Food for thought II

The consequence of consuming food, water and drinks as described in the previous blog entry is one end of the global market. The position of farmers is not a pleasant one. They are in a situation in the food chain where a horde of predators look to compensate their loss and obtain their profit, while farmers are robbed of almost all rights by ruthless companies like Monsanto while the Indian government does not protect its agricultural community.

Pollution, slave contract obligations, tax duties, branch rules and harsh corporate dictatorship make running a healthy business virtually impossible. Between 2002 and 2006 in India 17,500 farmers committed suicide every year according to official government statistics... Other sources claim that the suicide wave has begun in the 1990's of the previous century, which brings the total of suicides to approximately a quarter of a million! These are the horrific figures of only one country.

Then there is the problem of ecocide that is increasing at a disturbing pace. Ecocide is a term to indicate land that has become wasteland, totally unfit to grow any type of crop. In Russia an area as large as Texas has become uninhabitable. Elsewhere, an increasing number of large areas can no longer be used for agriculture, while urban areas continue to expand, leaving less land for agricultural purpose. Independent lawyers are now looking into the possibility to sue perpetrators of ecocide that indeed goes beyond being a crime against humanity because it wrecks the planet that allows us to live, but so far the usual perpetrators - large corporations - have not suffered a bit, because they bribed or blackmailed governments to legalise their criminal conduct and look the other way. They listen to the rich and powerful and could not care less for those that want justice. 

Soi farmers in Argentina have left their land and moved to the cities because the spraying of pesticides has caused a plethora of diseases and a considerable amount of fatal casualties. These types of migrations are not unique accidents; similar situations exist all over the globe. It leaves consumers with less food, after farmers abandoned their land or with poisoned food because the farmers are forced to use pesticides.

Environmental disasters like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the meltdown of the nuclear facility in Fukushima following the tsunami have also caused tremendous damage to agriculture that will not be repaired for decennia. The radioactive fallout caused by the destruction of the nuclear plant has reached the US and Canada and even parts of Europe where it is contaminating crops on farming land that is nonetheless sold because administrations do nothing to prevent it and the media do not report on the health risk involved.

The Wall Street criminals continue to raise food prices to the benefit of every corporation and organization involved in the food business with the exception of farmers. Consumers living on the edge of their spending capacity simply die because of these inhumane policies. The 2008 food crisis plunged an additional 130,000,000 people into famine on top of the 'traditional' amount of victims. This is structured mass murder by white collar criminals that are continuously portrayed by the corrupt traitors of mainstream media as pillars of society, who are protected by illegal and unconstitutional law, while being left unopposed by the easily misinformed and ignorant masses.

All these events, call for different ways to conduct agriculture, while the boundless corruption od governments , organizations and corporations involved in the food chain industry must be put to an end one way or an other. It probably means that the entire structure of dysfunctional society will have to be changed drastically and that corporations and their lying clowns of mainstream media must be thrown in jail. However, with utterly corrupt government and judicial system, this will not happen unless ordinary citizens finally stop believing the usual propaganda deceit and drag the criminals out of government facilities and corporate offices onto  the street in a massive way that is too large for the manipulable police to handle. High level corruption has gone too far to stop it in a diplomatic and peaceful way. 

It makes sense to start change where the problems are worst in food production. Change must involve the following categories related to growing:

1. Yield must be increased
2. Production cost must be reduced

Ad. A Increasing yields can be accomplished by:

1. Applying efficient growing methods
2. Using less chemical additives
3. Lowering energy consumption
4. Reducing labor / automating growing systems
5. Grow independent from seasonal influence
6. Grow independent from daylight sequence

Ad. B Cost reduction / efficiency elevating measures are:

7. Agriculture close to or inside urban areas
8. Making better use of surface / volume for cultivation – stacked growing
9. Protect harvest against geophysical and climatic disaster and theft

All aims mentioned in the issues above can be reached while NOT harming the interest of farmers and consumers. But it may mean that traditional - soil based - agriculture has to be abandoned in order to feed the entire population of this planet. In the next blog entry these necessary changes will be detailed. Stay tuned.