February 28, 2007
Food Sovereignty
Just last new-years day, while sitting around the table for lunch with the usual group of friends for the occasion, the discussion was about factory farming. To my amazement, the majority around the table justified the existence of factory farming due to the amount of people that needed to be fed nowadays. It is a necessary evil, seems to be the general conviction. An evil that all at least agreed has happened of late.
Well, I hate to think that I'm surrounded by a group of dimwits, but on this particular subject, nothing seems to me so blatantly evident of unmeasured greed and disregard for general wellbeing as factory farming. The concept of food sovereignty, whereby the local population of small farmers and fishermen have the control of the produce they cultivate and harness is to me a dwindling idea. More and more, driven by market forces and share prices, the huge corporations are taking control of the land and sea and consequently, what we ingest. And it is all a necessary evil.
Well I beg to disagree. As a consequence of migration into big metropolitan areas, we've lost touch with the land, land that gives us plenty and more than enough to keep all mouths fed. Simple maths will tell, that instead of eating so much meat we could balance the scales and feed a lot more people if the resources needed to “grow” meat were used to grow vegetables and cereals.
There is still time, of course, but somehow, the hope is running out. Unless a major global conscience arises to these issues, the corporate machine will grow ever more powerful, until one day, all seeds will be genetically modified to become “perfect” plants. Until nature has been raped to such a state that all it's children are bastards whose conscience knows no restraint for disease proliferation and we become imprisoned by our own “necessary evil”.
Thought of the day
"Lindor(50): women are expensive and high maintenance (no offense zyla) - your better off with a good book, a few beers and the occasional hooker"*
*-From a discussion on FICS.
