RE: The Creation Of A New Food Regime - Can We Find Sovereignty and Spirituality In Our Food System Once More? // Plus Photos From My Garden
Great insights and history! I do have a different perspective on the geopolitical factors that may have lead to the current food regime. Governments are the ones enforcing trade agreements that big agribusiness rely on. If anything it's governments that aid corporations in monopolizing markets. It's better to label the system State Capitalism/Corporatism and even modern day Mercantilism. “Neoliberalism & Free Trade” is always government managed & subsidized trade in favor of large corporations rather than true free market capitalism. Most likely these developing nations with more authoritarian governments got large World Bank/IMF loans that would help these corrupt government officials get rich, create a short term boom in the economy and make people feel prosperous and grateful to these authoritarian regimes, but dependent on them. These loans would subsidize big agribusiness and food dumping, indebt these countries until the artificial debt-fueled boom would inevitably end and these countries would have to sell their natural assets to corporations to further “privatization & liberalization” to get out of bad debt and the people would be overwhelmed with taxes and austerity measures. This cycle probably repeats everywhere around the world. Neocolonialism is much more apt than 'neoliberalism' or 'capitalism'. Also food aid is also government subsidization and not free markets. Our welfare program subsidizes the cheapest of food commodities. Ethanol is also subsidized. Governments also subsidize unnecessary major road systems that lead to big box stores and malls and big agribusiness and mass industrial transportation. In a free market, businesses would have to pay for roads and local farms would be much more competitive.
Anyways I do agree 100% with food sovereignty as a long term solution. The biggest challenge is government policy, not capitalism. Can you sell local produce to others? Can you use grey water for plants? Can you capture rainwater? Most laws prohibit food sovereignty and why should they not it they want to maintain power and have people be dependent? There's a book called: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin. I don't remember, but I probably read parts of it online or at least read some articles from Salatin and agreed with everything he spoke about.
I think decentralization and technology can disrupt big agribusiness and enable food sovereignty, but government polices and regulation will be the biggest obstacle. You really need an AirBnB or Uber for food and companies that will disregard all the laws... in fact not too long ago AirBnB was promoting 'illegal' local dinners/meals at private homes. Not sure they're still doing that, but companies that push the boundaries are the ones that will make the biggest difference.
Amazing reply! I actually totally agree with your analysis. In my section "How Did We Get Here?" I reference the protective US markets and the food dumping in form of food aid by the US government. And yes...neoliberalism and the "free market" are complete BS in terms of it actually being "free". So many government regulations lie behind such a system. The essay I offered above is just a snapshot of what is going on, and I do believe that the governments are one of the largest players and obstacles in the food system. However, I wonder how much control the government truly has today or if they are more at the mercy of what agribusinesses want due to agribusiness campaign donations, lobbyist, ect.
Lol Joel Salatin speaks to me...I'm currently trying to create my own permaculture business and am coming across all sorts of red tape, and many regulations that are completely ridiculous (unless the purpose of the regulations is to keep you in the system that is benefitting the top and exploiting the bottom, in which case they make perfect sense ;-) )
I'm going to look more into the AirBnB promotion, that's the kind of resistance that I've seen to be most effective, thanks for sharing!
Sounds good. Yeah I agree with you and I'm not a fan of big corporations either and they do have control over government in most industries, but unfortunately that won't change unless governments have less power. I remember hearing someone joke the first commodity sold in a regulated market are the regulators. The biggest source of corporate power comes from governments. It's half/half with government regulations. Most good intentions turn out to have bad results and most bad intentions work out exactly as planned. Hope you the best with your perm biz! What I mentioned was a pilot program in 2014 from AirBnB... EatWith is another company. I'm rooting for them. Yeah that's the best way to go, but you have to be prepared.. follow @quinneaker's blog and how his farm was raided. But I'm confident there is a way to make things work despite all these obstacles. ttyl!