Note: This newsletter pairs well with Grand Canyon by The Wind and The Wave. Hiiiiiiiii— Y’all. I’ve missed you. It’s been 18 long months since I last wrote to you, and what a year and a half it’s been. I’ve been speaking, writing, podcasting, learning, and even
Happy that you are back! Your saying “rich farmers create food for poor people and poor farmers create food for the rich” from Farming and other F words still sticks with me. Really interested to hear what you are thinking about and looking forward to reading more.
Glad to get your newsletter! Thanks very much for your whole approach to agriculture and our food system. May I suggest two different approaches to the "agrarian myth" problem?
1. Ignore it. The problem is not the myth itself but the enormous and undemocratic political power held by agriculture that is far out of proportion to economic or cultural significance. Focus not on overcoming a myth but on what David Roberts calls "one weird trick" to get states to adopt good climate policy: elect Democrats in all branches of state government. Not easy for climate policy and likely even harder for agricultural policy but at least the goal would be more pragmatic and more tightly focused than burying a myth. Politics! Elect Democrats or even politicians much better than current Democrats in regard to agriculture! Try that rather than trying to remake cultural assumptions.
2. George Monbiot, in Regenesis, proposes a most interesting path to remaking the global food system. He says we are on the brink of entirely new technologies for producing massive amounts of food in ways not nearly as destructive as most farming today. Interesting! Again, this would sidestep any attempt to "reform" the current food system by advancing on a different path toward a new one.
Here is a recent paper about center and periphery of food systems. It seems that the periphery is where the focus needs to be. https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol28/iss4/art16/
Happy that you are back! Your saying “rich farmers create food for poor people and poor farmers create food for the rich” from Farming and other F words still sticks with me. Really interested to hear what you are thinking about and looking forward to reading more.
Glad to get your newsletter! Thanks very much for your whole approach to agriculture and our food system. May I suggest two different approaches to the "agrarian myth" problem?
1. Ignore it. The problem is not the myth itself but the enormous and undemocratic political power held by agriculture that is far out of proportion to economic or cultural significance. Focus not on overcoming a myth but on what David Roberts calls "one weird trick" to get states to adopt good climate policy: elect Democrats in all branches of state government. Not easy for climate policy and likely even harder for agricultural policy but at least the goal would be more pragmatic and more tightly focused than burying a myth. Politics! Elect Democrats or even politicians much better than current Democrats in regard to agriculture! Try that rather than trying to remake cultural assumptions.
2. George Monbiot, in Regenesis, proposes a most interesting path to remaking the global food system. He says we are on the brink of entirely new technologies for producing massive amounts of food in ways not nearly as destructive as most farming today. Interesting! Again, this would sidestep any attempt to "reform" the current food system by advancing on a different path toward a new one.
Best of luck as you re-launch!
So good to have you back! And so looking forward to imagining bold alternatives for the future while questioning deeply held assumptions.
So glad to see you back . Happy 2024!!