The other day I went to a meeting about the lawsuit that will seek to invalidate Bill 113, the Big Island's anti-GMO bill, based on federal pre-emption. It's just sad that we all have to go through this pain, conflict, and expense with everyone having the best intentions, just different best intentions.
How will the future turn out? Will we gradually convert to more organic/sustainable kinds of agricultural production systems? I think and hope so. Will GM crops be part of the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050? Probably. It will be a little bit of both.
It is good that we think long and hard about the risks of GM technology. The critics of GM are right in that there are great risks in altering biology at a genetic level, in my opinion. But they are also a bit hysterical about that risk. Automobiles pose a much greater threat to individual bodily health and to the health of the planet. By orders of magnitude. But we keep driving on and on.
It isn't what's written or spoken that matters at the end of the day. It's what gets done, it's what we do with our bodies. So we must live the life that seems best to us, that perhaps makes things a little better for everyone, both human and non-human, and keep soldiering on.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Some Mistakes Farmers and Ranchers Are Making Out of Pure Annoyance
Being a farmer or rancher in today's world takes wit, courage, determination. It is to take on an almost impossible challenge with one's fragile physical body, . And because there are so few of us, less than 2% of the American population, it often seems as if no one else gets it.
It takes something akin to wizardry to keep the powers of nature aligned so as to produce the material that keeps the wheels and wires of civilization humming along, to fill the shipping containers week after week. It takes an agile wit to keep one's agricultural production system fine-tune to constantly evolving environmental, cultural, and commercial conditions. It takes intellect, labor, and technology to feeds one's fellow citizens. Yes, technology is indispensable, even to the most ardent of organic producers, as any thoughtful one will tell you. Whether it's a solar charger for an electric fence or plastic film for floating row covers, or soil tests to determine fertility, science and technology are essential to commercial agricultural production, given the fact that 2% are feeding 98%.
We're some of the busiest people in a busy society, but it's not social-media busy, it's not political busy, it's not financial manipulation busy, it's not in a meeting busy. It's producing food busy. So we get a little grouchy when we feel like we are being attacked for what we do. Because we do exactly what the other 98% tell us to do.
Farmers and ranchers don't get to choose what we produce or even how we produce it. We can propose a crop or a method of production, but it is the market that always decides and determines what we do. If there is a market then we can and will do it. If there is no market, no possibility of the tiny margins of profitability that we will accept as success, then no matter how strongly we may feel about a crop or production method, it goes by the wayside.
So we get annoyed when people accuse us of only wanting to make money, of not caring about the health of the planet, about being cruel to the animals in our care, about growing crops or using chemicals that supposedly cause cancer. We get annoyed because we don't get to choose what we produce. The other 98% chooses and we deliver, if we can.
So we get annoyed, and we make mistakes out of anger:
1. Getting Annoyed at Ignorance
We all need to write out a little message to ourselves and tape it to our bathroom mirrors: AT LEAST THEY ARE INTERESTED NOW. Because not so long ago if I registered a software product I couldn't even find "Agriculture" in the list of professions. We were a big joke ten years ago. Farmer, ha, ha. How quaint. Right. We'll see how quaint it is when you have to grow your own food. Did I mention we get annoyed? But we can't let our annoyance keep us from thinking clearly, which is what is happening.
2. Talking Down to Our Customers
A lot of the time we're like Jack Nicholson's character in a A Few Good Men: "You can't handle the truth!" So we've been guilty of blandishment and double-speak. Of referring to "sound science" and "abattoirs." But people want to know the truth. They'll even go undercover with secret recording equipment to get at it. So let's just give it to them straight and let the cards fall where they will. It'll be healthier for everyone.
3. Opposing GMO-labelling
Following on above, let's just get it over with already. Most Americans have been eating the products of genetically modified crops for years with small evidence of ill effects. Which is not to say the same as saying that GMO technology is a good or necessary way to go about facing the challenges of our burgeoning human population. It's just the truth. And people want to know the truth, so let's give it to them.
4. Not Taking Advantage of the Interest
People want to know where their food comes from. This is great. They want it to be raised humanely and grown with respect for the soil and the environment. Guess what? This is what we want too. We're closer to the soil and the animals than anyone. But for the longest time our marching orders have been: Lots of Food, Mostly Animal, As Cheap as Possible, We Don't Want to Know How. That's what the market/consumers was telling us to serve up, and so that's what we did. Now, thankfully, things are changing. So let's run with it, let's get out in front of it, let's give the people what they want and ask them in return to pay the un-subsidized cost. Let's charge people what it costs to do what they are asking us to do and let's tell them exactly how we do it. Let's educate our customers, not fight with them. Let's train our workers on responsible pesticide use and humane handling and pay them as skilled workers. Give farm tours and charge for our time to do it. Let's give them high-quality, environmentally responsible, humanely raised products and charge the true cost. That's what they want, it seems, and giving people the food they want is what we do.
