Sticking Up for Yourself: A Call to Arms

Reader Contribution by Jane Heim
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                The earth is full … This means things are going to change.  Not because we will choose change out of philosophical or political preference, but because if we don’t transform our society and economy, we risk social and economic collapse and the descent into chaos. … It is the crisis itself that will push humanity to its next stage of development and allow us to realize our evolutionary potential. … It is a call to arms – a call to decide what kind of world we want to live in and what kind of contribution we can each make to define that. It is about a future we must choose. “The Great Disruption” by Paul Gilding.

                Corn is America’s biggest cash crop by far, and across most of the Midwest it is the most profitable by far. Because roughly 40 percent of the crop is being diverted into gas tanks, a bushel of corn fetches a much higher price today than it did before the government-subsidized ethanol boom. …  Another unwelcome hazard of government interference in the marketplace is a bacteria that survives primarily in the residue stalks and leaves left over after a farmer harvests a cornfield. Historically, Goss’s Wilt infected a relatively small part of the grain belt: Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota were high-risk areas. Today, the area at high risk for this potentially devastating plant disease extends all the way east through Iowa and northern Illinois into Indiana. … Planting “corn-on-corn” invites a crop disease epidemic. It would behoove the federal government to provide an incentive for sound stewardship of Midwest farmland, which is one of America’s greatest natural assets.  “Crop Politics,” Chicago Tribune Editorial, October 5, 2013.

What does it mean to stick up for your organic/no-spray way of life in the last stages of the Industrial Agricultural World?

First let me explain why I say “last stages.” Although the Industrial Agricultural World seems to be extremely robust and going full tilt at the natural world, it is not to last. (See above quotes.)

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