See the last post for info on "modern society" according to Adshead.
Modern Society has these elements:
Use of powered machinery and new sources of power;
High level of consumer spending;
Elimination of famine and fatal epidemic;
Social equality based on personal achievement rather than inherited position; and
Mass politics democratic or totalitarian
I would say these are good things. They are clearly made possible to technology and systems, and collectively they have resulted in a higher standard of living than most humans on the planet have known before.
But as noted in post one, they are all at risk because of global farming, water issues, antibiotic resistance, politics of inequality and a food and ag systems that's just in a bad way.
So how might local food help achieve these societal goods in a post modern world?
Use Of Powered Machinery And New Sources Of Power
Local food is the perfect area to test renewable power sources such as anaerobic digesters and solar powered, and electric driven farm equipment.
High Level Of Consumer Spending
Local food and its farmers markets and consumer supported ventures are a perfect venue to stimulate consumer spending on food and farm products
Elimination Of Famine And Fatal Epidemics
Local production of meat, eggs and chickens has a much lighter footprint in its use of antibiotics. Lowering antibiotic use in all sectors (not just ag) is a key step to keeping antibiotics as a key human public health resource. As for the famine, if you don't think we are in a global climate transition, then stop reading now and go away until you do, but if you do, then there is an inescapable conclusion. Big Ag with its monoculture crops is a big old mainframe--when it works, it works, but if the mainframe goes down that's all she wrote. Local food is the internet, lots of nodes lots of weird stuff lots of experiments, some of its gonna work and when it does it offers redundancy and a back up. As the Jersey shore flooding disaster showed, if you could tweet a food truck you got a hot meal, while the people waiting for the "big food" solution waited in hunger. Plus the epidemic isn't just about people, industrial ag with its concentrated animal facilities has built a nearly perfect container to create and spread infection. 10,000 chickens in one spot is a different health risk, then a 1,000 chickens in ten spots.
Social Equality Based On Personal Achievement Rather Than Inherited Position
Why should you own farmland? Because you wanted to and worked for it and got lucky enough to own a farm? Maybe, or maybe because like the Prince of Wales you are lucky winner of the genetics sweepstakes? My answer is because you want to farm. That's my answer because anything else is iffy. I understand the English feudal practice of primogeniture (eldest male child gets it all) quite well. Unlike the Europeans, the English aristocrats preserved vast tracts of land and power because they passed the land (all of it) in tact to the eldest male child. So as they said, one son to inherit, one son for the army and one son for the church. But this is not the 13th Century and the American ideal is not one of a self perpetuating elite. Local food has the possibility of bringing back ordinary people who farm and who own the mans of production for food. I think, that's a good thing and an essential thing if the American experience of a broad stable middle class in a democracy is to continue. America is at its best when its it's about making the pie bigger for everybody.
Mass Politics
I'm not a fan of mass totalitarian politics--tyranny by a mob is no better than tyranny by a man, so I am a huge fan of democracy. As Churchill observed it's the worst of all governments except for any other. However, democracy needs voters, and voters need to live in a place with a modicum of economic stability. Voting means investing in a place and local food is one of the few things around that would bring voters back to rural America. And the one I am certain about is this, if you own farmland you vote, because elections have consequences and as an owner you have skin in the game and care about those consequences. As a renter, not so much.
Now, how can this be done?
We need more beginning farmer programs for farmers to buy land
Internet connectivity in rural America. We need better easier faster crowd funding so ordinary people can raise money We need an immigration policy that rolls out the welcome mat for people who want to come here, work hard at something that can amount to something and own something in the end. We need access to health care because a parent's fatigue and fear over the inability to shield their loved ones from catastrophic illness makes cowards of us all. And, we need a legal and regulatory posture, that as much as possible gets out of the way and lets local food and ag roll out. And we really really need the FDA and state compliant food processing that will fulfill the promise of safe, affordable and available local food as the engine of prosperity we all hope it can be.
The road to get to a post modern food and ag world is complex and shifting but the decision is really easy--What's it going to be empowered people living lives of choice and self direction controlling the production of food--one of the most basic human needs or a post modern slow descent back into a world of feudalism where where your are born is where you stay?
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