You have to love an election year, don’t you? Day after day of nauseating debate and promises and exclamatory and defamatory statements, all of which amount to what has been compared to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and a contest of who can keep her afloat the longest. There is no argument that we are nation in turmoil and crises of one degree or another. So why not let’s stop there, and work together for a solution?
Yes, I know, you can just picture me with long hair, a bandana, tie-dye garb, sandals and a peace sign around my neck saying that. And in this time of global upset, platitudes abound on all fronts, from the political to the philosophical. We gobble up Rush Limbaugh and Rachael Maddow, cheering them on like fans at a game, “Yeah, Rush… say it like it is!”. ”Go Rachael, sock it to ‘em, girlfriend!” But the sad fact is, they, and all the others like them on both sides of the playground, are just pet-cocks for all the steam we are building. We vent vicariously through our most vocal favorite commentator – steam that is real enough, but put to no terribly effective use. Humidifying the air, maybe, but that’s about it. It’s all TALK.
Even the peace-niks and transcendents – above, beyond the political unrest, they pass us down sagely wisdom we can surely use, but most of it is in the form of meditations, and thoughts. Valid place to start, but if upon rising from our yoga mat we simply carry on, carry on…we are not really doing anything of substance to create the reality we are thinking about.
So, recently, in response to this frustration, “99%” of us grabbed our pitchforks and torches and went to DO something! We are going to stand here and let you know we don’t like things, and…and…yeah! That’s what we’re going to do! We are going to stand here! Damn right! We are the 99%! And we’re going to…um…yeah…Stand here! Yeah, in your face, Big Business!” And so it went, getting uglier by the day. This did not prove to be action that was very effective, either.
And I can tell you why. We are all, as per my original analogy, in the same boat. We don’t have YOUR problem and MY problem. We have OUR problem. And the longer we stand divided, squabbling about it in factions, we will make no progress toward solving any of our most pressing global or national issues.
Let me give you a case in point that made it’s way into my consciousness this week.
An article was posted on Facebook titled: Ten Ways Monstanto and Big Ag are Trying to Kill You – And the Planet.
Yeah, okay – you have my attention. The fact that there might be a think-tank full of chemically minded businessmen, rubbing their hands together in glee at the fact that they have concocted an ideal formula for the destruction of humans, which has the added benefit of also destroying major portions of the planet we live on, well, that’s pretty scary stuff, and now I just have to read it.
Pulling my tongue out of my cheek, the article was long on histrionics, and exceedingly short on references, but actually had some pretty good information, once you broke through the veil of the authors emotional freak-out. And she’s justified in her fears. This really and truly is some scary stuff, and the amount of truth in it should be more than enough for anyone now aware of it to do something.
But what is that something?
People are so unique in that we have the ability to see manure proceeding airborne and in rapid fashion toward the ventilator, gasp with shock, and then do nothing about it, much less anything to stop it.
We’ve developed a system by which we feel better for not doing anything, and that’s a rousing game of Blame the Other Guy.
“You idiots put that fan right there!”
“Well you guys are thowing all the shit!”
And what? We can kiss and make up in the shower after we’re all covered in it? No, we will just perpetuate the game, throwing shit back and forth, each side scoring direct hits on the other from time to time. Mostly, it’s just nasty.
But back to the Monsanti-Christ. As is my custom, after hearing what manner of evil Monstanto has wreaked upon us, I just had to look up Monstanto and see what they had to say for themselves in this regard and others. And backing away from it all, seeing it all laid out on the table, so to speak, we have a very serious problem here. It’s multi-factorial. But to be sure, the the biggest dilemma on this table is not what is happening to the people and the planet in regards to Monsanto’s products – and mind you that is a very serious issue – it’s the way we are going about trying to solve it.
Here’s my spin on it. I know agriculture. I worked in it for many years. As a farmer reading this article, I am likely to scoff at this woman. She’s coming at me on the attack. She is certainly informing me of some facts – but as I have told people for years when they experience a major communication failure: Delivery is everything. All the right words go all wrong when you are slapped in the face with them.
While her attempts to inform – which is the first step in solving a problem: awareness – are laudable, she is not stopping to consider what she is asking the farmers to do. Which is, in essence, quit your job. She clearly has no understanding of who the American farmer is and what they actually do.
These are not men and women who march into the co-op and say, “Gimme the most potent weed-killer ya got, Charlie. I’m gonna force one more year of my monoculture crop out of that dirt if it kills us!”
On the contrary. Up until the ‘50s, farms were pretty much all that we wanted them to be. A variety of crops, small, family farms. They, like everyone, sought only to make a living. Now the reasons behind our population explosion and our mass migration to the cities are outside the scope of this little blog, but suffice to say, they happened. Now people don’t grow their own food – they have to have someone else do it for them. But the ratio of self-fed households to centralized grocery-store dependent households got so out of whack, that the farmers were put upon to answer the cry for cheap food. It was their job. And the demand grew, and grew, and grew. And in order to keep up with the demand, the call went out to the farmers: Get big or get out. And so they did.
Given the extreme amount of labor in running even a smaller farm, most got out. It was more profitable to sell tractors than it was to use them. And so the remaining farmers “got big” and bought up all the neighbors farms. (Except the ones that got bought by developers to make more grocery-store dependent house-holds.) And these who stayed in farming, despite the ever rising costs of farming and ever decreasing money they got for their crops, are by and large represented by people who love the land. They are rooted in it. They may not have had a higher education in the composition of soils – but they have a deep and abiding love for the land that they tend. And they struggle. Perhaps it is not common knowledge that farming is one industry where the producer has virtually no control over the price of his product. It is determined by the commodities market. How are you supposed to budget when this week you might be getting $21.00 for 100 lbs. of milk and next week it drops to $12.00? Let me tell you, it’s kind of difficult.
When these farmers were approached by the salesmen (from Monsanto, et. al.) – who are probably the ones who sold their farms to Big Ag, - come along and tell their former neighbor that they’ve got this great stuff – knocks out all those noxious weeds that keep decreasing yields, well – the discussion did not include the long-term consequences. On the contrary, it’s a fair bet that the farmers-turned-salesmen genuinely believed that they were still contributing to the good of the people, enabling the hearty few that stayed in the grunt work of farming to earn better money for all their sweat, and helping to feed the masses the world over. In short – these guys are NOT the enemy.
Now, at some point, it became evident that something was amiss in the soils. But just like the human physical condition, rather than back up the train and see what caused it, we go full steam ahead, because we don’t NEED to fix it…we’ve got a pill for that! And when the crops and soils started to deteriorate – no worries! We’ve got a fertilizer for that! And again, my bet is on the decency of the people – one at a time – that work for these companies, and that they sleep well at night thinking that they have done the world a great service – cheap food for the world. I seriously doubt there are smoke-filled back-room discussions on how to kill the people and the planet. I think it is quite the opposite.
However, the situation is what it is today. We’ve got farmers who are using pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers…why? It’s not to poison you any more than a baby cries to piss you off. It’s to do what YOU are doing…making a living in service to mankind in an area in which you are both suited and gifted.
Yet it’s clear that our friend, Big Ag, is not truly sustainable and it’s moving us further toward a state of poisoned. So…what to do, what to do?
Well, I can tell what won’t work. Making Big Ag and/or all his followers the enemy. Nope. Not only does that NOT work, it causes strife, drama, and divisions, of which I think we have had our fill. It’s time to see problems like the Big Ag dilemma and the million others that are swamping us as OUR problems.
It’s not going to work to tell the farming community that all they are doing is wrong and harmful; that they have been sold a bill of poisonous goods by the evil corporate chemical companies and are therefore responsible for the pending death of the people of our fair planet. Understand that farming is not just an occupation – it’s a lifestyle. And this announcement, in critical tones, is about as welcome and accepted as being told that your God is a fake, even if you have proof to back it up. Super! Now you’ve created an Us against Them. Another one. Yippee.
