The Origins of Virtue is a book about the genetics and evolution of things like altruism and cooperation. It begins with Peter Kropotkin's escape from a St Petersburg prison. Kropotkin is often thought of as an anarchist, but he was also the author of Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution in which he argues that the most successful animals are the most cooperative.
Matt Ridley, author of The Origins of Virtue, seems to think that cooperative animals are the exception rather than the rule. But he also thinks that humans are one of the exceptions. He believes in the 'selfish gene' and spends a chapter talking about it, and another chapter talking about Adam Smith, the Hutterites, and the division of labor. Then he spends two chapters talking about 'Prisoner's Dilemma' and the computer games built to test it. I talked a bit about this in an earlier post (7/16/08) and mentioned a "nice, forgiving, tough, and clear" computer program that won several competitions. The program is called 'Tit-for-tat' and the book discusses it and its implications, along with several games that eventual succeeded it, 'Generous-Tit-for-tat', 'Pavlov', and 'Firm-but-Fair'. One of the points Mr Ridley makes is that in a single game, 'Tit-for-tat' is more likely to lose than win, but it's in a series of games that 'Tit-for-tat' comes out the winner, just as you can be rude to a stranger that you will probably never see again, but you are unlikely to be rude to a neighbor or coworker that you will have to deal with again in the future. Thus he sees cooperation built on trust and reciprocity, and thus more prevalent in small groups than in larger ones (villages versus cities for example).
From there he goes on to a couple of chapters about food sharing (who shares food with who in tribal societies, and why) and from there to a chapter on reciprocity, cooperation, generosity, commitment, and altruism that he entitles 'Theories of Moral Sentiment'. He begins the chapter by focusing on something called the Wason test and claims that the test consistently found (even when done in many different cultures) that people are better at identifying those who cheat than those who are altruistic. Mr Ridley claims this is because we humans are ruthless at trying to calculate what people get out of things--we are hardwired to look at social contracts. He even claims that there is a part of the brain that is an 'exchange organ'.
Then he looks into alliances in baboon, chimpanzee, and dolphin societies. (Unfortunately, he has little about bonobo behavior--see my post of 7/30/08 for more on them and the chimps. Matt Ridley's most notable remark on the bonobos is that they "all have sex with each other to celebrate" when they find a cache of fruit. Actually, if he knew more he'd realize, they were having sex to reduce competitive tensions and facilitate cooperative behavior. I think studying the bonobos might alter some of his theories. He does quote Frans de Waal's chimp studies quite a bit, however.) An interesting insight he has along the way is that after reading a study on chimpanzee alliances (de Waal's) and how two chimps formed a coalition against a third and took power this way, Ridley began reading the history of the Wars of the Roses and said it seemed "uncannily familiar" until he realized that the shifting alliances among the English royalty almost precisely mirrored the way the alliances changed among these chimpanzee.
Ridley goes on to look at the advantages of conformity, and from there to claiming that religion and culture (including ritual, music, and dance) are markers to define a group in opposition to other groups. However, he says that people may pretend--or even believe--that they are putting the needs of the group first, but really we only go along with the group when it suits us--although we would never admit this.
In further chapters, Ridley claims that trade is the basis of interactions between groups (and precedes governments), that ecology is a lovely idea but one that we want everyone to follow except ourselves (he insists that the idea that indigenous tribes lived ecologically and sustainable is pure mythology, and points out that the very ecological parts of Chief Seattle's famous speech--quoted by Al Gore in Earth in the Balance--were actually written in 1971 as part of a TV drama), and that private property (or, if not, community-owned property--anything that doesn't involve government intervention) is the only way to insure sustainably managed resources. He finishes the book off in a chapter called 'Trust' (subheading: "In which the author suddenly and rashly draws political lessons") where he claims that people act on the basis of self-interest but shouldn't be encouraged to do so, since that only leads to further selfishness. "In other words, the reason we must not say that people are nasty is that it is true." But he further claims "...the human mind contains numerous instincts for building social cooperation and seeking a reputation for niceness."
This book is definitely biased in favor of sociobiology and against government and I suspect Matt Ridley selected the studies he uses to support his arguments. (He certainly seems quite libertarian.) Still, some rather interesting research is cited. One study with implications for social change was done by Elinor Ostrom, James Walker, and Roy Gardner. They gave groups of students a chance to play on certain markets set up on computer. One of the markets was much like the prisoner's dilemma game--if everyone exercised restraint, all players would do better. After the students anonymously played this market, no one did well--they made 21% of what they could have. When the students had a chance to discuss the situation in the middle of the game, the take went up to 55% of the maximum. With repeated discussions they got 73% of what they could have. However when the students were able to punish people who took advantage of the situation (but not discuss it among themselves) they only made a return of 37%. But when the students could have a discussion and set up a strategy to fine people who tried to take advantage of the situation, they managed to take 93% of the maximum. "Ostrum's conclusions are that communication alone can make a remarkable difference to people's ability and willingness to exercise environmental restraint: indeed communication is more important than punishment. Coventants without swords work; swords without covenants do not." (Quoted from Ridley's text) Would that governments got that!
Matt Ridley ends The Origins of Virtue with this statement: "The roots of social order are in our heads, where we possess the instinctive capacities for creating not a perfectly harmonious and virtuous society, but a better one than we have at present. We must build our institutions in such a way that they draw out those instincts. ... We must encourage social and material exchange between equals for that is the raw material of trust, and trust is the foundation of virtue." Summation: Egalitarian reciprocity, done in small enough groups to make it possible, engenders trust, which builds cooperation and community.
Quote of the day: "If we are to recover social harmony and virtue, if we are to build back into society the virtues that made it work for us, it is vital that we reduce the power and scope of the state. That does not mean a vicious war of all against all. It means devolution: devolution of power over people's lives to parishes, computer networks, clubs, teams, self-help groups, small businesses--everything small and local."-- Matt Ridley
Word (or phrase) of the day: Cultural hegemony
Hero(es) of the day: Harvey Milk
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Boycott Corporate America!
It's probably not possible now, but someday I'd like to see a massive boycott of all the big corporations. Corporate capitalism tears at the fabric of community.
A couple of years ago I discovered that Lightlife, a little company that I remembered as fondly as the TempehWorks from the days when I lived in Greenfield, MA, was now a division of ConAgra, which is one of the largest food companies in the US with a record of health code and worker safety violations. Before that, I was horrified when the major distributor to food coops in New England, Northeast Cooperatives, sold itself (with a lot of angst), to United Natural Foods, Inc, "the largest publicly traded wholesale distributor to the natural and organic foods industry". As someone who was involved in a buying club at the times, we soon learned that UNFI was more interested in supplying the major chains (Whole Foods and Wild Oats--which have since merged) than little co-ops.
What about all the save-the-planet businesses of the '80s and '90s? Most of those hip capitalist, change-the-world-by-buying-our-product, organic/all-natural, alternative businesses have been bought out by the big megacorporations (although they seldom advertise it): Ben & Jerry's is owned by Unilever, Tom's of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, The Body Shop is owned by L'Oréal, Stonyfield Farm is owned by Groupe Danone (who also make Dannon Yogurt), Cascadian Farm organic foods is owned by General Mills (which is probably why they have so much sugar in their products), and Kashi is owned by Kelloggs. Some of the 'alternatives' not taken over by the mainstream, such as the Hain-Celestial group and Whole Foods, act like very much like the other big corporations--and have to, in order to survive in the corporate world. And then there's Trader Joe's, owned by the family trust of a German merchant associated with the Aldi worldwide chain of stores.
