> Subject: A Revolution in Agriculture
>
> Hey all-
> Here is an interesting article in the Columbia Tribune which was
> delivered
> at a local conference. We need only think of Rome, Greece, Egypt, etc. and
> how their cultures/empires collapsed upon the demise of their agriculture
> system due to poor stewardship of the land/outgrowth of its carrying
> capacity.
> Namaste',
> Guy Clark
>
> Tribune Online News Story
> Story ran on March 30, 1999
>
> A revolution, row by row
>
> By JOHN IKERD
>
> Sustainability was once referred to as "a quiet revolution sweeping across
> American agriculture." The revolution continues, but the time for
> quietness
> has passed.
>
> The current crisis in American agriculture, like the revolution, has been
> a
> quiet one. Thousands of farm families are being forced off the land, an
> inevitable consequence, we are told, of technological progress. Farmers
> are
> offered the options of getting bigger, giving in to corporate control or
> getting out.
>
> The crisis is a chronic symptom of the type of agriculture we have been
> promoting in this country for the past 50 years, magnified by the brazen
> attempts of giant corporations to wrest control from family farms and
> complete the industrialization of agriculture. But industrialization is
> neither inevitable nor progressive.
>
> There's a better way to farm, a better way to produce food and fiber and a
> better way to live. We are entering a new era in American agriculture - an
> era in which we learn to support people through agriculture rather than
> sacrifice their well being to support the industry of agriculture. It's
> time to proclaim a new agricultural revolution.
>
> Sustainable agriculture and industrial agriculture are two fundamentally
> different philosophies-diametrically and irreconcilably opposed. There is
> no common ground on which to compromise.
>
> Our task is made more difficult by institutions that see industrialization
> as the only viable option for the future. The government subsidizes our
> industrial competitors with everything from tax concessions to direct farm
> program payments. We are excluded from traditional markets and prevented
> from marketing direct to customers by a maze of complex government
> regulations. We are denied equal access to the research and educational
> resources of public institutions.
>
> Others believe agriculture is mostly about products and profits - not
> people. To them, if food is cheaper or more convenient, it doesn't really
> matter who produces it or how it is produced. But people do matter.
>
> About a year ago, when I was recovering from open-heart surgery, I read a
> book: "The Life and Major Works of Thomas Paine." Paine, a writer during
> the American Revolution, was credited with articulating the ideas of the
> Revolution in terms that could be understood by the "common man." He
> signed
> his early writings with the pen name "Common Sense."
>
> Today, Paine's work provides valuable insights into how to keep a
> revolution from failing - at least when the cause makes common sense.
> Sustainable agriculture, like freedom and democracy, is a cause that makes
> common sense.
>
> Paine gave no quarter to the enemies of freedom and democracy. Nothing in
> his writings could be mistaken for impartial objectivity. His papers
> always
> extolled the great benefits that would be realized by the colonies once
> they had shed the yoke of British rule. And he never doubted that the
> American colonists eventually would win their war for independence.
>
> We must adopt Thomas Paine's approach to revolutionize American
> agriculture
> - not gradual, incremental changes in farming practices but a
> fundamentally
> different philosophy of farming. The divergence between industrial
> agriculture and sustainable agriculture is as great as that between
> monarchy and democracy.
>
> This is a battle for the hearts and minds of the American people. They
> need
> to know the truth about what is happening to American agriculture and why.
>
>
> We need to tell them about our new kind of agriculture that will sustain
> people, not just the industry of agriculture. And we need to give them
> common-sense reasons why the old system cannot be sustained and why
> sustainable agriculture is not a luxury but an absolute necessity.
>
> The current economic system rewards the exploitation of natural resources
> and people, and the visible, tangible epitome of that system is the large,
> publicly owned corporation. The corporation is the ultimate "economic man"
> - motivated always and only by its own short-term self-interest, driven
> solely by an insatiable need for profit and growth. This enemy should be
> given no quarter.
>
> An industrial agriculture might be able to meet our food and fiber needs
> of
> today and maybe for another 50 years, but it is degrading and destroying
> the very resources - soil, water and energy - upon which it depends. An
> industrial agriculture is said to be efficient, but not when one counts
> the
> enormous costs it imposes on the environment and on people in rural
> communities.
>
> Environmentally sound and socially responsible farming operations already
> exist - many of them as economically efficient as their industrial
> counterparts. We need to tell the general public that sustainability is
> not
> only possible but also logical and, ultimately, essential.
>
> The industrial agricultural system might have been logical in the past,
> but
> it no longer makes sense. America's version of industrial agriculture is
> very similar to the agriculture that failed miserably in the old Soviet
> Union - bringing down the country in the process. Some claim that our
> system relies on free markets. But we are turning agriculture over to
> multinational corporations that control everything from genetic seed
> stocks
> to supermarket shelves, eliminating all the free markets in between.
> Instead of free markets, we have something more like central planning -
> little different in principle from the old Soviet industrial agriculture.
> And the outcome will be the same: failure.
>
> Farmers themselves are the architects of the new sustainable agriculture.
> They are the explorers, the colonists and the revolutionaries. Like the
> revolutionaries who created a democracy, they will confront hardship,
> frustration and failure. Ultimately, they will succeed.
>
> Never doubt the cause is just. Industrial corporate agriculture is not
> good
> for people and thus is not sustainable. It's just common sense.
> Agriculture
> ultimately must sustain a desirable quality of life for people - on farms,
> in rural communities and in the cities. It's just common sense. Human
> civilization cannot be sustained without a sustainable agriculture.
>
> It's time for a new revolution in American agriculture. It's just plain
> common sense.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> John Ikerd is a professor of agricultural economics at MU. This paper was
> presented in the opening session of the March 24 "Sustaining People
> Through
> Agriculture" conference in Columbia.
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail