As you’ll recall I ended yesterdays post with Section 25, Subsection 1 of the United Nation Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As it is not germane to this conversation I will not touch on the United Nations. But this document was the result of a period of prolonged war and strife from which a new system had to develop. The Declaration, in and of itself is a beautiful document, in the same way I look at the Canadian Constitution (which in point of fact is a myriad of documents) and the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution. However, these documents are living, they need to evolve, to accept the realities that are ever present and constantly changing. But I don’t want to get into the high politics associated with that statement. Instead I want to continue on the post from yesterday.
I had given you a series of websites to go to as a starting point to start drawing your own conclusions.
I have had an intellectual love affair with Alice Waters (http://www.chezpanisse.com/pgalice.html ) since I first learned about her about two and a half years ago. Not a Chef, in her own words, merely a lover of food. Her entire food philosophy changed when she had a great experience in France as a young woman. Of course the world was changing then and she, to her credit, saw what was happening. She started Chez Panisse and in so doing started a food revolution that first touched Southern California and now, literally, is absolutely global. It is because of her, at least in part, that the White House for the first time has a garden on its grounds, from which, world class Chefs, can draw upon its resources for dinners for the Obamas and for state dinners. I wrote a post on this when it first happened because for me it represented an ideological and philosophical symbol which would trickle down to the rest of the country and possibly the world. A symbol just as powerful as the Victory Gardens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden ) which ended up providing 40%, FORTY PERCENT, of the countries produce needs. It was also practiced in Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany. May I also remind you that this was only 64 years ago.
I bring this up because it illustrates what can be done in times of need. When there is a will there is a way. What has happened to us that we have lost sight on the basic needs of everyone. Is it comfort? Contempt? Greed? Collusion? These aren’t rhetorical. I really don’t know. I do know that profit, as outlined in my previous post on the subject, plays a huge role in the decisions that are being made with regard to food policy. Moreover I am acutely aware of the fact that those decisions are the gap between me eating and someone in Africa dying from malnutrition.
These, as I see them, are the irrefutable facts; there is enough food in the world. That food is being distributed in an inequitable fashion. There is a better way. We all need to act now or our kids kids will not be able to eat the very basic food stuffs that we take for granted today.
Some of you may brand me as a socialist. Maybe even a communist. My answer to that is that I live in one of the greatest socialist countries in the world. Our social system is one which still, despite endless cuts and slashes, is the envy of the world. Why is it that we can not ensure that not only all of our population eats, and I don’t mean Big Macs, let alone contribute to the well being, in a nutritional sense of those places in the world that are incapable of supplying their own needs, be it through greed, famine, collusion or whatever.
There exists a social responsibility, not nearly the same as the one which was outlined in the United Nation Declaration, which both demands and commands that we, as citizens, do our utmost to stand up when we see tyranny. Whether it is in a fascist country or in food policy. And what we are witnessing now is the tyranny of one class over another. That being the industrialized world or the less than developed world. Sure they can plant plantations and contribute to our food supply, but how many of them get to eat?
Basically, and I do find this emotionally taxing and physically draining, what I am saying is that yes we need to look at Urban Farming as an impending reality. We need to accept that current food policy can not be maintained NOR SHOULD IT BE. The World Food Program is ineffectual because of greed, theft and collusion. The supposed loans of the IMF and the World Bank which are in theory supposed to be positive and transforming are in fact negative and the beginning of a system of debt that can never be gotten out from under.
Please, examine the websites that I suggested yesterday. Please educate yourself as to where your food comes from. Ontario grows massive amounts of food. Canada grows massive amounts of food and has an abundant supply of fresh water that is being siphoned off by the Americans. All legally and with the tacit approval of the Canadian government. If you think I’m lying I entreat you to prove me wrong. But you won’t. For it is true.
I think rather than my illustrating this point any further I would rather you take a step for yourself and start to explore the realities of what is on your plate.
Find out where it comes from. How it gets there. Who gets it there and why. I think that the answers to these questions will open up your mind.
A good place to start your investigation into the impending food crisis, as I have mentioned before is Jeffrey Sachs. This article is pretty good, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1734834,00.html . You may also want to read; http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2249_import_dependency.html .
Draw your own conclusions and then for the love of your grandchildren ACT!
Jeffrey Sachs recently said; "It's the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years. It’s a big deal and it’s obviously threatening a lot of governments. There are a number of governments on the ropes, and I think there’s more political fallout to come.”
What are you going to do?
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment