The Real Cost
Jul. 8th, 2009 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreBack in the day, I had a left anarchist prof whose specialty was rural science. Being from an urban background, it initially struck me as quaint. One of the things she would talk about was the hidden cost.
I never really understood what she meant until reading and watching a few things lately, capped by a talk by Vandana Shiva that Rick told me about when he'd first heard it. It may be this talk.
Some of this is covered in the movie Food, Inc. within the context of the domestic U.S. food supply, specifically two things:
1. The desire for corporations to control all seed and to outlaw and bully farmers who use their own seed. 90% of the soy crops planted in the U.S. are GMO seeds patented by Monsanto. If you choose to eat soy, please try to eat organic non-GMO seed -- if you can find it.
2. Corporations use debt and forced "upgrades" to force chicken farmers to create increasingly inhumane raising conditions. "Cage free" is a sham. One chicken farmer showed a less inhumane chicken house, and the film talked about the costs involved vs. how much the chickens raised. It was pretty clear that these chicken houses would never ever be paid off and the debt was used as a means of control.
Now, let's blip around the world to India.
Were you aware that more than 200,000 farmers in India had committed suicide over the last 15 years?
So, if you look at this paper (warning: > 50 pages), you'll see analyses that patented seeds and debt were significant factors in that, only this time they weren't growing food, they were growing cotton.
To give Americans (primarily) cheap jeans and t-shirts and other clothing, more than 200,000 people died. This one not even vegans can claim to be exempt from being a party to.
What can you do?
First, obviously it's not practical to change everything overnight, but every purchasing decision counts. As Food Inc., says: "When we run an item past the supermarket scanner, we're voting: for local or not, organic or not." Even small changes matter.
0) Buy less where practical. For clothing, buy used where practical.
1) Support heirloom seeds and help support biodiversity of food and useful plants. A site that will help in the U.S. is seedsavers.org, but there are also numerous seed swap organizations around the country (and planet).
2) Trade seeds with or give seeds to to people who would like to grow plants.
3) Buy only truly fair trade organic cotton, especially if you can determine that it's not patented cotton. If you can't afford that, figure out if there is something you can do. Dharma Trading offers reasonably-priced undyed organic cotton tees.
4) Buy non-patented non-GMO food. Or grow it, even if you can only grow some food. Carrots and radishes are great beginner foods that require very little room (but do need sunlight), and herbs can often be grown on a windowsill.
5) Buy food and plant products that were raised humanely; humanely including the treatment of the farmers. Trade for food where you can.
6) Buy directly from farmers where possible.
7) Learn to spin, and learn to weave, knit, or crochet. It does not require a large outlay to do either (I got quite proficient with a drop spindle).
That's a start, but I'd love to hear more suggestions.
I never really understood what she meant until reading and watching a few things lately, capped by a talk by Vandana Shiva that Rick told me about when he'd first heard it. It may be this talk.
Some of this is covered in the movie Food, Inc. within the context of the domestic U.S. food supply, specifically two things:
1. The desire for corporations to control all seed and to outlaw and bully farmers who use their own seed. 90% of the soy crops planted in the U.S. are GMO seeds patented by Monsanto. If you choose to eat soy, please try to eat organic non-GMO seed -- if you can find it.
2. Corporations use debt and forced "upgrades" to force chicken farmers to create increasingly inhumane raising conditions. "Cage free" is a sham. One chicken farmer showed a less inhumane chicken house, and the film talked about the costs involved vs. how much the chickens raised. It was pretty clear that these chicken houses would never ever be paid off and the debt was used as a means of control.
Now, let's blip around the world to India.
Were you aware that more than 200,000 farmers in India had committed suicide over the last 15 years?
So, if you look at this paper (warning: > 50 pages), you'll see analyses that patented seeds and debt were significant factors in that, only this time they weren't growing food, they were growing cotton.
To give Americans (primarily) cheap jeans and t-shirts and other clothing, more than 200,000 people died. This one not even vegans can claim to be exempt from being a party to.
What can you do?
First, obviously it's not practical to change everything overnight, but every purchasing decision counts. As Food Inc., says: "When we run an item past the supermarket scanner, we're voting: for local or not, organic or not." Even small changes matter.
0) Buy less where practical. For clothing, buy used where practical.
1) Support heirloom seeds and help support biodiversity of food and useful plants. A site that will help in the U.S. is seedsavers.org, but there are also numerous seed swap organizations around the country (and planet).
2) Trade seeds with or give seeds to to people who would like to grow plants.
3) Buy only truly fair trade organic cotton, especially if you can determine that it's not patented cotton. If you can't afford that, figure out if there is something you can do. Dharma Trading offers reasonably-priced undyed organic cotton tees.
4) Buy non-patented non-GMO food. Or grow it, even if you can only grow some food. Carrots and radishes are great beginner foods that require very little room (but do need sunlight), and herbs can often be grown on a windowsill.
5) Buy food and plant products that were raised humanely; humanely including the treatment of the farmers. Trade for food where you can.
6) Buy directly from farmers where possible.
7) Learn to spin, and learn to weave, knit, or crochet. It does not require a large outlay to do either (I got quite proficient with a drop spindle).
That's a start, but I'd love to hear more suggestions.