It takes something akin to wizardry to keep the powers of nature aligned so as to produce the material that keeps the wheels and wires of civilization humming along, to fill the shipping containers week after week. It takes an agile wit to keep one's agricultural production system fine-tune to constantly evolving environmental, cultural, and commercial conditions. It takes intellect, labor, and technology to feeds one's fellow citizens. Yes, technology is indispensable, even to the most ardent of organic producers, as any thoughtful one will tell you. Whether it's a solar charger for an electric fence or plastic film for floating row covers, or soil tests to determine fertility, science and technology are essential to commercial agricultural production, given the fact that 2% are feeding 98%.
We're some of the busiest people in a busy society, but it's not social-media busy, it's not political busy, it's not financial manipulation busy, it's not in a meeting busy. It's producing food busy. So we get a little grouchy when we feel like we are being attacked for what we do. Because we do exactly what the other 98% tell us to do.
Farmers and ranchers don't get to choose what we produce or even how we produce it. We can propose a crop or a method of production, but it is the market that always decides and determines what we do. If there is a market then we can and will do it. If there is no market, no possibility of the tiny margins of profitability that we will accept as success, then no matter how strongly we may feel about a crop or production method, it goes by the wayside.
So we get annoyed when people accuse us of only wanting to make money, of not caring about the health of the planet, about being cruel to the animals in our care, about growing crops or using chemicals that supposedly cause cancer. We get annoyed because we don't get to choose what we produce. The other 98% chooses and we deliver, if we can.
So we get annoyed, and we make mistakes out of anger:
1. Getting Annoyed at Ignorance
We all need to write out a little message to ourselves and tape it to our bathroom mirrors: AT LEAST THEY ARE INTERESTED NOW. Because not so long ago if I registered a software product I couldn't even find "Agriculture" in the list of professions. We were a big joke ten years ago. Farmer, ha, ha. How quaint. Right. We'll see how quaint it is when you have to grow your own food. Did I mention we get annoyed? But we can't let our annoyance keep us from thinking clearly, which is what is happening.
2. Talking Down to Our Customers
A lot of the time we're like Jack Nicholson's character in a A Few Good Men: "You can't handle the truth!" So we've been guilty of blandishment and double-speak. Of referring to "sound science" and "abattoirs." But people want to know the truth. They'll even go undercover with secret recording equipment to get at it. So let's just give it to them straight and let the cards fall where they will. It'll be healthier for everyone.
3. Opposing GMO-labelling
Following on above, let's just get it over with already. Most Americans have been eating the products of genetically modified crops for years with small evidence of ill effects. Which is not to say the same as saying that GMO technology is a good or necessary way to go about facing the challenges of our burgeoning human population. It's just the truth. And people want to know the truth, so let's give it to them.
4. Not Taking Advantage of the Interest
People want to know where their food comes from. This is great. They want it to be raised humanely and grown with respect for the soil and the environment. Guess what? This is what we want too. We're closer to the soil and the animals than anyone. But for the longest time our marching orders have been: Lots of Food, Mostly Animal, As Cheap as Possible, We Don't Want to Know How. That's what the market/consumers was telling us to serve up, and so that's what we did. Now, thankfully, things are changing. So let's run with it, let's get out in front of it, let's give the people what they want and ask them in return to pay the un-subsidized cost. Let's charge people what it costs to do what they are asking us to do and let's tell them exactly how we do it. Let's educate our customers, not fight with them. Let's train our workers on responsible pesticide use and humane handling and pay them as skilled workers. Give farm tours and charge for our time to do it. Let's give them high-quality, environmentally responsible, humanely raised products and charge the true cost. That's what they want, it seems, and giving people the food they want is what we do.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
What gods do you serve?
That seems to me to be the essential question for humans. If we have any distinguishing characteristic as a species it seems to be the blessing and curse of symbolic thought and that capability culminates in theology. We believe in something, or some idea, that is the guidestar of our everyday life. How we shape our days and ourselves. We all have our personal pantheons.
The God of Love, perhaps, or the God of Money or the God of Power (perennial favorites.) The God of Organic Agriculture, or the God of Efficiency. The God of Global Dominance or of Manifest Destiny, of Time is Money, or of the Perfect Beach. The God of Please Don't Let Me Die Alone or the God of A Possible Future or the God of National Security or any kind of Security. The God of Poetry or the God of Horses (two of my faves) or the God of Climate Change or the God of Perfect Nihilism.
Maybe it's good not to serve gods that you don't believe in just because everyone else does. If you do Zen, maybe you can be free of gods for a few minutes, but then you're right back in the middle of it the moment you uncross your legs. So, to know who the gods you serve actually are, at the very least, that seems to be a good idea. But who can say?
The God of Love, perhaps, or the God of Money or the God of Power (perennial favorites.) The God of Organic Agriculture, or the God of Efficiency. The God of Global Dominance or of Manifest Destiny, of Time is Money, or of the Perfect Beach. The God of Please Don't Let Me Die Alone or the God of A Possible Future or the God of National Security or any kind of Security. The God of Poetry or the God of Horses (two of my faves) or the God of Climate Change or the God of Perfect Nihilism.
Maybe it's good not to serve gods that you don't believe in just because everyone else does. If you do Zen, maybe you can be free of gods for a few minutes, but then you're right back in the middle of it the moment you uncross your legs. So, to know who the gods you serve actually are, at the very least, that seems to be a good idea. But who can say?
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