I wouldn't even attempt to suggest a way to reduce or even eliminate dependency on chemical fertilizers in those poor countries - which we have made dependent by forcing them to use GMO seeds, but that's for another discussion - but here in the states the answer is clearly regenerative agriculture, not trying to find supply lines for chemical fertilizers to sustain monocropping GMO corn and soy.
Unfortunately this isn't such a clear cut option - as there's no way to assure regenerative agriculture "stock" at a scale required by the food market. It will take decades to regenerate the necessary seed and saplings stock. It took the mrgacoproporations at least 2 decades of intense destructive agricultural policies and market manipulations to achieve their goal - to become not just "too big to fail", but literally irreplaceable in the curent global food productiin chain. Reinstatement of regenerative agriculture is a must - but it's not feasible in the short term, it will require a massive global cooperative projects with wast investments - on the scale of the 80s UN/WFP campaign to eradicate hunger - only bigger. And don't take me the wrong way - it MUST start exactly as you suggested, on local, grass-root level, and then grow out of it. Every global issue needs to be first addressed locally - there's no magical deus ex machina in the form of the "invisible hand" or "the market will fix itself" - we can't eat money, no matter how much we print, we live in the physical world, not in Wall Street profit charts.
Very interesting and informative article linking the unaffordability of food with public uprisings.
Another example is that of Poland in the 1970s and 80s.
After the Second World War Eastern Europe was under the thrall of the Stalinist Soviet Union. After the post-war reconstruction the economy suffered with the typical Communist mismanagement and corruption. This culminated in the food riots and strikes of 1970, after the government announced a four-fold increase in the price of bread, which resulted in the shooting of protesters and the death of some 85 of them. The riots were suppressed by the authorities, but public tension simmered for the next decade.
It resurfaced a decade later after years of privation, culminating in a combination of events in 1979: the Polish economy collapsed, the shops were empty and food was hard to find, a record severe winter and Pope John Paul II was selected and visited Poland. The country was a tinderbox, but the Polish Pope gave the people hope that God was on their side. The following year the government announced steep rises in the price of food.
However, the spark that set off the massive public strikes was the sacking of a union organizer - Lech Walenca leaped over the gates of the Gdansk Shipyard and the Solidarity Union was born.
A couple of weeks later the government conceded and signed an agreement recognizing the Solidarity Union, the first in the Soviet Block. In the following year the movement gathered 10 million members - about one third of the population.
Over the next decade the Solidarity movement spread throughout the Soviet Block countries. Communist governments fell like dominoes. The Berlin Wall fell. Culminating in the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Boris Yeltsin riding atop the tank that shelled the Duma - the Russian parliament.
Fast forward a few decades.
The current situation in America bears remarkable similarity to that which Poland faced in 1979: An authoritarian regime has seized power; public discontent is growing; government corruption is rampant; affordability is becoming a major concern. Interestingly, Pope Leo is an American - the Papacy will likely become a direct challenge to the Christian Nationalists.
Trump is implementing policies that are exacerbating all the problems that Americans are facing. If world events result in an affordability crisis in America, even hunger - perhaps as a result in a shortage, or unaffordability, of fertilizer - then it sets the stage for an outrage to trigger a general strike and uprising.
Like happened in Poland in 1980.
And Trump can be guaranteed to provide such an outrage.
The 1000-Mile Imagination, or Bananas, Blueberries, and the Birth of a New Economy
A Cascadian Thought Experiment in Local Living, Radical Innovation, and Shared Resilience: How Local Constraints Could Unlock Cascadia’s Next Cultural and Economic Renaissance
I wouldn't even attempt to suggest a way to reduce or even eliminate dependency on chemical fertilizers in those poor countries - which we have made dependent by forcing them to use GMO seeds, but that's for another discussion - but here in the states the answer is clearly regenerative agriculture, not trying to find supply lines for chemical fertilizers to sustain monocropping GMO corn and soy.
Unfortunately this isn't such a clear cut option - as there's no way to assure regenerative agriculture "stock" at a scale required by the food market. It will take decades to regenerate the necessary seed and saplings stock. It took the mrgacoproporations at least 2 decades of intense destructive agricultural policies and market manipulations to achieve their goal - to become not just "too big to fail", but literally irreplaceable in the curent global food productiin chain. Reinstatement of regenerative agriculture is a must - but it's not feasible in the short term, it will require a massive global cooperative projects with wast investments - on the scale of the 80s UN/WFP campaign to eradicate hunger - only bigger. And don't take me the wrong way - it MUST start exactly as you suggested, on local, grass-root level, and then grow out of it. Every global issue needs to be first addressed locally - there's no magical deus ex machina in the form of the "invisible hand" or "the market will fix itself" - we can't eat money, no matter how much we print, we live in the physical world, not in Wall Street profit charts.
Thank you so much Gregor for your thoughtful insights! Can I quote you for next article?
YW & of course
I’d love to learn more, is there anyone you can suggest I reach out to?
Meryl Nass and John Klar would be good sources to start with. Both are on substack, Meryl's CHAOS newsletter and John Klar's Small Farm Republic.
Thank you!
Very interesting and informative article linking the unaffordability of food with public uprisings.
Another example is that of Poland in the 1970s and 80s.
After the Second World War Eastern Europe was under the thrall of the Stalinist Soviet Union. After the post-war reconstruction the economy suffered with the typical Communist mismanagement and corruption. This culminated in the food riots and strikes of 1970, after the government announced a four-fold increase in the price of bread, which resulted in the shooting of protesters and the death of some 85 of them. The riots were suppressed by the authorities, but public tension simmered for the next decade.
It resurfaced a decade later after years of privation, culminating in a combination of events in 1979: the Polish economy collapsed, the shops were empty and food was hard to find, a record severe winter and Pope John Paul II was selected and visited Poland. The country was a tinderbox, but the Polish Pope gave the people hope that God was on their side. The following year the government announced steep rises in the price of food.
However, the spark that set off the massive public strikes was the sacking of a union organizer - Lech Walenca leaped over the gates of the Gdansk Shipyard and the Solidarity Union was born.
A couple of weeks later the government conceded and signed an agreement recognizing the Solidarity Union, the first in the Soviet Block. In the following year the movement gathered 10 million members - about one third of the population.
Over the next decade the Solidarity movement spread throughout the Soviet Block countries. Communist governments fell like dominoes. The Berlin Wall fell. Culminating in the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Boris Yeltsin riding atop the tank that shelled the Duma - the Russian parliament.
Fast forward a few decades.
The current situation in America bears remarkable similarity to that which Poland faced in 1979: An authoritarian regime has seized power; public discontent is growing; government corruption is rampant; affordability is becoming a major concern. Interestingly, Pope Leo is an American - the Papacy will likely become a direct challenge to the Christian Nationalists.
Trump is implementing policies that are exacerbating all the problems that Americans are facing. If world events result in an affordability crisis in America, even hunger - perhaps as a result in a shortage, or unaffordability, of fertilizer - then it sets the stage for an outrage to trigger a general strike and uprising.
Like happened in Poland in 1980.
And Trump can be guaranteed to provide such an outrage.
The 1000-Mile Imagination, or Bananas, Blueberries, and the Birth of a New Economy
A Cascadian Thought Experiment in Local Living, Radical Innovation, and Shared Resilience: How Local Constraints Could Unlock Cascadia’s Next Cultural and Economic Renaissance
https://kentsmith.substack.com/p/the-1000-mile-imagination-or-bananas