Most of the medium size supermarket chains that once covered the US are gone--though some still keep the old names. When I look at the supermarket situation in New England (where I live) I find: Shaws and Star Market are owned by SuperValu, which owns over 2500 food (or food and drug) stores around the US and is primary distributor for another couple of thousand; Stop & Shop is owned by Ahold, a Dutch giant supermarket operator; and Hannaford is owned by the Belgium food group, Delhaize. I'm sure it's the same in most parts of the US--or the world.
But there are alternatives. My post on 'Feeding Ourselves in the Future' (7/24/08) talks about CSAs and farmer's markets and community gardens--not to mention producer co-ops such as Organic Valley and Cabot Creamery, and food co-ops and family run markets. These are some real alternatives (at least in the food industry--the Lappés also discuss these and more alternatives--see my last three posts).
Meanwhile, as much as possible I try to buy stuff from co-ops and little businesses--or make it myself. I make my own toothpaste from a recipe I got off the internet--basically baking soda, salt, and glycerin, with a little flavoring. (But I do use a commercial/new age toothpaste for my last brushing of the day, so I get a little flouride on my teeth.) I use a deodorant powder that I make from baking soda and corn starch (and little bits of coriander and other spices). (Yeah, I'm probably keeping Arm & Hammer in business, but at least they use cardboard packaging.)
I buy most of my food from the local food co-op. When I don't get it from there I try to buy from Mom-and-Pop stores--and I try to patronize our local farmer's market. (Plus, we are growing a teeny bit of our own food. I hope to have a bigger garden next year.)
(Outside of food stuff, I try to get things at thrift shops, so they are not newly manufactured. I particularly like thrift stores that support good causes.)
Above all, I try to think of how I can support small, local businesses. My little bit is hardly noticed by any major corporations, but it does support little companies that I think make a difference. And that is, I think, the best we can do right now. Everytime you buy something at a co-op, farmer's market, small business, etc, you keep real alternatives going--alternatives that may be quite useful when the global corporations encounter peak oil...
Quote of the day: "Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility." - Ambrose Bierce
Word (or phrase) of the day: Coevolution
Hero(es) of the day: Rachel Carson
A couple of years ago I discovered that Lightlife, a little company that I remembered as fondly as the TempehWorks from the days when I lived in Greenfield, MA, was now a division of ConAgra, which is one of the largest food companies in the US with a record of health code and worker safety violations. Before that, I was horrified when the major distributor to food coops in New England, Northeast Cooperatives, sold itself (with a lot of angst), to United Natural Foods, Inc, "the largest publicly traded wholesale distributor to the natural and organic foods industry". As someone who was involved in a buying club at the times, we soon learned that UNFI was more interested in supplying the major chains (Whole Foods and Wild Oats--which have since merged) than little co-ops.
What about all the save-the-planet businesses of the '80s and '90s? Most of those hip capitalist, change-the-world-by-buying-our-product, organic/all-natural, alternative businesses have been bought out by the big megacorporations (although they seldom advertise it): Ben & Jerry's is owned by Unilever, Tom's of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, The Body Shop is owned by L'Oréal, Stonyfield Farm is owned by Groupe Danone (who also make Dannon Yogurt), Cascadian Farm organic foods is owned by General Mills (which is probably why they have so much sugar in their products), and Kashi is owned by Kelloggs. Some of the 'alternatives' not taken over by the mainstream, such as the Hain-Celestial group and Whole Foods, act like very much like the other big corporations--and have to, in order to survive in the corporate world. And then there's Trader Joe's, owned by the family trust of a German merchant associated with the Aldi worldwide chain of stores.
Most of the medium size supermarket chains that once covered the US are gone--though some still keep the old names. When I look at the supermarket situation in New England (where I live) I find: Shaws and Star Market are owned by SuperValu, which owns over 2500 food (or food and drug) stores around the US and is primary distributor for another couple of thousand; Stop & Shop is owned by Ahold, a Dutch giant supermarket operator; and Hannaford is owned by the Belgium food group, Delhaize. I'm sure it's the same in most parts of the US--or the world.
But there are alternatives. My post on 'Feeding Ourselves in the Future' (7/24/08) talks about CSAs and farmer's markets and community gardens--not to mention producer co-ops such as Organic Valley and Cabot Creamery, and food co-ops and family run markets. These are some real alternatives (at least in the food industry--the Lappés also discuss these and more alternatives--see my last three posts).
Meanwhile, as much as possible I try to buy stuff from co-ops and little businesses--or make it myself. I make my own toothpaste from a recipe I got off the internet--basically baking soda, salt, and glycerin, with a little flavoring. (But I do use a commercial/new age toothpaste for my last brushing of the day, so I get a little flouride on my teeth.) I use a deodorant powder that I make from baking soda and corn starch (and little bits of coriander and other spices). (Yeah, I'm probably keeping Arm & Hammer in business, but at least they use cardboard packaging.)
I buy most of my food from the local food co-op. When I don't get it from there I try to buy from Mom-and-Pop stores--and I try to patronize our local farmer's market. (Plus, we are growing a teeny bit of our own food. I hope to have a bigger garden next year.)
(Outside of food stuff, I try to get things at thrift shops, so they are not newly manufactured. I particularly like thrift stores that support good causes.)
Above all, I try to think of how I can support small, local businesses. My little bit is hardly noticed by any major corporations, but it does support little companies that I think make a difference. And that is, I think, the best we can do right now. Everytime you buy something at a co-op, farmer's market, small business, etc, you keep real alternatives going--alternatives that may be quite useful when the global corporations encounter peak oil...
Quote of the day: "Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility." - Ambrose Bierce
Word (or phrase) of the day: Coevolution
Hero(es) of the day: Rachel Carson
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Getting Edgy 3: Democracy
Democracy's Edge has a blurb about the author, Frances Moore Lappé, which states: "Democracy's Edge is the completion of a trilogy that began in 2002 with Hope's Edge, written with her daughter Anna Lappé. ... Second in the trilogy is You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear, written with Jeffery Perkins." I talked about Hope's Edge over my last two posts and discussed You Have the Power in my post of 8/11/08. Democracy's Edge is quite a different book from either of them.
Only Frances Moore Lappé's name appears on the cover, although the title page adds "with the assistance of Rachel Burton, Anna Lappé, and Hope Richardson". Where Hope's Edge features movements and activists from around the world, and You Have the Power focuses on ways of dealing with fear, Democracy's Edge talks about how Americans can make changes in the US. Frances Moore Lappé contrasts "thin democracy" (the current state of affairs) with what she calls "Living Democracy"--engaging more people in "dialogue and unified action". Unified action means involving people across the political spectrum, and the author thinks there is less difference on fundamental issues between 'red states' and 'blue states' than many people assume. She quotes a 2005 poll which found that Americans were "twice as likely to cite greed, materialism, and poverty as the country's most urgent moral crises", rather than issues like abortion or gay marriage. She also cites surveys that claim a similar proportion of people from 'blue states' and 'red states' (64% vs 62%) agree that "corporations wield too much power" and 90% of all Americans "think that corporations hold too much sway in Washington".
Frances Moore Lappé sees a new democratic movement emerging. She gives three reasons for this: first, "the alarm is sounding"; the news of our multiple crises is reaching more people; second, as people realize our leaders aren't going to deal with the situation (as Ms Lappé says, "their shortcomings demystify authority"), they also realize "regular people" will need to get involved; and third, "a deepening appreciation of the capacities of those at the 'bottom'", a growing realization that we are capable of more than we think. She also talks about ecology as a metaphor for this change. "Ecology teaches us that there is no single action, isolated and contained. All actions have ripples... through webs of connectedness..." She cites Fritjof Capra (see my posts of 8/23, 8/25, and 8/27): "all living systems are self-organizing networks". (Complexity strikes again!) And finally she talks about the Internet as a tool to access 'critical information'.
