Sometimes I get so scared. I actually get scared in my bones. It’s terrifying to see the real face of climate change; to see the pieces of stone uncovered by retreating glaciers, shriveled cobs of corn from the African drought, dead coral bleached by increasing ocean temperatures. The idea of drought is something we are so disassociated with unless we are farmers ourselves.
When we are hungry; we either buy food at a restaurant or grocery store where there is always more than enough- so much so that you can even choose. The people that are bringing these choices to our tables and mouths are being raped of their choice to be a farmer and to survive. There are stories where villages are changing the names of the months because there is absolutely no way of predicting the rainy or dry season anymore. What have we done? Tonight as I am able to recognize the idea of fear, tonight there is someone my age, my height and size who is a prisoner of this fear. So captive that their neighbor has just past away because of Malaria where there had never been such mosquito population before, or because of simple lack of water and the ability to farm. If the climate increased 3 degrees we would have a net decrease in global food production- keep in mind an ever increasing global population.
This is so big. This is so BiG. This is so global and permanent.
If we deal with food security, we deal with many issues of climate change. We have been capable of growing food in a sustainable manner, why can’t we do it again already??? I watched a great documentary film about bio-dynamic farming in India ‘One man, One cow, One Planet’. There is hope for local organic sustainable farming.
you are absolutely right !
Our society would have to change at such an alarming rate in the opposite direction to create a simple system of eat what you grow, that the society itself would crumble from shock. Maybe this is what the world needs, but there has to be a different answer. We have progressed for thousands of years to get our agricultural system to a point where a small number of people can lovingly give their time and hard work to the soil to make food for the rest of us who can then spend our time trying to simplify life with service and invention. I’m not trying to impart corporate farming over sustanance agriculture, but there has to be some sort of mid-ground. Labour prices keep going up, and so does the price to fuel a human in our society. I don’t know if it’s reasonable to look to a high human input form of agriculture like bio-dynamic or organic as the answer. This is not anything you haven’t heard before Nat and Mel - the hard part now is not to try to void our learned agricultural practices, or flip our whole society back to neanderthal ways but change just enough so the world doesn’t starve. Mel - keep up the good work - the farmers will keep growing you food so that you (and others like you) can invent an altered/more sustainable system of living together.
Please and Thank-you.
So great to see how our film is being picked up and understood by so many. It was made to provide answers in a gentle but clear and urgent way. Please do pass on our website to interested people: http://www.onemanonecow.com
thanks so much. Barbara
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