Censored 2012 (43 page)

Food issues are political, social, emotional, psychological, ecological, and economic. The following are stories about how the ways we produce and transport food are changing to support the ever-growing population in sustainable ways.

The dominant narrative on the issue of food security and quality is that only industrial-scale corporate agriculture can feed the growing human population; ecology-based and organic farming are mere luxuries. According to this myth, growing enough food will require expanding the current agribusiness model of production, which is fossil fuel-, petrochemical-, water-, and capital-intensive, and based largely on plantation-style monocultures of genetically modified crops. Yet recent scientific evidence demonstrates that farms designed to emulate natural ecosystems not only protect and restore natural resources, but are more productive than industrial farms—and much more resilient to climate change.

Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people—providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and nonmaterial needs in a sustainable way—working with, rather than against, nature. This permanent agriculture also provides the possibility of a stable order.

From hundred-mile diets to green markets and organics, from obesity to genetically modified organisms, food is always in the news. The new food movement is an act of popular resistance against a system as harmful to life as military conflict. Food isn’t just something we need to shovel down each day to survive. It’s far more potent: it’s the means, more than any other, by which we humans shape our planet and ourselves. We need a new food manifesto outlining how our food choices
can shape a better world. Bring friends together to enjoy good food, and talk about where your food came from—and about your food choices.

Sources:
Tom Levitt, “Agroecological Farming ‘Can Double Food Production in Africa over Next 10 Years,’ ”
Ecologist
, March 8, 2011,
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/802483/agroecological_farming_can_double_food_production_in_africa_over_next_10_years.html
; Nidhi Prakash, “World Hunger Best Cured by Small-Scale Agriculture,”
Guardian
, January 13, 2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/13/world-hunger-small-scale-agriculture
; Tom Philpott, “Debunking the Stubborn Myth That Only Industrial Ag Can ‘Feed the World,’ ”
Grist
, March 10, 2011,
http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-03-10-debunking-myth-that-only-industrial-agriculture-can-feed-world
; “UMass Permaculture Documentary Series (Part 1/3),” video, YouTube, 5:54, posted by UMassPermaculture, February 4, 2011,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWHSzGDItBA
; Carolyn Steel, “A New Food Manifesto,” Ode, Spring 2011,
http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/74/new-food-manifesto/
.

Sustainable World Sourcebook:
The go- to guide for getting engaged. Get up to speed fast on the critical issues—and on solutions and actions to take.
http://swcoalition.org/index.php
.

Resource Directory:
http://swcoalition.org/media/pdf/sourcebook_resources.pdf
.

Bioneers:
The solutions to most of our environmental and social crises already exist. “Bioneers” are innovators looking to nature to uncover those solutions.
http://www.bioneers.org/
.

The political and social consciousness of the world is shifting before our eyes. There is a growing realization that true power resides in “the people,” not in governments or politicians. When people unite and are organized and determined, they are likely to succeed. In the United States, polarized politics, the corrupting influence of corporate money, and the disintegration of democratic values have elicited some push-back. Yet broad movements have yet to gel. The stories below reflect public concerns and actions, both in the US and around the world.

In December, following a vegetable seller named Mohammed Bouazizi, the people of Tunisia rose up in an unarmed insurrection to overthrow the regime of dictator Ben Ali. Their success prompted a popular uprising against President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, which, after weeks of unprecedented protests, succeeded in ousting him. Soon, the grassroots struggles for democracy spread, with protests taking place throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Though protests in some nations were violently suppressed, movements of the Arab Spring have dramatically altered the way many view prospects for democratization in the Middle East.

Sources:
Steven Zunes, “Egypt: Lessons In Democracy,”
Yes! Magazine
, February 1, 2011,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/egypt-lessons-in-democracy
; Bruno Giussani, “TED: After the Tunisian Revolution, Imagining the Way Forward,” TED, March 24, 2011,
http://blog.ted.com/2011/03/24/tedxcarthage-notebook-after-the-tunisian-revolution-imagining-the-way-forward
; Ruaridh Arrow, “Gene Sharp: Author of the Nonviolent Revolution Rulebook,” BBC, February 21, 2011,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12522848
.

After Arizona passed SB 1070, a controversial measure also known as the “Show-me-your-papers” law, the public response in opposition to the bill was swift, large, and diverse. Hundreds of thousands of people protested against the law in at least seventy US cities. Sports stars denounced it. Boycotts, including by other US cities, dogged the state for months. Though copycat bills were introduced in many other states, popular pressure kept most from gaining traction; a year later, only Georgia’s bill had passed. The mobilization of Latino communities and their supporters has remained high, influencing the debate on federal immigration reform legislation. As Dr. Warren Stewart, a Phoenix pastor, told supporters of the law: “You have awakened the 21st century civil rights movement.”

Sources:
Kety Esquivel, “The 21st Century Civil Rights Movement,”
Yes! Magazine, May
18, 2010,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-21st-century-civil-rights-movement
; Jordan Flaherty, “In Arizona, A Human Rights Summer,”
Yes! Magazine
, July 30, 2010,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/in-arizona-a-human-rights-summer
.

Increasingly, people and organizations across the United States are standing up to say no to US support for Israeli policies of occupation and apartheid in Palestinian territories. In the first days and weeks after Israel attacked a humanitarian flotilla bringing aid to Gaza, sympathetic actions occurred across the US. In California, hundreds of activists formed a picket line at dawn at the Port of Oakland, where an Israeli cargo ship waited, and urged dockworkers not to unload the ship in protest of the flotilla assault. Workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to cross the picket line, a labor arbitrator upheld their right to refuse to unload the ship, and the shipping company abandoned the effort. Workers in Sweden, South Africa, Norway, and Malaysia, have all announced their refusal to unload Israeli ships.

Source:
Phyllis Bennis, “Waging Peace from Afar: Divestment and Israeli Occupation,”
Yes! Magazine
, August 20, 2010,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/waging-peace-from-afar-divestment-and-israeli-occupation

Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams says peace is only possible with justice and equality: we all need access to enough resources to live dignified lives; access to education and healthcare; freedom from want and fear; hard work and creativity; collaboration and collective struggle. What’s your definition of peace?

Source:
“Jody Williams: A Realistic Vision for World Peace,” video, TED, posted by TEDWomen, December 2010,
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jody_williams_a_realistic_vision_for_world_peace.html
.

Monumental change is always a result of smaller acts. Whether it be rejecting fiction-based television news, refusing to cooperate with an unjust
system, whistle-blowing, or defying military orders when you know something is wrong, ordinary people are dropping their fears and finding creative ways to challenge leaders who abuse the power given them.

Source:
Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson, “10 Everyday Acts of Resistance That Changed the World,”
Yes! Magazine
, April 1, 2011,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/10-everyday-acts-of-resistance-that-changed-the-world
.

Thousands of citizens filled the streets of Madison and the State Capitol in protest of a bill reducing the rights and benefits of workers. Though the bill passed, it was later defeated in the courts. But the Wisconsin union movement didn’t die; their ardor inspired people across the country and sparked direct actions in all fifty states.

Sources:
Sarah van Gelder, “Wisonsin: The First Stop in an American Uprising?”
Yes! Magazine
, February 18, 2011,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/wisconsin-the-first-stop-in-an-american-uprising
; Micah Uetricht, “Bigger than Unions, Bigger than Wisconsin,”
Yes! Magazine
, February 25, 2011,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/bigger-than-unions-bigger-than-wisconsin
.

Bipartisan citizens’ groups have been mobilizing to curb corporate spending in a variety of ways, such as amending the Constitution to declare that corporations do not have the same right to free speech as people; requiring shareholders to approve companies’ political spending; passing legislation to require fuller disclosure of where political money originates; and working to expand publicly financed elections.

Sources:
Brooke Jarvis, “After the Campaign Cash, the Backlash,”
Yes! Magazine
, November 4, 2010,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/brooke-jarvis/after-the-campaign-cash-the-backlash
; Gwen Stowe and Jeff Clements, “Give Us Our Law Back: Montana Fights to Stop Corporate Corruption,”
Yes! Magazine
, May 24, 2011,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/give-us-our-law-back-montana-fights-to-stop-corporate-corruption

The Oregon Senate passed legislation to establish the Citizens’ Initiative Review as a permanent feature of Oregon’s initiative process. The bill, HB 2634, establishes a new state commission to administer future Citizens’ Initiative Reviews (CIRs). The funding for the program will be provided by foundations and private donations—at no additional cost to the state.

Source:
“Oregon Senate Approves Citizens’ Initiative Review Bill,” press release, Healthy Democracy Oregon, June 1, 2011,
http://www.healthydemocracyoregon.org/blog/2011/06/01/news-release-oregon-senate-approves-citizens%25E2%2580%2599-initiative-review-bill
.

Through the first “participatory budgeting” experiment in the US, residents of Chicago’s 49th Ward spent a year deciding how to spend $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars. Over 1,600 community members stepped up to decide on improvements for their neighborhoods, showing how participatory budgeting can pave the way for a new kind of grassroots democracy, in Chicago and beyond.

Source:
Josh Lerner and Megan Wade Antieau, “Chicago’s $1.3 Million Experiment in Democracy,”
Yes! Magazine
, April 20, 2010,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/chicagos-1.3-million-experiment-in-democracy
.

“I may disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler,” read one sign at the Rally to Restore Sanity, organized by comedian Jon Stewart. In an increasingly emotional political climate, hundreds of thousands of people came out to celebrate reasonableness and respect in political debates instead of hatred, violence, and division.

Sources:
“Signs of Sanity (and/or Fear),”
Yes! Magazine
, November 1, 2010,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/rally-to-restore-sanity-and-or-fear-1
; Sarah van Gelder and Brooke Jarvis, “Words Matter: How Media Can Build Civility or Destroy It,”
Yes! Magazine
, January 12, 2011,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/words-matter-how-media-can-build-civility-or-destroy-it
.

Thanks to San Francisco State University students who helped in preparing and editing this chapter: Ally Gill, Robert Usher, Celeste Richmond, and Aaron Peacock. And big thanks to: Laralyn Yee, University of California, Berkeley.

A special thanks to Brooke Jarvis, Sarah van Gelder, and Fran Korten, of
Yes! Magazine
, for contributing many of the stories, and happy fifteenth anniversary to
Yes!
, an award-winning, ad-free, nonprofit publication that supports people’s active engagement in building a just and abundant world.

Thanks also to Tom Atlee, of the Co-Intelligence Institute, and Neal Gorenflo, Shareable magazine—both of you for your clear thinking and caring counsel. And appreciation to Brad Burge, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies; Jason Marsh of the Greater Good Science Center, University of California, Berkeley; Marilyn Schlitz, Jenny Mathews, and Mathew Gilbert of the Institute of Noetic Sciences; and Mira Luna, from Bay Area Community Exchange and Trust is the Only Currency. Thank you all for your stories and your good work in the world.