The book talks about many types of power: in relationships, of knowledge, in organized numbers, in humor, in discipline, in vision, and in compassion. Power can be: mutually expanding--building on the capacities of all involved; a give-and-take, two-way relationship; collaborative; dynamic, changing; derived from relationships, knowledge, (etc, as above)--rather than laws, status, force, and wealth; concerned with how decisions get made; and built over time. Ms Lappé also talks about the difference between service, selfishness, and what she refers to as 'relational self-interest'.
A section of the book is about how neither governments nor corporations are unchangeable--and gives examples of people challenging both. Another section is on economic actions (including local economies and worker ownership, and mentioning peak oil), citizen organizing (including the living wage campaign, Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation, and ACORN), challenging the food system (including farmer's cooperatives such as Organic Valley, food co-ops, CSAs, and programs such as the Food Project in Boston--see my post of 7/24/08 as well as my last post for more on these), and taking back the media (including Guerrilla Network News, Democracy Now, low power radio, Mozilla Firefox, and movies like Blue Vinyl). The book finishes with chapters on education (featuring the Coalition of Essential Schools) and security (looking at the intersection of crime, violence, prison, shame, and community alternatives). Frances Moore Lappé ends the book by inviting the reader to get involved, to (as she puts it) walk with bold humility--and then follows with what she calls offerings: a page outlining "Two Frames for Democracy" and a couple of pages on the "Language of Democracy", ending with 44 pages of "Entry Points for Living Democracy", a resource list of organizations, websites, magazines, and newsletters she found useful.
Where Hope's Edge is about what is being done around the world, and You Have the Power is about challenging our fear to do it, Democracy's Edge is focused on what can be done in the US and gives examples of people doing it--and encourages everyone to get involved.
Quote of the day: "...hope is not an individual talent--you have it or you don't--or something one just happens to bump into. ... Hope is a project, a community project." - Frances Moore Lappé
Word (or phrase) of the day: Instrumentalism
Hero(es) of the day: Eugene Debs
Only Frances Moore Lappé's name appears on the cover, although the title page adds "with the assistance of Rachel Burton, Anna Lappé, and Hope Richardson". Where Hope's Edge features movements and activists from around the world, and You Have the Power focuses on ways of dealing with fear, Democracy's Edge talks about how Americans can make changes in the US. Frances Moore Lappé contrasts "thin democracy" (the current state of affairs) with what she calls "Living Democracy"--engaging more people in "dialogue and unified action". Unified action means involving people across the political spectrum, and the author thinks there is less difference on fundamental issues between 'red states' and 'blue states' than many people assume. She quotes a 2005 poll which found that Americans were "twice as likely to cite greed, materialism, and poverty as the country's most urgent moral crises", rather than issues like abortion or gay marriage. She also cites surveys that claim a similar proportion of people from 'blue states' and 'red states' (64% vs 62%) agree that "corporations wield too much power" and 90% of all Americans "think that corporations hold too much sway in Washington".
Frances Moore Lappé sees a new democratic movement emerging. She gives three reasons for this: first, "the alarm is sounding"; the news of our multiple crises is reaching more people; second, as people realize our leaders aren't going to deal with the situation (as Ms Lappé says, "their shortcomings demystify authority"), they also realize "regular people" will need to get involved; and third, "a deepening appreciation of the capacities of those at the 'bottom'", a growing realization that we are capable of more than we think. She also talks about ecology as a metaphor for this change. "Ecology teaches us that there is no single action, isolated and contained. All actions have ripples... through webs of connectedness..." She cites Fritjof Capra (see my posts of 8/23, 8/25, and 8/27): "all living systems are self-organizing networks". (Complexity strikes again!) And finally she talks about the Internet as a tool to access 'critical information'.
The book talks about many types of power: in relationships, of knowledge, in organized numbers, in humor, in discipline, in vision, and in compassion. Power can be: mutually expanding--building on the capacities of all involved; a give-and-take, two-way relationship; collaborative; dynamic, changing; derived from relationships, knowledge, (etc, as above)--rather than laws, status, force, and wealth; concerned with how decisions get made; and built over time. Ms Lappé also talks about the difference between service, selfishness, and what she refers to as 'relational self-interest'.
A section of the book is about how neither governments nor corporations are unchangeable--and gives examples of people challenging both. Another section is on economic actions (including local economies and worker ownership, and mentioning peak oil), citizen organizing (including the living wage campaign, Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation, and ACORN), challenging the food system (including farmer's cooperatives such as Organic Valley, food co-ops, CSAs, and programs such as the Food Project in Boston--see my post of 7/24/08 as well as my last post for more on these), and taking back the media (including Guerrilla Network News, Democracy Now, low power radio, Mozilla Firefox, and movies like Blue Vinyl). The book finishes with chapters on education (featuring the Coalition of Essential Schools) and security (looking at the intersection of crime, violence, prison, shame, and community alternatives). Frances Moore Lappé ends the book by inviting the reader to get involved, to (as she puts it) walk with bold humility--and then follows with what she calls offerings: a page outlining "Two Frames for Democracy" and a couple of pages on the "Language of Democracy", ending with 44 pages of "Entry Points for Living Democracy", a resource list of organizations, websites, magazines, and newsletters she found useful.
Where Hope's Edge is about what is being done around the world, and You Have the Power is about challenging our fear to do it, Democracy's Edge is focused on what can be done in the US and gives examples of people doing it--and encourages everyone to get involved.
Quote of the day: "...hope is not an individual talent--you have it or you don't--or something one just happens to bump into. ... Hope is a project, a community project." - Frances Moore Lappé
Word (or phrase) of the day: Instrumentalism
Hero(es) of the day: Eugene Debs
Monday, September 8, 2008
Getting Edgy 2: Ideas
The final chapter of Hope's Edge (see my last post for more) begins by talking about perceptions, how there are solutions to food and hunger problems all around us, but we don't see them because of our expectations. This leads back to the 'Thought Traps' of the first chapter. (To recap: "One: The enemy is scarcity, production is our savior; Two: Thank our selfish genes; Three: Let the market decide, experts preside; Four: Solve by dissection; and Five: Welcome to the end of history.") Here the Lappés provide 'Five Liberating Ideas' to replace the 'Thought Traps': "One: Scrapping the scarcity scare, realizing abundance; Two: Laughing at the caricature, listening to ourselves; Three: Putting tools in their place, tapping the savvy of citizens; Four: Discarding dissection, solving for pattern; and Five: Busting free from 'isms,' creating the path as we walk."
I think these 'Liberating Ideas' are worth a post unto themselves.
The first idea ("Scrapping the scarcity scare, realizing abundance") goes back to Frances Moore Lappé's original books, Diet for a Small Planet and Food First. Her early realization was that people everywhere in the world are able to feed themselves, it's diverting food resources that produces scarcity. She talks about gathering "thirty years of myth-shattering evidence" supporting this and gives examples from Bangladesh, India, and Kenya of local solutions to hunger. She makes the point that "half the world's grain goes to animals" and notes how much food was rotting in storage or restaurant dumpsters. In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the city government uses eggshells and manoic leaves (which had been thrown away) to enrich flour, making it highly nutritious. Frances Moore Lappé even talks about how knowledge can be abundant or scarce depending on whether it's hoarded or shared. Quoting the Lappés summary: "Cutting through the scarcity illusion, we're able to see potential abundance all around us, even in what is now waste. We realize that growing food in ways that sustain the earth and people is not only productive but linked to the changes essential to slowing population growth." (For more on population growth, see my post of 8/21/08. I'm also reminded of Capra's adage that "... an ecosystem generates no waste". See my post of 8/27/08.)
