Day 324
Jocelyn, Sharla, Kai, Sean, Jim, and I all went into Missoula to see two talks by activist, philosopher, and scientist Dr. Vandana Shiva at the University of Montana. The first one was in a classroom during the afternoon and was titled "Living Seeds, Living Soil, and Earth Democracy." The second one was in a large theatre in the evening and was titled "We Are All Seeds: Food Security and Environmental Sustainability." Both talks were well-attended; no seat was left empty and many people stood or sat in the aisles, and Dr. Shiva was a very eloquent and articulate speaker. I took notes during each talk and hope to summarize them here.
Between the two talks we were invited over to Jesse and Ashley Fister's home where we were treated to a delicious meal of venison sausage, sour kraut, salad, fried potatoes, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and some of the best home-brewed
apple cider I've ever had. Jesse also showed us a deer pelt he'd brain-tanned, a beautiful knife he'd forged and constructed himself, and a deck of
cards he designed featuring stunning photography on each one. We played a couple
games with the
cards, one of which was a collaborative story-telling game where we took turns drawing cards and adding a few lines to the story. Thanks Ashley and Jesse for sharing your home and food and lovely company with us! We hope to have you out to the labs for a visit soon!
Stream-of-consciousness summary of my notes on Vandana Shiva's afternoon lecture:
Living Seeds, Living Soil, Earth Democracy
Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton is a variety of cotton genetically modified to produce insecticidal toxins as it grows. Soil tests done on fields where bt cotton had been grown showed that half of beneficial soil microorganisms had died. For people whose worldview implicitly assumed the soil was already dead, (simply a lifeless container for holding nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium,) this wouldn't seem like a problem. But for those of us who recognize that healthy soil is composed of a complex interconnected web of countless life-forms that dynamically maintains its own balance, stores
water and nutrients through constant exchange, and sustains the health and nutritional value of plants grown in it, such drastic reductions in soil life are clearly problematic.
The worldview that sees finance as the main driving force in the world stands in stark contrast to a view of the world based on ecological integrity. The immense economic inequality that the former worldview has engendered can be illustrated by the occupy movement's emphasis on the dichotomy of the 1% and the 99%. In modern times we can see at least two different but related and sequential privatizations, (or forced enclosures of property formerly held in common,) of water, atmosphere, and seeds. First, by externalizing their waste on the commons, polluters essentially violated the rights of fellow users of the commons by arrogating to themselves rights to abuse and degrade without paying recompense. Then as a sort of second privatization, to add insult to injury via insidious propaganda, these "rights to pollute" were basically codified into law and systematized ala schemes such as
carbon trading and seed patents.
The carbon reductionism that labels massive hydro-electric and nuclear power plants as "green," (in spite of their ecoystemic disruption and threats of radiation respectively,) is another example of the same sort of propaganda, and part of the same broader phenomenon of corporate domination. By replacing true
freedom with the nebulous idea of corporate freedom, corporations are allowed to destroy the earth and take away the rights of indigenous and common peoples everywhere. One major early step was the advent of the limited liability corporation, a legal mechanism enabling a privileged few to socialize risk while privatizing
profit. In the field of agriculture run on the corporate model, the trend has been towards fewer and larger farms, while traditional and organic small farming is painted as intrinsically unviable. In truth, growing healthy food for
local consumption is the essence of viability, and it is the artificial abundance produced by subsidies and the artificial scarcity produced by intellectual property that empowers corporate domination, perverts natural incentives, and renders small-scale alternatives uncompetitive.
Rather than redefining negative externalities as positive growth to bolster "gdp" or "gross domestic product," (a metric which doesn't count as products those things which are consumed by their producer,) perhaps we should redefine and enlarge our identies to realize we are part of one earth family, and if we must get a nationwide measure of the economy, perhaps measuring "gross national happiness" as Bhutan has attempted to do would be more useful.
Our ability to live as diverse cultures is being destroyed by a system that claims to represent our interests, but if we realign our understanding of democracy as our ability to shape our own lives, we can act on the values that can lead to a possible liveable future: love and caring.
When Vandana Shiva was asked by a member of the audience what one thing we can do, she answered that there is no one thing, that we must learn from diversity and work towards both local and society-wide change. When asked what could be done to bail out impoverished and oppressed farmers, she answered that no bailout was needed, simply justice, a return of lands that were appropriated. When asked about how we might afford to return to an organic agriculture system she pointed out the vast subsidies that our tax money provides to the chemical agriculture industry, and that a possible
course of action might be to withdraw our support via a tax strike.
1
