Freeconomy Blog
Tue
06 May
What would Gandhi do about it all…?
| 20 comments |
Despite the onslaught of work that ensued after a couple of really positive articles came out about ‘freeconomy’ at the weekend, I eventually decided that it was nothing that couldn’t wait 24hrs and took off to the forest in search of food, fun and friendship. And what a good decision it was – beautiful weather, great people and lots of foraging. On the way there we found comfrey, St. George's mushrooms, ramsons, nettles and ground ivy for tea and I even learned how to make coffee from the root of a dandelion. We had a camp-fire, a sing-song and arose the next morning to the sounds of the local birdlife, fully refreshed and ready to be of service. The slow life really is the good life!
It was there that I also started doing something which I now call ‘My Morning Oats and Oaths’ – the latter being a list of things I should remember every day in order to live my life as best I can. Oats are great for the heart, Oaths great for the soul. One nourishes me physically, the other spiritually. One as important as the other.
Skip back a few days though and my mind was firmly on the world food crisis. This time not from reading it about it in the news, but from looking through an invoice for an organic food coop I work with, a place that buys food in bulk so that more people can afford healthy, nutritious food that doesn’t cost the earth. It was there I noticed that the ripples of it all were starting to hit western shores, as all prices had gone up, most noticeably corn by almost 100%, which, coincidently is 2 weeks after the UK make it obligatory for all oil to contain 2% biofuels.
So I started reading up on it to see what journalists, economists and politicians were saying. Some journalists like George Monbiot have a great understanding of the situation. However economists and politicians (is there a difference?) are coming up with the same old lines. Economists are telling governments not to interfere, because the market, that god of the modern era, will find it’s own equilibrium. Politicians are telling their voters that they will give aid – what they are not telling them is that it will come in the form of pesticides, chemical fertilisers and the GM seeds that go with them. Which is a bit like a drug dealer giving the homeless person his first crack hit for free – the dealer makes his money back in the end. The homeless person becomes, well, a crackhead. You may think I am being cynical, but it’s the truth – Vinoba Bhavé once said "there is no need for me to protest against the government's faults, it is against its good deeds that my protests are needed!"
Economists unfortunately are not ecologists – I studied economics for 6 years and not once did I hear a mention of ‘soil’ – and they speak about both as if they are totally separate. They think that all you have to do is blast the soil with more chemicals, increase production, and the problem is solved. Anyone with any idea of ecology realises the ridiculousness of it all. But not since Gandhi has the world had an ecologist influential in government, and the evidence of that is becoming apparent by the day.
So, unsure of what to do about it, I asked myself what would Gandhi do if he was still alive? It’s impossible to speak for a man after he is dead, so all I can use is what he stood for when alive and try to figure out how that would apply to the post-modern world. Gandhi, along with India’s modern day version, Vandana Shiva, believe in what they call Gram Swaraj, meaning village self-rule, a system where each village is self-reliant and sustainable using materials from that area. Bapu’s struggle was to convince Indians to get rid of foreign cloth and to instead buy only homespun cotton from their local villages. Then, and only then, would Indians be truly free.
I went to see a couple oftalksabout it all by Vandana Shiva last year, and both times I came away with the exact same answers. Leave the so-called ‘developing’ nations alone, we are not doing them any favours by buying their produce. Land that they could use to grow food for themselves is now being covered in mono-crops destined for Europe and the US, and the cash they get for such crops will depend on the fickle hand of ‘the market’. Ten years ago she helped write a book about the first Indian farmer to commit suicide because of the pressures that globalization had put on his family farm – it was shocking at the time. Ten years later, 150,000 thousand farmers in India have committed suicide because of our love of their rice and Monsanto's love of their money.
So what would Gandhi do? I say ‘do’, because he would do it first before asking anyone else to try. As I said before, I am reluctant to put words in his mouth. But what I believe in my heart is that he would tell us all to grow food, make our own clothes and shelter, and in doing so allow the people of Haiti, Indonesia, India and all the other countries at the mercy of the WTO, ‘supply and demand’ and western buying power to do the same. Let Indonesians grow food that THEY can eat, not mono-crops so that we can buy have a nice latté in one of the five Starbucks on our High St.
