As a college student in a 1980 ecology class, the professor pointed at us young ignorant students and said, ‘In your lifetime, water will be the limiting resource worldwide.’ We all laughed and thought ‘what an old fool’. But here in 2024, water is a precious commodity and more than 1+ billion people do not have access to water let alone clean water. We are all in a sense ‘Bad farmers’ because we each need to learn how to protect and nurture our planet if we are to survive. Soil and water are essential for our survival. There is always hope and our world was created such that it can and does heal. But each of us needs to be aware of our own impact on our natural environment and have care, concern and imagination to protect it to ultimately protect ourselves.
As you likely know from reading some of my posts, my hunch is that the "trapped" category you describe will not be remedied within the market. Have you read David Graeber's book Debt: The first 5,000 years? In it, he offers the simplest description of the emergence of markets: "Cash transactions between neighbors." There's plenty more to say on that, but I'll leave it there for now.
Also, the etymology of the word "farm" is quite telling: "a fixed annual payment for use of land." Meaning that "farmers" only emerged as a category to be called by that name once their ancestral access to land had been taken from them. Thus, what we call "farming" has always been a project of extraction for the benefit of princely or landowning classes--now just your standard consumer. Before that, farming didn't need a name. The activities of field cultivation and pastoralism were as woven into the fabric of a shared life and land as care for the young and the old, community rituals---feasting/song/dance.
Thank you for your work. There's so much work to do in this arena. With care, Adam
Thanks Adam, I broadly agree with you on the market not being able to provide a solution. I need to think some more about this, but in passing, I cannot see how the market could push farmers towards more ecological farming. That kind of farming will probably always remain "irrational" in market terms, but rational in every other sense.
I have not come across Graeber's book - I will try and check that out as it sounds fascinating.
As a college student in a 1980 ecology class, the professor pointed at us young ignorant students and said, ‘In your lifetime, water will be the limiting resource worldwide.’ We all laughed and thought ‘what an old fool’. But here in 2024, water is a precious commodity and more than 1+ billion people do not have access to water let alone clean water. We are all in a sense ‘Bad farmers’ because we each need to learn how to protect and nurture our planet if we are to survive. Soil and water are essential for our survival. There is always hope and our world was created such that it can and does heal. But each of us needs to be aware of our own impact on our natural environment and have care, concern and imagination to protect it to ultimately protect ourselves.
Hadden,
As you likely know from reading some of my posts, my hunch is that the "trapped" category you describe will not be remedied within the market. Have you read David Graeber's book Debt: The first 5,000 years? In it, he offers the simplest description of the emergence of markets: "Cash transactions between neighbors." There's plenty more to say on that, but I'll leave it there for now.
Also, the etymology of the word "farm" is quite telling: "a fixed annual payment for use of land." Meaning that "farmers" only emerged as a category to be called by that name once their ancestral access to land had been taken from them. Thus, what we call "farming" has always been a project of extraction for the benefit of princely or landowning classes--now just your standard consumer. Before that, farming didn't need a name. The activities of field cultivation and pastoralism were as woven into the fabric of a shared life and land as care for the young and the old, community rituals---feasting/song/dance.
Thank you for your work. There's so much work to do in this arena. With care, Adam
Thanks Adam, I broadly agree with you on the market not being able to provide a solution. I need to think some more about this, but in passing, I cannot see how the market could push farmers towards more ecological farming. That kind of farming will probably always remain "irrational" in market terms, but rational in every other sense.
I have not come across Graeber's book - I will try and check that out as it sounds fascinating.