The small mind at the top of the hill seeks control

     

     Henry Kissinger once wrote, "if you control the food supply you control the people". You can look at every poor nation and see this is self evident. If you look at our supposed rich nation what do we see? I see thousands of miles of distribution chains all dependent on fossil fuels to deliver the goods. I see farmers dependent on subsidies and methods of farming that destroys the soil. All the while we become completely dependent on big biotech to peddle increasingly dangerous chemicals.

    Our food supply is out of our collective control. We are dependent on oil barons, evil biotech corporations and governments who seem to care less everyday for the health of the masses. We combine this with an addiction to profit that has made destructive monoculture practices the norm and we are sitting on a ticking time bomb.

    If we look into what certified organic really means we see more newspeak shielding another profit motive. In many cases the label on organic food is just a label. A product that passes a line of definitions that might exclude other practices you think is part of certified organic. I can guarantee you that what you think organic is and what certified organic is, are two different things (unless you looked up the certification process already).

    Even if we did only buy organic non-processed foods we still have to face the thousands of miles food travels. Consider your last meal, if portions of it were normally out of season for your region, where did those portions travel from?

    Oil is the reason for our current wars. If our food is dependent on oil, then our current wars are also over food. What progress has humanity made if we are still fighting over who controls the best hunting grounds?

    We need to dramatically change the means of distribution when it comes to our staple foods. This is not an easy task. Beautiful creativity needs to be asserted here as always. I return to beauty of community gardens. Not all of us can do this, in fact the majority of us are unable to do this simply based on how much space we are allotted. Even if there was a space to grow staples who has the time?
   

     No time, no space, only excuses here. This is a beginning. In Oregon the Portland Community Garden Project was started in 2010. Between 2010-2011 this project added 150 garden plots. If the citizens of Portland can begin this process why can't we begin the cities and towns we currently live in? By changing the means of distribution we defeat Kissinger's maxim and the small mind at the top of the hill.

    The soil will then be ours, not for the sake of profit, but for the sake of our lives. We will be able to learn how to grow our food in sustainable ways. The evolutionary bonds we have made with the bees, the worms, and the birds will return to balance. The air will be a little cleaner, our lives will be a little greener, our minds will be brighter. Simple actions day to day to untie the rats nest of our exploitation this is our aim.

    Changing how we interact with the means of distribution is essential to changing how we interact with the means of production. If we change how we interact with the means of production the division between owner and employee will also change. With that change in place the kind of economic polarity that strangles our lives will be less radical.