The second Liberating Idea is "Laughing at the caricature, listening to ourselves". Here the argument moves beyond food to human nature. Are we essentially selfish? Frances Moore Lappé writes that she and Anna share 'the same intuition': "We need to feel both connected to others and useful beyond ourselves." They claim that they heard this desire expressed in everyplace they visited around the world. Their quote on this idea: "Now we can see that the image of ourselves as merely selfish materialists is but a shabby caricature of our true nature. We would never have survived as a species if it wasn't for our need--and our capacity--for effectiveness and connection."
Their third idea is "Putting tools in their place, tapping the savvy of citizens." This means going beyond hierarchy to the realization that "every human being has a contribution to make." The Lappés document the shift taking place in movements around the world. They quote, not only from the famous activists they've interviewed, but from the many people who have gotten involved and made these movements possible. They talk about using 'the market' as a tool and claim "Economic life is not about our relationships to things... It's about our relationships with each other..." Their summary of this idea is: "Now we can turn technologies--even the market itself--into tools, not tyrants. Scientific tools can help us--but only when citizens draw values boundaries for their application."
And the fourth idea ("Discarding dissection, solving for pattern") is something that has been eluded to throughout the book. "Solving for pattern" is a term from Wendall Berry but it's probably not an accident that the Lappés learned it from a woman (Zenobia Barlow) who works with Fritjof Capra (See my posts of 8/23, 8/25, and 8/27. It also reminds me of something Gregory Bateson might say, which isn't an accident either.) At various point through *Hope's Edge, Anna Lappé contributes sidebars that she entitles 'Pitfalls of Not Solving for Pattern' giving examples from around the planet of 'experts' who were so focused on one thing that they didn't see the whole picture. In talking about whole systems, they quote Capra: "...living systems are self-organizing networks whose parts are interdependent." (Oh, yes, complex adaptive systems...) And then Capra again on how scientists have gone "from seeing objects to seeing relationships, from quantity to quality, from substance to pattern." And Frances Moore Lappé goes on to say: "Anna and I can't help but be struck by how similar even Fritjof's choice of words is to those of Hannes [one of the creators of a Europe-wide sustainable development network], Jean-Yves [a French farmer and ex-teacher], the MST farmers. Really, almost everyone we met." The Lappés' quote on this: "Now breakthroughs in science and technology allow us to perceive the interrelatedness of diverse problems and their solutions. We have the tools to build on nature's genius and tap the best of ancient wisdom. We can also see more clearly the power in the ripples our own choices make in solving the world's problems."
The fifth and final idea is "Busting free from 'isms,' creating the path as we walk." (It reminds me of the title of a book about the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, We Build the Road as We Travel--I wonder if that's an accident.) The corresponding thought trap was (in full) "Welcome to the end of history: Communism, socialism, and facism have failed. Human evolution has finally triumphed in the best system we can create: global corporate capitalism, in which everyone stands to benefit from the creativity and wealth it unleashes." The Lappés start by demolishing the myth of the free market. They quote from the chairman of Archer Daniels Midland: "There is not one grain of anything in the world that is sold on the free market. Not one. The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians." They talk about "evolving capitalism" (but I suspect there are other systems evolving as well) and give examples from throughout the book (most of these movements were covered in my last post--but they also mention the growth of worker-ownership throughout the US). Anna Lappé takes on Thomas Friedman, author of *The Lexus and the Olive Tree (a book that claims that there's really no "mass popular opposition to globalization"). He claims the only opposition in Brazil is Sem Teto, which he describes as movement of peasants who live by the side of the road and steal trucks. When the Lappés asked him about the MST he said he hadn't heard of it when he wrote the book. It also turns out that "Sem Teto is actually an urban homeless movement" --showing how much Friedman knows about "mass popular opposition". Frances Moore Lappé references anthropologist Ruth Benedict who after looking at cultures around the world noted that "In the more conflictive cultures, individuals gained prestige by accumulating goods or acting in other ways benefiting themselves alone, whereas in the better-functioning cultures, the status of individuals rose or fell according to their contribution to the whole." The Lappés go on to say "from Brazil to Bangladesh we saw new cultures arising in which the individual and the community are reconnected, and in which, therefore, status does come from one's contribution to the whole." Their quote on this point: "Now it's clear that global corporate capitalism --economic life cut off from community life--is not inevitable, nor fixed, nor the best we can do. Millions are letting go of all 'isms'--ideologies with one unchanging endpoint. They're re-embedding the market in values respecting nature, culture, and themselves."
And I have to say that Hope's Edge was an amazing book in terms of its breadth (covering movements from around the world) and its depth (really looking at what traps us and offering ways to move ahead). I will probably have to get it because I can see using it as a reference, again and again. I might even use a few of the recipes.
Next stop: Democracy.
Quote of the day: "Grameen and the MST, and really all of the groups whose stories we share, are just examples of the millions of people worldwide, experimenting, struggling, failing, and succeeding in carving new paths and creating a world in line with their deepest values.
"The people we met are pushing the edge of possibilities, not asserting that they've reached an endpoint. ... Wangari had it right that night in Nairobi. Our task is to keep walking, not to believe we've arrived." - Frances Moore Lappé
Word (or phrase) of the day: Microgreens
Hero(es) of the day: Julia de Burgos
I think these 'Liberating Ideas' are worth a post unto themselves.
The first idea ("Scrapping the scarcity scare, realizing abundance") goes back to Frances Moore Lappé's original books, Diet for a Small Planet and Food First. Her early realization was that people everywhere in the world are able to feed themselves, it's diverting food resources that produces scarcity. She talks about gathering "thirty years of myth-shattering evidence" supporting this and gives examples from Bangladesh, India, and Kenya of local solutions to hunger. She makes the point that "half the world's grain goes to animals" and notes how much food was rotting in storage or restaurant dumpsters. In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the city government uses eggshells and manoic leaves (which had been thrown away) to enrich flour, making it highly nutritious. Frances Moore Lappé even talks about how knowledge can be abundant or scarce depending on whether it's hoarded or shared. Quoting the Lappés summary: "Cutting through the scarcity illusion, we're able to see potential abundance all around us, even in what is now waste. We realize that growing food in ways that sustain the earth and people is not only productive but linked to the changes essential to slowing population growth." (For more on population growth, see my post of 8/21/08. I'm also reminded of Capra's adage that "... an ecosystem generates no waste". See my post of 8/27/08.)
The second Liberating Idea is "Laughing at the caricature, listening to ourselves". Here the argument moves beyond food to human nature. Are we essentially selfish? Frances Moore Lappé writes that she and Anna share 'the same intuition': "We need to feel both connected to others and useful beyond ourselves." They claim that they heard this desire expressed in everyplace they visited around the world. Their quote on this idea: "Now we can see that the image of ourselves as merely selfish materialists is but a shabby caricature of our true nature. We would never have survived as a species if it wasn't for our need--and our capacity--for effectiveness and connection."
Their third idea is "Putting tools in their place, tapping the savvy of citizens." This means going beyond hierarchy to the realization that "every human being has a contribution to make." The Lappés document the shift taking place in movements around the world. They quote, not only from the famous activists they've interviewed, but from the many people who have gotten involved and made these movements possible. They talk about using 'the market' as a tool and claim "Economic life is not about our relationships to things... It's about our relationships with each other..." Their summary of this idea is: "Now we can turn technologies--even the market itself--into tools, not tyrants. Scientific tools can help us--but only when citizens draw values boundaries for their application."
