Thread: Eat less meat
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Default Eat less meat

"( _ /)" > wrote in message ...
> On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:30:29 -0000, "Buddenbrooks" >
> wrote:


> >It will be interesting to see what the coming credit crunch driven downturn
> >in the economy does to people's views as jobs disappear and people realize that
> >keeping the worlds economy going and reducing emissions is not going to be
> >easy.

>
> You are sort of missing the point. The global economy as we know it is
> completely unsustainable, wasteful and destructive short cut to
> destruction. The sooner we get rid of the idiocy of a material society
> the better.
>
> Then of course everything else will fall in to place.


'Enlightened Agriculture

"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to maintain their reputation
and social standing, never can bring about reform. Those who are really in
earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation."
Susan B. Anthony

'Crisis and opportunity in North American agriculture' John Ikerd
Emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of
Missouri

[extracts only, as selected by nlpwessex - original article presented at
a farm conference, "Recapturing Wealth on the Canadian Prairies,"
Brandon, Manitoba, October 26-27, 2000 - full copy available at
http://www.cropchoice.com/leadstry.asp?recid=376 ]

......In essence, as agriculture moves from competitive capitalism to
corporatism, it changes from a market economy to "central planned"
economy. Central planning didn't work for the Communists, and it won't
work for the corporations. The problem wasn't that the Communists
weren't smart enough or that their computers weren't large enough.
Central planning is a fundamentally wrong-headed approach to managing
an economy - for corporations as well as governments. The corporate
system of food production will prove to be fundamentally incapable of
meeting the needs of the people. Its emergence as the dominant system,
therefore, represents a prime opportunity for an alternative to corporate
central planning, to create an agriculture that will truly meet the needs of
the people of an enlightened society.

As society becomes more enlightened, we are beginning to realize that
we are destroying our natural environment in the process of trying to
produce cheap food. We are mining the soil through erosion and
depletion of its natural product in the process of maximizing production
and minimizing dollar and cent costs of production. We are polluting
our streams and groundwater with residues from the pesticides and
commercial fertilizers necessary for large-scale, specialized industrial
crop production and with wastes from giant confinement animal feeding
factories. We are destroying the genetic diversity, both below and
above the soil that is necessary to support nature's means of capturing
and transforming solar energy into energy for human bodies.

As society becomes more enlightened, we are beginning to realize that
we are destroying the social fabric of society in the process of trying
to make agriculture more efficient. We are destroying opportunities for
people to lead productive, successful lives. We are turning thinking,
innovative, creative farmers into tractor drivers and hog house janitors.
There is dignity in all types of work, but all people should have
opportunities to express their full human potential. Consolidation of
decision making concentrates the opportunities among the privileged
few while leaving the many without hope for a rewarding future.
Industrial specialization also tends to separate people within families,
within communities, and within nations. We are just beginning to
realize that industrialization destroys the human relationships needed
to support a civilized society. The outdated economics that supports
agricultural industrialization is fundamentally incapable of dealing
effectively with either the environmental or social challenges of today.
In economics, the environment and society are external or outside of
the decision making process - something that may impact or be
impacted by decisions but not part of the process. In reality, the
economy, environment, and society all are parts of the same inseparable
whole. Society needs a more enlightened system of decision-making -
one capable of integrating economic, ecological, and social decisions.
We need a "new" approach to farming in North America..... (....)

Pursuit of self-interests is an inherent aspect of being human. But,
people, by nature, do not pursue only their narrow, individual or
personal self-interest. It's also within the inherent nature of people to
care about other people and to care of the earth. People are perfectly
capable of rising above selfishness and greed to pursue a higher
concept of self-interest - a self-interest that values relationships with
other people and stewardship of the earth as important dimensions
of one's self-interests.

This higher self-interest includes our narrow self-interest (personal,
individual concerns), but it also includes interests that we share with
others (relationship, community, and social concerns) and interests
that are purely altruistic (ethics and moral concerns). All three
contribute to our well being or quality of life. Each contributes to a
higher sense of quality of life - explicitly recognizing that each of us
individually is but a part of the whole of society, which in turn must
conform to some higher order or code of natural law....

.....Admittedly, the new American farm will require a lot more knowledge,
understanding, and thinking than does farming by industrial methods.
However, any future occupation offering an opportunity for a decent
living will require people to use their minds. The days when someone
could earn a good living by the sweat of their brow are in the past.
There will be plenty of innovative, creative, hard working people to
operate the new American farms, once the real possibility for a more
desirable quality of life in farming - economically, socially, and ethically -
becomes widely known....

.....We, the people, currently control everything that needs to be changed
in order to build a more sustainable, higher quality of life, as individuals
as well as for society as a whole. The economy is a creation of people -
it is not some sacred, unchangeable set of natural laws. People created
the current economic system and people can change it. The corporation
does not exist by some right or some decree from God. People created
corporations and they exist at the discretion of people. Each corporation
has a charter, which once obligated it to operate for the good of the public.
We the people can revoke those charters, even if we have to amend the
constitution to do it. We can control or abolish corporatism and we can
shape our economy to meet the needs of people....

One by one, as we find the courage to demand something better, we will
change the world for the better. Susan B. Anthony, the champion of
voting rights for women in the US once said, "Cautious, careful people,
always casting about to maintain their reputation and social standing,
never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest must be
willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation." It takes
courage to bring about change. But Margaret Mead, an award winning
cultural anthropologist, once said, "Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it's the only
thing that ever has." As each of us finds the courage to change our
selves and to influence our little piece of the world, we can change the
world. Indeed, this is the only thing that ever can.

John Ikerd can be reached at [..]
Full article at: http://www.cropchoice.com/leadstry.asp?recid=376

1999 University of Missouri Report to the US National Farmers Union,
'CONSOLIDATION IN THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE SYSTEM'
- pdf format http://www.nfu.org/images/heffernan_1999.pdf
[extract below]

".....to understand the global food system, one must understand the
operations of the major global firms such as Cargill, ADM, and ConAgra http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...ents/scats.htm .
.....Today
the system is becoming much more complex starting with involvement in
biotechnology, extending through production, and ending with highly
processed food. Increasingly, these firms are developing a variety of
different alliances with other players in the system..... We will use the
concept 'cluster of firms' to represent these new economic arrangements.

......In a food chain cluster, the food product is passed along from stage
to stage, but ownership never changes and neither does the location of
the decision-making. Starting with the intellectual property rights that
governments give to the biotechnology firms, the food product always
remains the property of a firm or cluster of firms. The farmer becomes
a grower, providing the labor and often some of the capital, but never
owning the product as it moves through the food system and never
making the major management decisions."

'CONSOLIDATION IN FOOD RETAILING AND DAIRY:
Implications for Farmers and Consumers in a Global Food System',
Report to National Farmers Union, Jan 2001, University of Missouri
http://www.nfu.org/index.cfm?categor...e=issues&id=67

UK farmers being led to US-style GM slavery
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...dSainsbury.htm

"Farmers will be given just enough to keep them interested in growing
the crops, but no more. And GM companies and food processors,
will say very clearly how they want the growers to grow the crops."
Friedrich Vogel, head of BASF's crop protection business
(Farmers Weekly 6 November 1998)

Disease and pestilence hits Missouri as GM soy expands
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...risoybeans.htm
...
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...griculture.htm