permaculture

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

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Bushels of Corn
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:06:15 -0700
From: Nikki Rose <nikkirose@COOKINGINCRETE.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

I'm not a farmer but I work with sustainable organic farmers to support 
their initiatives. It's unfortunate that people must still 
compare-justify conventional ag production (quantity without quality or 
environmental respect or safety) to sustainable organic farming on any 
level. There's a big wall to break down between the media and these 
important issues.

Who (person or Big Ag PR firm) coined the phrase "feed the world?" Since 
no one has accomplished that thus far, quite the contrary in most cases, 
one must wonder whether western approaches to these issues -- the 
top-down quick fix or trade influences have ever worked in the past or 
will ever work in the future.

A visit to regions of the world, including the USA, where multinational 
corporations have monopolized agricultural production, indicates that 
anyone claiming to feed the world has usually done the opposite. And 
they also left a toxic trail behind for local people to attempt to exist 
in -- their land, air and water can never be "cleaned up." And thus far, 
communities cannot prevent this persistent influence on their culture 
and their health.

Once local farmers give up their land to multinationals, by choice or by 
force, their time-honored traditions-local knowledge of their own 
sustainable farming practices are lost.

So, sure, a foreign expert "aid" aka Big Ag representative can drop in 
and teach local people how to
 produce more crops with toxins, when all they may have needed or 
wanted was enough good land for their community -- to grow food for 
themselves as they always did, without risking their livelihood at the 
whim of their government's corporate alliances. Outside of the US and 
other industrialized nations, this is the reality that continues to be 
threatened.

The best way to "feed the world" is
 to keep Big Ag away from it.

Nikki Rose
Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries
Eco-Agritourism Network