To follow the suggestions of this author for the “solution” to this dilemma, we are instructed to do a few things. First we are encouraged to tell Obama to ix-nay some of Monsantos genetically modified corn, and to tell congress that organic is the way to go. Like they are going to listen.
Then, we are admonished to “Ban Roundup”. Accomplished how? Oh…there it is – by not letting Big Ag stop the EPA from telling us the truth about Dioxins and their hazardous effects on health. Huh? (The whole freedom of speech thing has made this "truth" available in at least three documentaries I've seen this month).
No wonder we read this, listen to our commentator, turn off the TV or radio and get dressed and go to work and nothing gets done. As if a letter to a congressman will do any good. Nice effort, just don’t expect any real results – if you are lucky enough to get noticed – anytime soon. Sadly, I think that we perhaps actually believe that a few letters and picket signs make a difference. Maybe having done that we feel absolved of our responsibility to help solve OUR problem.
If one is going to present the American Farmers with this idea, perhaps we should take a tactic that’s closer to multi-level marketing. We need to get these people on board. They are, after all, the ones who are buying the stuff. But to demand them to stop using this stuff, cold turkey, is like asking them to quit their jobs, even with a 6-digit debt over their heads. Come on…you heard the panic over the Union situation and losing even a few benefits. What is a farmer to do? When they stop using what they’ve become dependent on for decent yields, they will go broke, lose their land and farms, where it will more than likely be snapped up by Big Ag, who isn’t going to listen to you because you are threatening to take away his profits.
Here is the part where I think we, as a collective, can do better. We can side with the farmers. We can say, “Look…” and educate them about the situation without blaming them. By acknowledging that it’s OUR problem, and not just his, we can put our heads together to find better solutions.
For example, do you have any idea what a pain in the ass it is to get into organic farming? Or how long it takes? Or the paperwork or fees involved with being certified? Let’s not pretend we are unaware that Big Biz and Big Gov – Big Ags siblings – haven’t already got their well-financed fingers in the organic pie. Seems to me that the Big family ought to be eliminated from the equation altogether– a We-the-People move, instead of an Us-against-Them situation, of which we have too many, and which are largely ignored politically. Political wins go to the highest bidder.
How about a community of We-the-People get together with our newly enlightened organic recruit, and start a CSA farm on their land – with a promise to support it so that they will not have to end up on welfare, where they can now be a pathetic casualty, criticized for leaching off the system? How about understanding their need to scale back gradually – not just park the combine and quit. How about all the organic chemists unite their brains and come up with natural alternatives to all the toxic products that Monsanto is pumping out?
Remember this: the farmer is your friend. Without farms, there is no food at all. While if we had not used these toxic chemicals all these years, there is little doubt that we probably would not have the degree of health issues we have today…but neither would we have had the cheap food that has given us all our disposable income, which fuels our consumer-crazed economy. You can see how many directions this glass has shattered in.
So what is ONE to do? I for one have saved a tree or two and have not bothered to write anyone in office about this. They don’t really care. But I make a genuine effort to get my groceries locally, supporting my local farmers. I grow as much of my own stuff organically as my quarter-acre will allow, and offer leftover plants and produce to friends and neighbors. Perhaps most importantly, for those inclined to activism, when you talk to farmers, don’t treat them like they are poisoning humanity – but rather seek to inform and educate about the situation at hand. Think about practical, plow-meets-the-soil solutions for them, and maybe even put your money where your heart is and offer to help in some concrete way.
The power is in the people – not in the government. If we are banking on them to change the way things are, we will be waiting a long time, and all our organic dreams will be forever lost in the sea of red tape. If we all made a commitment to truly act on what we say we believe, in even the smallest ways in our own kitchens and gardens, I believe we would be a lot closer to a solution than we are.
If we insist on seeing this as a fight – then there will be a winner and a loser. If, however, we begin to step back and see the issues of today as problems that affect us ALL, there is a chance that we can turn our solutions into a winning situation for all of us. Division brought us the Civil War. What might Unity bring us?