And the fourth idea ("Discarding dissection, solving for pattern") is something that has been eluded to throughout the book. "Solving for pattern" is a term from Wendall Berry but it's probably not an accident that the Lappés learned it from a woman (Zenobia Barlow) who works with Fritjof Capra (See my posts of 8/23, 8/25, and 8/27. It also reminds me of something Gregory Bateson might say, which isn't an accident either.) At various point through *Hope's Edge, Anna Lappé contributes sidebars that she entitles 'Pitfalls of Not Solving for Pattern' giving examples from around the planet of 'experts' who were so focused on one thing that they didn't see the whole picture. In talking about whole systems, they quote Capra: "...living systems are self-organizing networks whose parts are interdependent." (Oh, yes, complex adaptive systems...) And then Capra again on how scientists have gone "from seeing objects to seeing relationships, from quantity to quality, from substance to pattern." And Frances Moore Lappé goes on to say: "Anna and I can't help but be struck by how similar even Fritjof's choice of words is to those of Hannes [one of the creators of a Europe-wide sustainable development network], Jean-Yves [a French farmer and ex-teacher], the MST farmers. Really, almost everyone we met." The Lappés' quote on this: "Now breakthroughs in science and technology allow us to perceive the interrelatedness of diverse problems and their solutions. We have the tools to build on nature's genius and tap the best of ancient wisdom. We can also see more clearly the power in the ripples our own choices make in solving the world's problems."
The fifth and final idea is "Busting free from 'isms,' creating the path as we walk." (It reminds me of the title of a book about the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, We Build the Road as We Travel--I wonder if that's an accident.) The corresponding thought trap was (in full) "Welcome to the end of history: Communism, socialism, and facism have failed. Human evolution has finally triumphed in the best system we can create: global corporate capitalism, in which everyone stands to benefit from the creativity and wealth it unleashes." The Lappés start by demolishing the myth of the free market. They quote from the chairman of Archer Daniels Midland: "There is not one grain of anything in the world that is sold on the free market. Not one. The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians." They talk about "evolving capitalism" (but I suspect there are other systems evolving as well) and give examples from throughout the book (most of these movements were covered in my last post--but they also mention the growth of worker-ownership throughout the US). Anna Lappé takes on Thomas Friedman, author of *The Lexus and the Olive Tree (a book that claims that there's really no "mass popular opposition to globalization"). He claims the only opposition in Brazil is Sem Teto, which he describes as movement of peasants who live by the side of the road and steal trucks. When the Lappés asked him about the MST he said he hadn't heard of it when he wrote the book. It also turns out that "Sem Teto is actually an urban homeless movement" --showing how much Friedman knows about "mass popular opposition". Frances Moore Lappé references anthropologist Ruth Benedict who after looking at cultures around the world noted that "In the more conflictive cultures, individuals gained prestige by accumulating goods or acting in other ways benefiting themselves alone, whereas in the better-functioning cultures, the status of individuals rose or fell according to their contribution to the whole." The Lappés go on to say "from Brazil to Bangladesh we saw new cultures arising in which the individual and the community are reconnected, and in which, therefore, status does come from one's contribution to the whole." Their quote on this point: "Now it's clear that global corporate capitalism --economic life cut off from community life--is not inevitable, nor fixed, nor the best we can do. Millions are letting go of all 'isms'--ideologies with one unchanging endpoint. They're re-embedding the market in values respecting nature, culture, and themselves."
And I have to say that Hope's Edge was an amazing book in terms of its breadth (covering movements from around the world) and its depth (really looking at what traps us and offering ways to move ahead). I will probably have to get it because I can see using it as a reference, again and again. I might even use a few of the recipes.
Next stop: Democracy.
Quote of the day: "Grameen and the MST, and really all of the groups whose stories we share, are just examples of the millions of people worldwide, experimenting, struggling, failing, and succeeding in carving new paths and creating a world in line with their deepest values.
"The people we met are pushing the edge of possibilities, not asserting that they've reached an endpoint. ... Wangari had it right that night in Nairobi. Our task is to keep walking, not to believe we've arrived." - Frances Moore Lappé
Word (or phrase) of the day: Microgreens
Hero(es) of the day: Julia de Burgos
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Getting Edgy 1: Hope
I had been looking at the newer books of Frances Moore Lappé and recently decided to get a couple out of the library and read them. I remembered there was one about 'Democracy' and one about 'Hope' and at least one of those books had the word 'Edge' in the title. But was it Democracy's Edge? Or Hope's Edge? Well, as it turns out, it was both.
Hope's Edge was written with Frances Moore Lappé's daughter, Anna Lappé. It's billed as 'The Next Diet for a Small Planet' and was released on the thirtieth anniversary of Diet for a Small Planet, the book that made Frances Moore Lappé famous. But while Diet for a Small Planet was mostly about world hunger and protein, with a lot of recipes (in some ways practically a cookbook), Hope's Edge is about people challenging the food system and it has more information and stories than it has recipes. It certainly does have recipes, however, with one or two following most chapters and a slew of them at the end of the book, most by classy chefs and restaurants, as well as famous cookbook authors Mollie Katzen (The Enchanted Broccoli Forest), Laurel Robertson (Laurel's Kitchen), and Anna Thomas (The Vegetarian Epicure).
Hope's Edge begins with a chapter on 'Maps of the Mind' which concludes with what the authors call, "Five Thought Traps": "One: The enemy is scarcity, production is our savior; Two: Thank our selfish genes; Three: Let the market decide, experts preside; Four: Solve by dissection; and Five: Welcome to the end of history." (The last one is a reference to Francis Fukuyama's book, End of History and the Last Man. The idea is that capitalism is triumphant and there are no more alternatives--from this point on it's capitalism forever.) The Lappés will debunk these 'traps' in the book's final chapter.
The second chapter of Hope's Edge is devoted to organic food in the Bay Area of California: from a expensive restaurant to an 'Edible Schoolyard' to a 'Garden Project' that has transformed prisoners and police. The fourth chapter is a short piece on Belo Horizonte, a Brazilian city that decided "food security" was a human right--and the ways they make sure that everyone gets enough to eat.
But most of the chapters are devoted to emerging movements and well-known activists around the world: MST in Brazil, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Vandana Shiva and Navdanya in India, Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, José Bové and the Confederation Paysanne in France, GreenPeace France, Susan George and ATTAC (world-wide), the Food Alliance in Oregon, USA, Organic Valley (also US), Home Grown Wisconsin (again US), and the Fair Trade movement from its origins in the Netherlands to its impact around the world. I'd heard a bit about many of these activists and movements before but Hope's Edge goes into detail about them as the Lappés travel the globe meeting the people involved.
There's a chapter on the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, the Brazilian Landless Worker's Movement--also known as MST. (Starhawk also devotes a good part of a chapter to MST in her book, Webs of Power, which I mentioned briefly in my post on Starhawk as a political theorist, 8/17/08.) Through much of the chapter, the Lappés, who are in Brazil meeting with leaders and members of MST, probe the organization to see how much of their cooperative stance is about real choice and how much is coercion by the Movement. They find that forty percent of the people who organize the settlements MST acquires choose to have completely private plots, a small percentage incorporate as cooperatives, and the rest mix the two by having a large common area as well as private plots. Apparently one of the reasons for the small numbers in cooperatives are suspicions that the small farmers 'won't be as free' in co-ops. But, as one farmer in the cooperative said, "...many want to come back because the cooperative is working." The Lappés note all the experimentation and self-education going on and conclude "...this creativity offers the most pursuasive evidence that coercion in the Movement is low. In my experience, coercion and creativity don't mix." They also note the influence of Paulo Freire on the education done within MST--encouraging critical thinking--as well as the influence of César Chávez on the organizing of the workers. They include numerous statements from the MST organizers that this is a movement about more than land and farming. One woman points out "...that every aspect of life has to be included--health, gender, education, leadership, philosophy..." while a man who is one of the leaders in the Movement claims the dominant culture tries to convince us that "...people are happy and important when they consume, and when they project their egoism and individualism. They tell us all we want is to consume." Then he says, "Human beings need something more to be happy." (I hope to learn more about MST and include it in a future post.)