So I challenge all of you to become Localvores, a new movement of people who eat nothing but food from their own country, and often from within a certain radius. It really is not as hard as it may sound, and though there are sacrifices, there are also joys, and you may find that you learn lots, so that when the inevitable eventually takes full effect, it won’t matter one tiny bit.
Let’s all grow food and in the process help tackle the biggest issue modern day man has had to face – if you want inspiration, look no further than one of my favourite projects at the minute, G.R.O.F.U.N..
Peace and smiles to you all x
Comment on this Post:
Saoirse comments ...
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Jane comments ...
I was out walking with my eleven year old daughter yesterday enjoying a bit of the countryside when she suddenly asked me if I were able to do one thing to make the world better, what would it be? A bit overwhelmed by the hugeness of the question I had no immediate answer. "Do you know what I would do?" She said. "I would abolish all money and all tokens of money all over the world" Blimey, seems like freeconomists are starting young! Thanks for the link to localvores, (actually your link doesn’t work but I typed it into my browser) I am thinking of starting something like this as a trial for a month to see how I get on.
Tsitsi comments ...
It’s admirable what you’re trying to do. But let’s be realistic. In densely populated industrial countries, how sustainable would it really be if we all went foraging about for wild foods? What percentage of the population would really be able to survive on what could be gathered in the few wild areas we have left?
Tsitsi comments ...
And the same goes for growing your own. Imagine for instance the entire population of London looking for alotments to grow food to sustain their families.
Saoirse comments ...
- Reply to Tsitsi -
How many people could survive of wild foods? The answer is a lot, lot more than are now. It will never be a complete solution in this society to the issue, but it is a part of the solution. There is no panacea.
Secondly, you ask "What would happen if everyone in London wanted an allotment?" Firstly the council would have to make more land available as allotment land. But remember you can also grow food in your garden, balcony, windowsill, and in virtually any green patch in the city that has some soil fertility. Look around your nearest city and you will already see a large monocrop growing. It’s a common crop, called grass! It could quite easily become food in the future.
But the most important thing about growing your own food is the connection if gives you with nature. It is the loss of that connection for most people that has got us into this situation in the first place.
I think the question really is "What is the alternative?" If we don’t all start growing food, how are we going to feed ourselves, either in the cities or the countryside? Would love to hear how you see things evolving and what you believe to be the solution.
Paul Brown comments ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7389351.stm
Addressing this shameful situation would be a start...
Digs comments ...
http://www.powerofcommunity.org/
If the Cubans can do it, why can’t we?
(I highly recommend seeing the film if you can)
anny008 comments ...
i agrew with you a whole 100%. Not all westerners are like what you described they should be . I, an indian can understand the plight of farmers in south and south east asia cause i read about suicides every other day. even though i am just a ’kid’ i feel strongly that a change is required.
Shivansh comments ...
Dear Mark,
I wud love to take up this topic and debate on what you have said in this post.
You have said above that by buying food from your own area or region you would help the situation in developing countries.
I wud say this is a gr8 idea but is based on a false principle.
Do u know why these suicides are taking place?
It is because these farmers had debts which they couldn't repay and thus they committed suicide because after their death the banks or wateva economic institution has given them the debt cannot claim the money from their kins.
The problem is that there crops are ruined because of bad weather or lack of irrigation facilities at times which leaves their families in disparity and the guilt causes suicide.
This is what the problem is.
If you think by not buying products from India or ne developing country you wud help it, ur wrong mate. Because that way the farmer in Punjab who till yesterday made money out of his export would hav to sell his rice at half the price in the local market. This way he goes into losses and thus eventually it would worsen the situation.
Even if companies are encouraging farmers to grow crops for exports it doesn't take away the right from individual farmers to grow their own crops and sell it in the local market. There's a looot of land here for cultivation.
I hope I have explained my point clearly.
Pls do reply with what to have to say, I wud love a healthy debate.
Cheers
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