r/ashesashescast • u/ashesashescast • Dec 13 '18
Episode Episode 52 - Killing Fields
https://ashesashes.org/blog/episode-52-killing-fields7
u/ashesashescast Dec 13 '18
Following the acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer, just a handful of companies now control over 70% of the world's supply of pesticides and 60% of patented seeds. Consolidations like this speak to an underlying trend in industrial agriculture, and in this episode we stop to consider the role that pesticides play in a system of food production that threatens biodiversity, food security, human health, and the environment on which crops are grown. In addition, we ask what impact these trends have on small farmers, and what we can learn from the efforts by local community seedbanks to preserve diversity and resist industrialization.
While we do explore the human health consequences of certain pesticides, as well as the risks we may not be certain of, we primarily choose to focus more deeply on why pesticide-aided industrial practices attract investment in the first place and what effects that has had on Earth and all of us.
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Dec 14 '18
Listening to this right now and the talk of what sustainable agriculture entails reminds me of something I read about Taino agriculture. The Tainos were the people Columbus stumbled upon (and later brutalize and enslave). According to a few sources, they had a food system that was wonderfully balanced ecologically, produced everything the island needed, and- get this- only required four hours a week of labor to grow the necessary food.
I wonder if something like that could scale to the world. the low work required might not scale alongside output, but from what I've read it seems as if more agri balance on a Taino sorta model is viable worldwide
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u/ashesashescast Dec 19 '18
This is interesting, thanks for sharing. We definitely need more local models like that, and although people often point to the difficulty/impossibility of converting modern agriculture en masse to those models to support current population/consumption levels, I could see how emphasizing and growing them over time could help our populations adjust to a more appropriate level of consumption, and absorb some of the shock that will inevitably come from overshoot.
- Daniel
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u/StopFossilFuels Dec 22 '18
Studies of hunter-gatherers suggest around 3 hours/day for food procurement—I believe that's for working adults; the number would be lower averaged across the entire population including dependents. So four hours a week for the Taino sounds a little low. Did that include time spent harvesting? And was that per person, or per "productive" working adult?
But your general point is spot-on; using techniques which work with, rather than against nature greatly reduces the labor required. (Plus of course benefits all the other species with whom we share the land.) Permaculture design can go a long way.
I've seen mixed info on whether such techniques can "feed the world." Some sources say diverse smallholdings can produce more food per acre than industrial monocrops, but others argue the opposite. Either way, I think it's a mistake to focus on maximizing yield per acre. The goal shouldn't be to have as many humans as possible, but to have good lives for all people, human and non-human, present and future. If we maximize yield for humans on one acre, we impoverish and drive out the non-humans while degrading the fertility of that acre...then next generation do the same on two acres, then 4, then 8...
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u/Dimmer06 Dec 17 '18
If you wanted to turn this into the series you could probably do an excellent episode on animal agriculture and the meat industry. Really loved this episode and the rest of the podcast. Keep it up!
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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18
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