In a similar way, the two women probe the Grameen Bank in Bengladesh (Bangali for "village bank") and its idea of "microcredit". Muhammad Yunus began Grameen by making very small, very low-interest loans to impoverished women as a way for them to get out of their poverty. As the Lappés note, Grameen "flipped banking on its head" with the owners of the bank being the members, the decisions about who gets loans being made by the village women, and using trust of the borrowers as the collateral. The goal is ending poverty and part of the process has become the 'Sixteen Decisions', which are pledges that the borrowers must take. Among them are keeping their family small, educating their children, growing vegetables all year round, and one that reads: "We shall not inflict any injustice on anyone, neither shall we allow anyone to do so." These pledges came from discussions with the borrowers. But while the Lappés appreciate Muhammad Yunus when he says things like his hope that someday "poverty will be seen only in a museum", they are concerned Grameen is not only moving people out of poverty, but creating consumerism. Anna Lappé devotes a sidebar to wondering whether lipstick sales in Bengladesh are a sign of progress or not. They end the chapter with mixed feelings about the 'evolving capitalism' at work here.
The chapter on India's Navdanya (it means 'nine seeds') movement begins with a brief interview with Vandana Shiva, a very busy woman fighting for water rights and biodiversity. She tells the Lappés that Gandhi's symbol for India's independence and liberation was the spinning wheel. Her next statement is: "So I asked myself, what's our spinning wheel?" Her answer was "the seed". With that the Lappés go on to visit Delhi, the Himalayan foothills, and the Punjab (which they describe as "the Indian version of our Midwest breadbasket"). In each place they meet with representatives of Navdanya and learn about their attempts to preserve agricultural diversity and restore organic farming in the face of an onslaught from agribusiness, biotechnology, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides--the whole Green Revolution package. The Lappés remain skeptical but are impressed when they meet a former pesticide/fertilizer salesman who changed because he was developing breathing problems and allergies from the chemicals he sold. Now he works with Navdanya. Frances is also impressed when she finds a poster extolling 'Living Democracy', the exact wording she used when she created the Center for Living Democracy. And they contrast with the work of Navdanya with meeting a government bureaucrat who brags about India's grain surplus, which they intend to export, rather than use to feed their starving people. "We already give too many subsidies to the poor," he says.
From India, the Lappés travel to Kenya where they meet with Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement. On Earth Day, 1977, Wangari Maathai planted her first trees. The Green Belt Movement has planted more than twenty million trees since then, reversing decades of 'desertification'. (Wikipedia claims 30 million in 12 African countries.) But the Green Belt Movement has gone beyond planting trees--and is now teaching 'household food security: traditional gardening of sweet potatoes, arrowroot, pigeon peas, cassava, millet, and sorghum. They also teach civic education, using workshops on 'wrong bus syndrome', pointing out how people can be misled by others and the necessity of making choices. Toward the end of the chapter, Frances Moore Lappé asks the question, "If we're all on the wrong bus globally, how do we get off?"
From Africa, it's off to Europe, beginning with a chapter on the origins of the Fair Trade movement (and conversations with Dutch Fair Traders, Guatemalan coffee farmers, and the manager of a Nicaraguan coffee cooperative). Then in Brussels, Frances Moore Lappé talks with one of the creators of a Europe-wide sustainable development network who is helping to create "viable local answers to globalization". He introduces her to the term "multifunctionality" --which she describes as a 'clunky way' to talk about the many facets of agriculture: nutritious sustainance, preserving the environment, and reviving rural ways of life. Anna Lappé uses one of her sidebars to talking about how multifunctionality works in Poland where Jadwiga Lopata has created a network of organic farms that she is helping to preserve through 'eco-tourism'. The Lappés visit a French farmer who is part of the European sustainable agriculture network that is rejecting imported cattle feed, partly because it's grown in countries where people are starving. The women meet with a spokesperson for the Confederation Paysanne. (José Bové, one of their leaders, who became famous for his attack on French McDonald's, is in India with Vandana Shiva fighting the seed corporations--but the Lappés will meet him later in Wisconsin.) Confederation Paysanne is a farmers' union and represents a fifth of all French farmers--they are also a part of Via Campesina, a world-wide agricultural movement that also includes the MST in Brazil. The focus of Confederation Paysanne is on quality farming, an approach that includes concerns about food safety and environmental awareness, and which is contrasted with what they refer to as 'productivism', the industrial approach to farming. When they return to Paris, The Lappés are surprised everyone tells them they need to talk with the Greenpeace folks. They, like me, associate Greenpeace with protests against whaling and nuclear testing--but one of the current foci of Greenpeace's work is educating people about the risks associated with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Greenpeace has been successful in France in getting the government to oppose the cultivation of genetically modified Seeds. (Unfortunately, the Lappés also note that the US government actually has been helping introduce GMOs into our agriculture and is one of the few industrial countries that doesn't require labeling of GMO products.) Finally, they meet with Susan George, cofounder of the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (better known by its acronym, ATTAC) which endorses a 'tiny tax' on foreign trade transactions worldwide (and since there is well over a *trillion dollars of these transactions *daily, these taxes could amount to a hundred billion dollars a year) to aid the poor and slow down speculative trading.
Finally, the Lappés return to the US to meet with Wisconsin farmers who are raising their cattle on pastures, not grain, and stopping the use of pesticides. One farming couple survives because they run their farm as a CSA (see my post of 7/24/08, Feeding Ourselves in the Future). They finally get to spend some time with José Bové (see the last paragraph), and visit the Willy Street Food Co-op in Madison where they learn about Organic Valley (also in my Feeding Ourselves in the Future post), the Food Alliance (which has a label for products where food companies demonstrate their concerns for the environment and their workers), and Home Grown Wisconsin, an organic farmers' co-op that sells their produce to Madison and Chicago restaurants.
But wait, there's more. Next: Ideas!
Quote of the day: "This kind of hope isn't clean or tidy. Honest hope has an edge. It's messy. It requires that we let go of all pat answers, all preconceived formulas, all confidence that our sailing will be smooth. It's not a resting point. Honest hope is movement." - Frances Moore Lappé
Word (or phrase) of the day: Normative
Hero(es) of the day: Sylvia Rivera
Hope's Edge was written with Frances Moore Lappé's daughter, Anna Lappé. It's billed as 'The Next Diet for a Small Planet' and was released on the thirtieth anniversary of Diet for a Small Planet, the book that made Frances Moore Lappé famous. But while Diet for a Small Planet was mostly about world hunger and protein, with a lot of recipes (in some ways practically a cookbook), Hope's Edge is about people challenging the food system and it has more information and stories than it has recipes. It certainly does have recipes, however, with one or two following most chapters and a slew of them at the end of the book, most by classy chefs and restaurants, as well as famous cookbook authors Mollie Katzen (The Enchanted Broccoli Forest), Laurel Robertson (Laurel's Kitchen), and Anna Thomas (The Vegetarian Epicure).
Hope's Edge begins with a chapter on 'Maps of the Mind' which concludes with what the authors call, "Five Thought Traps": "One: The enemy is scarcity, production is our savior; Two: Thank our selfish genes; Three: Let the market decide, experts preside; Four: Solve by dissection; and Five: Welcome to the end of history." (The last one is a reference to Francis Fukuyama's book, End of History and the Last Man. The idea is that capitalism is triumphant and there are no more alternatives--from this point on it's capitalism forever.) The Lappés will debunk these 'traps' in the book's final chapter.
