I had some comments from a few folks who were concerned about the
impoliteness of the Biotic Baking Brigade's expression of their
sustainable agriculture views by hurling tofu pie at Robert Shapiro,
CEO of Monsanto. I have answered those as they came to me, off list,
but in doing so I realized there was a missing piece in my
reportage: context.
The BBB's action was designed to echo that of Noel Godin, the
French "entarteur" (pie-er), and his band of "gloupinesques," who
wing whipped-cream pies at people they decide take themselves way too
seriously.
The last time Godin's band made headlines was for the pie-ing of
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, in Brussels, in Feb. of this year. The
London /Times/ headlined this "Surprise Software Launch."
Here is the 2/9/98 Netly News piece by Hugues Henry:
http://www.cinenet.net/users/jaybab/netly.html
Here is the 4/98 piece from the New York Times:
http://www.cinenet.net/users/jaybab/nytimes.html
I personally think this kind of food-related expression is a
food-culture-related-event worth noting, like any other kind of
expression, dissident or otherwise. As I've said, I see lots of
things as related to sustainable ag, including treats that become
tricks.
My main fear is that as a movement arising out of critical thinking
and grass-roots feistiness, we don't start to take ourselves as
seriously as those who have benefitted from and grown as a result of
our viewpoints and challenges these past three decades.
I seem to recall Jim Hightower bringing the house down, even as he
offered cogent, pointed, and irrefutable critique. And many's the
time we here at CIAS have wiped discursive pie from our faces after
farmer constituents have taken us down off our high horses with a
well-aimed but never injurious pile of native dairy products. The
kind from the teats, that is, though we do have a local tradition of
flinging the other kind of pies, as well, at fairs and such.
Happy Halloween/Samhain, all. It's the New Year in the Celtic
calendar, and the time to say hi and godspeed to those who have gone
on before us. Slainthe, safe harbor, and remember that after age 17,
the human body cannot digest Kandy Korn.
peace
misha
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Michele Gale-Sinex, communications manager
Center for Integrated Ag Systems
UW-Madison College of Ag and Life Sciences
Voice: (608) 262-8018 FAX: (608) 265-3020
http://www.wisc.edu/cias/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Pressure? Pressure was when I was a shoeshine boy
trying to make it to America. --Sammy Sosa
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