permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

<http://www.startribune.com/commentary/story/1295268.html>

Wendell Berry: Food and consequence

Wendell Berry

Published: July 11, 2007

Wendell Berry is a celebrated author, an advocate of sustainable agriculture and himself a small farmer in Kentucky. He 
was in the Twin Cities recently to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Land Stewardship Project, a Minnesota nonprofit 
that supports small farmers and environmental stewardship. He spoke with editorial writer Dave Hage.

Q A few years ago, in an essay about globalization and the economics of food, you coined the phrases "total economy" and 
"local economy." Can you explain what you meant?

A Yes. The total economy is an economy in which people do nothing for themselves. It's an economy in which they pay for 
everything; they are total consumers. A local economy is one that exists by virtue of people's willingness to take back 
a certain amount of economic initiative and do things for themselves. It's a way to recapture economic choice. It's 
self-determination.

Q Do you see our society today in a struggle between those two?

A It's not a struggle yet, but there is a movement toward the local economy. And it's coming about as a response to 
people's understanding of the costs to the world of an economy based entirely on long-distance transportation. They say 
that the average distance that food travels from the field to the dinner plate is 1,500 miles. And this has a cost in 
fuel depletion and pollution. It's a part of the permanent drawdown of necessary resources that are the basis of an 
industrial economy.

Q There's a good deal of talk today about community-based agriculture and 
buying local. Is this significant?

A Well, it's the most reasonable thing going on in agriculture. To shorten the distance as far as possible from the farm 
to the dinner plate just makes sense. But it also begins to elevate food in human culture back up to where it ought to 
be. We've allowed it to decline from a kind of sacrament and a kind of center of conviviality, through commodification, 
to a kind of stuffing.

Q But some people would say, gee, I like having fresh tomatoes in January, even if they come from Mexico. Does this mean 
Minnesotans would get fresh tomatoes only in July?

A Yes, but it also means you like them better. (Laughs) Of course people like to have things out of season. It's part of 
the general culture of self-indulgence. If you want a raspberry, why shouldn't you have a raspberry? But the present 
economy doesn't give people any idea of the true cost involved. So, yes, you want the raspberry. The question is do you 
want to pay the cost -- in pollution, in the drawdown of resources, in the damage to the environment?

Q You've been writing for a long time about sustainable agriculture. Do you 
think the concept is gaining ground?

A Yes, no question. The concept is gaining ground. But it's still a losing side. I mean, who's for it? Where are your 
champion politicians who are willing to talk about sustainability? I saw Al Gore's movie -- there's nothing in that 
movie about sustainability. The assumption is that we can keep on living the way we're living in an economy that is 
necessarily destructive and wasteful, yet somehow make adjustments to keep the glaciers intact. I think we've got to 
face the possibility that the industrial economy is essentially destructive.

Q Would that mean going back to the kind of life that our grandparents led -- where you can your own vegetables and 
don't fly on airplanes?

A Canning vegetables is not a bad idea, and it's not a difficult science. So, yes, that's a possibility. But we're not 
going back to anything. That's not a possibility. Our grandparents lived the way they did because they knew how, and 
they were by and large far more skillful than we are and had better use of their own minds than we do. But we can't be them.

Q Absent leadership from the public sphere, what can an individual do to 
bring about a sustainable economy?

A Well, it's fairly limited. There's none of us without sin on this -- my wife and I own two vehicles. We live in the 
country; we have different duties in different directions. That's just the way it is. It would make sense in a lot of 
ways if we didn't have any vehicles, but the fact of the matter is that my great-grandfather had better public 
transportation than I do -- true!

But individuals can learn something about their food economy. And the first thing they learn is how extraordinarily 
difficult it is to learn anything about it. If you wanted to find out where your December head of lettuce came from and 
what it cost, to the people and the land it came from, you'd have a hard time. So the next thing they ask, if they can't 
find out much about the mainstream food economy, is where can I find food that I can learn about? And that's your local 
food economy: Where can I find a farmer who could sell me a quarter of beef? Where can I find a farmer's market? How can 
I join a local community-supported agriculture enterprise? Or where are the restaurants that buy from local farmers? 
Those questions, nearly everywhere in the United States, now have answers.