The second chapter of Hope's Edge is devoted to organic food in the Bay Area of California: from a expensive restaurant to an 'Edible Schoolyard' to a 'Garden Project' that has transformed prisoners and police. The fourth chapter is a short piece on Belo Horizonte, a Brazilian city that decided "food security" was a human right--and the ways they make sure that everyone gets enough to eat.
But most of the chapters are devoted to emerging movements and well-known activists around the world: MST in Brazil, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Vandana Shiva and Navdanya in India, Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, José Bové and the Confederation Paysanne in France, GreenPeace France, Susan George and ATTAC (world-wide), the Food Alliance in Oregon, USA, Organic Valley (also US), Home Grown Wisconsin (again US), and the Fair Trade movement from its origins in the Netherlands to its impact around the world. I'd heard a bit about many of these activists and movements before but Hope's Edge goes into detail about them as the Lappés travel the globe meeting the people involved.
There's a chapter on the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, the Brazilian Landless Worker's Movement--also known as MST. (Starhawk also devotes a good part of a chapter to MST in her book, Webs of Power, which I mentioned briefly in my post on Starhawk as a political theorist, 8/17/08.) Through much of the chapter, the Lappés, who are in Brazil meeting with leaders and members of MST, probe the organization to see how much of their cooperative stance is about real choice and how much is coercion by the Movement. They find that forty percent of the people who organize the settlements MST acquires choose to have completely private plots, a small percentage incorporate as cooperatives, and the rest mix the two by having a large common area as well as private plots. Apparently one of the reasons for the small numbers in cooperatives are suspicions that the small farmers 'won't be as free' in co-ops. But, as one farmer in the cooperative said, "...many want to come back because the cooperative is working." The Lappés note all the experimentation and self-education going on and conclude "...this creativity offers the most pursuasive evidence that coercion in the Movement is low. In my experience, coercion and creativity don't mix." They also note the influence of Paulo Freire on the education done within MST--encouraging critical thinking--as well as the influence of César Chávez on the organizing of the workers. They include numerous statements from the MST organizers that this is a movement about more than land and farming. One woman points out "...that every aspect of life has to be included--health, gender, education, leadership, philosophy..." while a man who is one of the leaders in the Movement claims the dominant culture tries to convince us that "...people are happy and important when they consume, and when they project their egoism and individualism. They tell us all we want is to consume." Then he says, "Human beings need something more to be happy." (I hope to learn more about MST and include it in a future post.)
In a similar way, the two women probe the Grameen Bank in Bengladesh (Bangali for "village bank") and its idea of "microcredit". Muhammad Yunus began Grameen by making very small, very low-interest loans to impoverished women as a way for them to get out of their poverty. As the Lappés note, Grameen "flipped banking on its head" with the owners of the bank being the members, the decisions about who gets loans being made by the village women, and using trust of the borrowers as the collateral. The goal is ending poverty and part of the process has become the 'Sixteen Decisions', which are pledges that the borrowers must take. Among them are keeping their family small, educating their children, growing vegetables all year round, and one that reads: "We shall not inflict any injustice on anyone, neither shall we allow anyone to do so." These pledges came from discussions with the borrowers. But while the Lappés appreciate Muhammad Yunus when he says things like his hope that someday "poverty will be seen only in a museum", they are concerned Grameen is not only moving people out of poverty, but creating consumerism. Anna Lappé devotes a sidebar to wondering whether lipstick sales in Bengladesh are a sign of progress or not. They end the chapter with mixed feelings about the 'evolving capitalism' at work here.
The chapter on India's Navdanya (it means 'nine seeds') movement begins with a brief interview with Vandana Shiva, a very busy woman fighting for water rights and biodiversity. She tells the Lappés that Gandhi's symbol for India's independence and liberation was the spinning wheel. Her next statement is: "So I asked myself, what's our spinning wheel?" Her answer was "the seed". With that the Lappés go on to visit Delhi, the Himalayan foothills, and the Punjab (which they describe as "the Indian version of our Midwest breadbasket"). In each place they meet with representatives of Navdanya and learn about their attempts to preserve agricultural diversity and restore organic farming in the face of an onslaught from agribusiness, biotechnology, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides--the whole Green Revolution package. The Lappés remain skeptical but are impressed when they meet a former pesticide/fertilizer salesman who changed because he was developing breathing problems and allergies from the chemicals he sold. Now he works with Navdanya. Frances is also impressed when she finds a poster extolling 'Living Democracy', the exact wording she used when she created the Center for Living Democracy. And they contrast with the work of Navdanya with meeting a government bureaucrat who brags about India's grain surplus, which they intend to export, rather than use to feed their starving people. "We already give too many subsidies to the poor," he says.
From India, the Lappés travel to Kenya where they meet with Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement. On Earth Day, 1977, Wangari Maathai planted her first trees. The Green Belt Movement has planted more than twenty million trees since then, reversing decades of 'desertification'. (Wikipedia claims 30 million in 12 African countries.) But the Green Belt Movement has gone beyond planting trees--and is now teaching 'household food security: traditional gardening of sweet potatoes, arrowroot, pigeon peas, cassava, millet, and sorghum. They also teach civic education, using workshops on 'wrong bus syndrome', pointing out how people can be misled by others and the necessity of making choices. Toward the end of the chapter, Frances Moore Lappé asks the question, "If we're all on the wrong bus globally, how do we get off?"
From Africa, it's off to Europe, beginning with a chapter on the origins of the Fair Trade movement (and conversations with Dutch Fair Traders, Guatemalan coffee farmers, and the manager of a Nicaraguan coffee cooperative). Then in Brussels, Frances Moore Lappé talks with one of the creators of a Europe-wide sustainable development network who is helping to create "viable local answers to globalization". He introduces her to the term "multifunctionality" --which she describes as a 'clunky way' to talk about the many facets of agriculture: nutritious sustainance, preserving the environment, and reviving rural ways of life. Anna Lappé uses one of her sidebars to talking about how multifunctionality works in Poland where Jadwiga Lopata has created a network of organic farms that she is helping to preserve through 'eco-tourism'. The Lappés visit a French farmer who is part of the European sustainable agriculture network that is rejecting imported cattle feed, partly because it's grown in countries where people are starving. The women meet with a spokesperson for the Confederation Paysanne. (José Bové, one of their leaders, who became famous for his attack on French McDonald's, is in India with Vandana Shiva fighting the seed corporations--but the Lappés will meet him later in Wisconsin.) Confederation Paysanne is a farmers' union and represents a fifth of all French farmers--they are also a part of Via Campesina, a world-wide agricultural movement that also includes the MST in Brazil. The focus of Confederation Paysanne is on quality farming, an approach that includes concerns about food safety and environmental awareness, and which is contrasted with what they refer to as 'productivism', the industrial approach to farming. When they return to Paris, The Lappés are surprised everyone tells them they need to talk with the Greenpeace folks. They, like me, associate Greenpeace with protests against whaling and nuclear testing--but one of the current foci of Greenpeace's work is educating people about the risks associated with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Greenpeace has been successful in France in getting the government to oppose the cultivation of genetically modified Seeds. (Unfortunately, the Lappés also note that the US government actually has been helping introduce GMOs into our agriculture and is one of the few industrial countries that doesn't require labeling of GMO products.) Finally, they meet with Susan George, cofounder of the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (better known by its acronym, ATTAC) which endorses a 'tiny tax' on foreign trade transactions worldwide (and since there is well over a *trillion dollars of these transactions *daily, these taxes could amount to a hundred billion dollars a year) to aid the poor and slow down speculative trading.
