economies billions of dollars per year.

Organic farming can reduce dependence of chemicals for farming. The aim of organic farming is enhancing plant nutrition while conserving soil and water resources. The organic food is coded so consumers have systems on which to base their food choices on how their food was made or produced. Organic agriculture is expanding, and the products are becoming widely available to the public.

There was a farming system trial conducted in which conventional, organic animal-based cropping and organic legume-based cropping were tested. Numerous aspects were measured such as, crop biomass, weed biomass, grain yields, chemical leaching, and water volumes.

The results of the crop yields and economics in regards to organic systems compared with conventional seemed to vary under different conditions; however the benefits of organic farming were clear as organic farming had less soil erosion, better water conservation, and biodiversity consistently over conventional methods.

There are challenges in organic agriculture such as a lack of nitrogen and weed competition. Weed competition is a problem for many farmers as they are limited in their options for pest control. However the benefits of organic production are clear. Soil carbon present in organic soil was high and due to these elevated levels, soil and water resources were conserved. The needs for fossil fuel energy in organic corps were also lower than in conventional corn corps. Labour inputs are higher for organic farming but they are more evenly spread out than in conventional farming. Corp rotations reduce soil erosion, while manure use reduces pollution.(3)

Selection 41: Women's Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity COnservation

This article explains how gender and diversity are connected. The same way women are suppressed, biodiversity is as well. Both are victims of the goal of uniformity and homogeneity. The article claims that diversity, in essence the basis of women’s politics as well as the politics of ecology. These two politics meet when women and biodiversity meet in the field.

Diversity is linked to women’s work, which is why it has been so far discounted. Many developing countries depend on diversity for production and in these areas biodiversity is synonymous with productivity. However, this view is seen as primitive as it does not employ the use of technology. The new misconception is that diversity-based systems aren’t productive, however the productivity of uniform systems only take into account production in one-dimension. This system undermines the natural systems which support it. Women’s efforts and knowledge are often looked over and often invisible, found in between the spaces of “sectors”. This invisibly is due to gender bias which creates an area of blindness.

The article explains that women are the custodians of biodiversity. When women conserve seed, they are conserving diversity and therefore balance as well.
There are numerous ways that developing countries women’s relationships with diversity differ from the corporate man. Women produce through diversity, will in the first world corporate men produce through uniformity. For women, seeds represent the continuation of life, while corporations manufacture seeds which can only be used once to make farmers keep coming back to buy more. This is a disruption in the flow of life. These modern claims on seeds are a 21st century version of piracy.
There are many risks to genetically engineered food, and as these risks are being realized corporations will try and redefine themselves as “green”.

Food and Environment:

In the past 48 hours I've eaten fruit like kiwi and grapes, oatmeal, beef, vegetables like carrots and cucumbers, chicken, soy milk and Halloween candy. All these are foods I eat regularly, except for the Halloween candy.

Some concerns related to fruit would be, are they local? When a food item isn't from the region in which you purchased it, that food must have gone on a long trip to reach you. Perhaps it was flown, trucked or shipped to the destination. Every step of this long trip contributes to the ecological foot print of the food. By eating a fruit like kiwi, which wasn't growth in Manitoba, I contributed largely to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The same concern relates to the vegetables and meat I ate. Fortunately, the vegetables were at least purchased from Peek of the Market, insuring they are from growers in Manitoba. By purchasing more local vegetables I supported the farmers in my region and their business. Buying local isn't only about decreasing the eco foot print, but making sure local farmers will be able to supply us with food for years to come. The ideal would be purchasing from a farmers market or directly from the farmers themselves allowing for all the profit to go to them instead of the supermarket or Peek of the Market. The meat purchased was also Manitoba grown.

The concerns facing the oatmeal and Halloween candy I ate had to do with the packaging. With both the instant oatmeal and the Halloween candy, non-recyclable garbage was made. Unfortunately, nothing about the Halloween candy was recyclable. The candy came in a plastic bag and each small bar was individually wrapped in plastic. If the candy had been wrapped in paper, it could have eliminated much waste from going to land-fills. Next year I think I'll buy the candy to give out and make sure it has more ecologically responsible packaging.

An environmental concern that has to do with the chicken I ate could be how the animal was treated prior to slaughter. In class, we watched a short film called "The Meatrix" about how animals are actually treated when bought up on an industrially large scale. They cut off the beaks of chickens and animals like pigs don't have enough room to even turn around. I'm not sure where the chicken came from, since I did not buy it myself, but when I shop it's important to me that the meat I buy was raised in the free-range environment. The film reminded me of these values and how I believe that I should treat an animal I rely on for nourishment and survival with respect.

Affluenza Around Me:

In class we saw a film titled "The Story of Stuff", which was strange, because I watched it for the first time almost exactly a year ago. I remember that the first time I watched that film; it had a huge impact on me. It finally explained in simple terms how when I buy something at a low price, I wasn't paying for the object, someone else was. Since viewing that film a year ago, I've made huge changes in my buying and realized that every day I vote with my dollar. I no longer shop at places like Wal-Mart, I try to avoid buying from stores that employ the use of sweatshops and I like to buy from Canadian businesses whenever possible. This film has really awakened me to my Affluenza, and over time I'm trying to heal it.

I see evidence of Affluenza everywhere. I live in an area with large houses that nobody owns because they keep getting them remortgaged to afford pools, new cars and etc. People seem to work all the time just to get more stuff. My mom is definitely guilty of this, she works all the time and we have a lot of stuff. However this past few years working has been less to afford new things, and more to afford vacations of a life time. My mom and I value travel and this summer she worked hard to go to on a Mediterranean cruise to visit places in Europe she'd always wanted to see. Trips are different from material goods in that they're memories and experiences that shape you as a person and that stay with you forever. I'm glad my mom values travelling over things like new cars.

A few of my friends definitely show symptoms of Affluenza. One in particular never seems to ever have enough clothes. I asked her about her shopping for this blog, and she told me it’s just something she enjoys doing and that at the time of purchase she always feels like she needs the item. I found this response very interesting in regards to the film about Affluenza we viewed in class, about how we are made to inadequate if we don’t consume. Maybe she is a classic sufferer, or maybe it really does make her happy.

Online Activity: Ted Talk: One Seed at a Time

Before this talk, I had never given much thought to the extinction of corps. I don’t think I even knew that it ever really happened. I think Ted’s argument that the preservation of all crop varieties is necessary to survival made sense and was fairly logical. I watched the film with a friend, and they had a hard time believing that keeping the seeds of a plant that can’t survive was useful. Ted’s argument for starting to breed climate change resistant corps also struck a chord with me. I have been learning about climate change or years, exploring the possible effects on temperature, natural disasters, the ocean and animals, but never gave much thought to what would happen to our food. I agree that researchers should definitely be creating corps that grow in much warmer temperatures to ensure that in a few decades people aren’t starving to death. This talk has really interested me in the topic.

(1) Wendell Berry, from the Unsettling of American: Culture and Agriculture (Sierra Club Book, 1977)
(2)Lester Brown, from "Food Scarcity: An Enviromental Wakeup Call," The Futurist (Jan/Feb 1998)
(3) David Pimental Et al., from "Enviromental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems," BioScience (July 2005)
(4)Vandana Shiva, from "Women's Indigenous Knowledge and Biodivesity Conservation," in Maria Mies and Vanada Shiva, Ecofeminism (Zed Books, 1993)