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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Globalization / Food Quality / What to do?
  • Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 17:59:30 -0400

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 16:18:06 -0500 (CDT), you wrote:


>
>IMO, consumers are ALWAYS in control. There is no point where we're not.
>It's our dollar. Part of the problem is that we've abdicated that
>control.

No, this is wrong. Consumers are not always in control.
Consumers can buy only what is available to buy. When
something is not available, consumers can't buy it.

For example, there are no restaurants in our town that have
fresh or local or organic produce. When eating out, we do
not have the choice of getting fresh or local or organic
produce. That choice isn't there. We aren't in control of
that situation.

Also, consumers can only buy what they can afford. This is
not 'being in control'. I would vastly prefer to buy
organic food. I can't afford it. I'm not 'in control' of
that situation either.

Consumers are also at the mercy of the regulations and laws
that prevent certain things from being marketed:
recreational drugs for one. I don't personally want to
smoke marijuana, but if I did, I couldn't legally buy it.

Think about cartels: think about the oil shortage in the
1970s that magically disappeared the week after the prices
rose.... Think about restraint of trade. Think about
price-fixing.

Think about Microsoft: suppose I want to buy a computer
*with* a Windows Operating System but *without* Internet
Explorer. I can't.

I think it's a very major fallacy to think consumers are in
control.

>I'm not saying that companies don't try to "trick" us becuase
>they certainly do (pretty much every commercial on TV has some kind of
>disclaimer, which is their way of trying to get out of a lie or a
>half-truth). What I'm saying is that the solution to our food problem is
>literally in our backyards.

This is definitely not true for many many people. People
who live on the 32nd floor of a building aren't going to be
able to grow much of their own food, unless there's a
community garden.

And they won't be able to use that community garden unless
it's safe for them to walk through the streets to get there.
If drug dealers are shooting guns in the streets...people
can't safely walk the streets. If the community garden is
vandalized, their work will have been for nothing.

There needs to be a certain degree of safety and stability
in a community and a supporting social structure for a
community garden to work. Most people would also need a
degree of education, training, in order to produce any
significant quantity of their own food.

There are others who are unable to garden through illness or
advanced age. They will never be able to garden, some can't
even cook. They are nevertheless members of society.


>If I'm misguided or saying something stupid, please let me know. These
>discussions are very helpful and educational to me (and I hope to others).
>

Government isn't always bad. If our present government is
bad, we should change it.

Government - in a democracy - is at least supposed to
represent the interests of the citizens. Corporations (big
businesses) necessarily only represent their own interests -
not the interests of the citizenry. This is a given.

I would prefer, btw, to think of myself as a 'citizen'
rather than a 'consumer' and I think any society that
automatically thinks of its populace primarily as
'consumers' has some very major problems.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry




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