Finally, the Lappés return to the US to meet with Wisconsin farmers who are raising their cattle on pastures, not grain, and stopping the use of pesticides. One farming couple survives because they run their farm as a CSA (see my post of 7/24/08, Feeding Ourselves in the Future). They finally get to spend some time with José Bové (see the last paragraph), and visit the Willy Street Food Co-op in Madison where they learn about Organic Valley (also in my Feeding Ourselves in the Future post), the Food Alliance (which has a label for products where food companies demonstrate their concerns for the environment and their workers), and Home Grown Wisconsin, an organic farmers' co-op that sells their produce to Madison and Chicago restaurants.
But wait, there's more. Next: Ideas!
Quote of the day: "This kind of hope isn't clean or tidy. Honest hope has an edge. It's messy. It requires that we let go of all pat answers, all preconceived formulas, all confidence that our sailing will be smooth. It's not a resting point. Honest hope is movement." - Frances Moore Lappé
Word (or phrase) of the day: Normative
Hero(es) of the day: Sylvia Rivera
Thursday, September 4, 2008
What We Need and Don't Need
My last post got me thinking--what do people really need? And more importantly, what don't we need?
I had made up a list, a while ago, of things I think we do need.* Here it is:
*I came up with this list while thinking about what we would need if we got to rebuild the world from scratch.
Quote of the day: "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not any man's greed." - Gandhi
Word (or phrase) of the day: Interlocalism
Hero(es) of the day: Badshah Khan
I had made up a list, a while ago, of things I think we do need.* Here it is:
- air, water, food, rest, connection (with other human beings)
- shelter, energy, clothing (at least in cool climates) and foot protection, sewage and sanitation
- security and safety, health/healing, recuperation time, time outdoors/in nature
- transportation, communication, education/training
- culture, art, music, dance, literature, (etc,) spirituality (spiritual connections), challenging activities (problem solving, craft, strenous outdoor exercise, sports, games, competition), social gatherings
- touch, affection, and, yes, sex (for connection, pleasure, and procreation)
- Capitalism, patriarchy, white/WASP supremacy, or any system that says some human beings are worth more or are more important than others, poverty, hunger, violence, hatred, pollution, destruction...
- Materialism and consumerism, corporations and the corporate world, television, spectator sports, home entertainment centers, mcmansions, any mansions, palaces and castles, gated communities, x number of brands of laundry soap/deodorant/toothpaste, sugar coated breakfast cereals, candy, tobacco, cigarettes, alcohol, fast foods, junk food, poorly-made plastic things, entertainment meant to distract us, fancy cars, sports cars, SUVs, limousines, things, things, and more things...
*I came up with this list while thinking about what we would need if we got to rebuild the world from scratch.
Quote of the day: "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not any man's greed." - Gandhi
Word (or phrase) of the day: Interlocalism
Hero(es) of the day: Badshah Khan
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Hierarchy of Needs
A theoretical construct that I've found useful is Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. While it's been criticized when followed rigidly (for example, trying to claim that hungry people are not capable of love, or people who extend it to try to prove that it's not possible for poor people to go for achievement or self-actualization), I think that as a general guideline it's valuable. (One of the people who has criticized it is Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef, who claims that there is no hierarchy of needs; instead, he says that needs are satisfied through 'simultaneity, complementarity and trade-offs'. He does, however, admit there is a basic need for survival and subsistance.)
Maslow postulates that there are at least five levels of growth, and each level needs to be met (overall) before moving on to the next level.
He starts with 'Physiological Needs'. Among other things, he includes eating, drinking, shelter, and warmth. Every human being needs oxygen to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat. We need shelter and warmth to survive. This means we need to deal with issues like hunger and housing as a priority. Energy needs are in here as well (for warmth among other things) as well as the needs for clean water and clean air. Here also is where concerns about the corporate control of drinking water (especially in poorer countries) come in to play.
Once these needs are met, he goes on to his next level which he calls 'Safety Needs'. You may not be starving to death but if you have to worry about being killed or injured at any time, you are not much better off. Here lies many issues that we have let the conservatives run with: crime and terrorism and economic issues--but also more progressive issues like war and job safety. This also includes people who have enough to live on but live in fear that this little margin of security may disappear any moment, not to mention the need for adequate health care. We need a society
The next level he labels 'The Love Needs'. Here he includes "love and affection and belongingness". Other people have pointed out that this is about our need for healthy relationships, for friendship, intimacy, a sense of family. It's not enough to have your basic needs met and to feel safe. If these are met, you need to feel loved. Here it's clear that love isn't 'all you need' but it is certainly something you need.
Maslow's next level is for esteem, achievement, and respect. Self-esteem and self-respect are key here. People need to feel accepted and that they are making a contribution.
Maslow refers to these four levels as "deficiency needs", claiming that if they are met, they become nearly irrelevant. When they are fulfilled, we move on to higher levels.
Beyond these needs are what Maslow refers to as "growth needs", needs for knowledge, beauty, and 'self-actualization", the drive to make the most of who you are.
One useful piece of this model is that it reminds us to start with basic needs. Make sure everybody has food, water, shelter. Make sure everybody feels safe and secure. Make sure that everybody feels loved. Make sure that everyone feels they are worthwhile and making a contribution. Then we can worry about more complex needs. (And maybe we don't need much beyond this.)
Next: What do we need? And what don't we need?
Quote of the day: "Anyone who attempts to make an emergency picture into a typical one and who will measure all of man's goals and desires by his behavior during extreme physiological deprivation, is certainly blind to many things. It is quite true that man lives by bread alone — when there is no bread..." - Abraham Maslow
Word (or phrase) of the day: Reification
Hero(es) of the day: Herbert and Marianne Baum
Maslow postulates that there are at least five levels of growth, and each level needs to be met (overall) before moving on to the next level.
He starts with 'Physiological Needs'. Among other things, he includes eating, drinking, shelter, and warmth. Every human being needs oxygen to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat. We need shelter and warmth to survive. This means we need to deal with issues like hunger and housing as a priority. Energy needs are in here as well (for warmth among other things) as well as the needs for clean water and clean air. Here also is where concerns about the corporate control of drinking water (especially in poorer countries) come in to play.
Once these needs are met, he goes on to his next level which he calls 'Safety Needs'. You may not be starving to death but if you have to worry about being killed or injured at any time, you are not much better off. Here lies many issues that we have let the conservatives run with: crime and terrorism and economic issues--but also more progressive issues like war and job safety. This also includes people who have enough to live on but live in fear that this little margin of security may disappear any moment, not to mention the need for adequate health care. We need a society
The next level he labels 'The Love Needs'. Here he includes "love and affection and belongingness". Other people have pointed out that this is about our need for healthy relationships, for friendship, intimacy, a sense of family. It's not enough to have your basic needs met and to feel safe. If these are met, you need to feel loved. Here it's clear that love isn't 'all you need' but it is certainly something you need.
Maslow's next level is for esteem, achievement, and respect. Self-esteem and self-respect are key here. People need to feel accepted and that they are making a contribution.
Maslow refers to these four levels as "deficiency needs", claiming that if they are met, they become nearly irrelevant. When they are fulfilled, we move on to higher levels.
Beyond these needs are what Maslow refers to as "growth needs", needs for knowledge, beauty, and 'self-actualization", the drive to make the most of who you are.
One useful piece of this model is that it reminds us to start with basic needs. Make sure everybody has food, water, shelter. Make sure everybody feels safe and secure. Make sure that everybody feels loved. Make sure that everyone feels they are worthwhile and making a contribution. Then we can worry about more complex needs. (And maybe we don't need much beyond this.)
Next: What do we need? And what don't we need?
Quote of the day: "Anyone who attempts to make an emergency picture into a typical one and who will measure all of man's goals and desires by his behavior during extreme physiological deprivation, is certainly blind to many things. It is quite true that man lives by bread alone — when there is no bread..." - Abraham Maslow
Word (or phrase) of the day: Reification
Hero(es) of the day: Herbert and Marianne Baum
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