How Did We Get Here?

'Agriculture is mitigating each new mistake – 

Nature cannot be improved” Vedanta Shiva

Large Scale Agriculture is controlled and manipulated by men in suits from behind desks.  The same men controlling our banks and our medicines are controlling our food.

Shipped in huge temperature controlled, energy guzzling containers, Produce is grown from seeds which have been treated and manipulated by chemicals and genetic modification.  The way in which our food is grown has no representation of how every other being on this earth feeds itself and find nutrients, so why have we changed a system which was never broken?

“We need to feed the world”, the answer I receive from the farming community in which I was raised. I’ve witnessed, in 31 years of my lifetime, acreage and mechanization increase; labour force and diversity of varieties decreased.  Through the last century governments have imposed restrictions and added incentives which have dictated and manipulated our ‘advances,’ making many ancient traditional methods redundant. So I find myself asking ‘How did we get here?’

During WW2 UK and US had a Dig for Victory campaign encouraging regular people to use what ever space they had to feed themselves…and they did.  Under the guise of ‘patriotism’ and independence from non allied nations The Home Front and community was strengthened.  Though not advocating war as a community building exercise, we see our greatest strengths and natural survival instincts come to us in our darkest hours.

Inevitably after a War of that scale and calibre there were many repercussions for the innocent citizens of participating nations.  Along with the physical trauma and turbulence of war people were hungry.  There were huge food shortages! 

The Common Agricultural Policy was introduced under a unified Europe.  The original policy in the 1950 in Western Europe was to encourage better productivity in Agriculture so consumers had a stable supply of affordable food and to ensure that the Agricultural Industry remained viable.  A vision of a self sustaining EU by the 1980 was the ultimate objective.

The Policy took many decades to implement.  As a result of this collective of multifaceted nations opening themselves up to free trading, shared innovations and technologies, mechanisation and the use of pesticides and fertilisers rapidly increased.  By the 1980’s market prices were crashing due to the EU producing a ‘Unmanageable Surplus!’

The 1980’s was also a decade of highly publicised global famine.  Meanwhile in Europe we had more food then we knew what to do with?!?!

By the 1990’s Chemical Mechanised Agricultural practices had started to take their toll.  Small scale farmers all over the continent being forced to sell out to ‘Corporate, Agri-Business’, plant and animal disease reaching epidemic proportions, and the nutrition of Europes rich soil depleting.

Policies have been amended and subsidies redistributed; Emphasis on Environmental and Animal Welfare standards have since been raised, encouraged and implemented. 

The dream of a self sustaining, unified EU were obliterated. The EU is heavily reliant on food and resources from other parts of the ‘developing’ world.  But what did we learn from this journey and attempt at innovation?

Large scale Agriculture isn’t feeding the world!  Europe’s highly nutrition soil is being emaciated.

According to Vedanta Shiva, this style of Agriculture estimated in producing only 25% of the world’s food.  The energy guzzling life cycle of this food is reportedly embodying 75% of our non-renewables in its processes.  How is that possible?  Simply through ‘advancement’ in mechanization, transport, chemicals, and of course, WASTE! 

The majority of the food which is globally consumed is still produced by small farmers, often by women on vegetable plots, home gardens and allotments. Food picked from trees, bushes and forest floors which have fed, supported and sheltered communities and families for generations are still feeding more of us then Large Scale Agriculture.

Growing plants on a small scale nurtures diversity.   Diversity creates balance for all elements, if all elements are balanced their need for fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides is eradicated! Growing our own food and saving its seeds is wildly satisfying! Exchanging and replanting untreated seeds, amongst ourselves encourages diversity to spread and will feed our future!  Seeds could well become their own currency and vital in out independence from Corporate Globalization.

It appears the solution could be in the back yards and gardens of you and I.  From home-grown misshapen vegetables to road side blackberries we can radically contribute food to our diets which hasn’t travelled around the world, and passed through numerous hands before reaching our plates!