'The greatest cause of
poverty is hover-population,' remarked Harlow.
'Yes,' said old Joe
Philpot. 'If a boss wants two men, twenty goes after the job: ther's too many
people and not enough work.'
'Over-population!' cried
Owen, 'when there's thousands of acres of uncultivated land in England without
a house or human being to be seen. Is over-population the cause of poverty in
France? Is over-population the cause of poverty in Ireland? Within the last
fifty years the population of Ireland has been reduced by more than half. Four
millions of people have been exterminated by famine or got rid of by
emigration, but they haven't got rid of poverty. P'raps you think that half the
people in this country ought to be exterminated as well.'
The Ragged Trousered
Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
In ‘Imagine’ Lennon was asking us to imagine a place where
things that divide people (religion, possessions, etc.) did not exist. The
thing that set us apart is class. He felt that would be a much better place.
Lennon said this song is "virtually the Communist Manifesto." Lennon
added: "even though I am not particularly a communist and I do not belong
to any movement." Take a moment to think about living in a world as imagined
by John Lennon in this song, take away material possessions (wealth, status,
greed, envy); religion (holy wars, terrorism, religious persecution); countries
(war, tyranny, oppression.) And to all those who speak about socialism never
ever working. Think of this: early man for thousands of years lived in a
society based upon communism. The community was needed to survive. The
community or tribe or clan or herd was all that mattered. Share and all
survive. That is communism. We as humans have the ability to shape the world
into whatever we want.
The Economic Research Service estimates that over 130
billion pounds of edible food goes uneaten per year at the retail and consumer
levels in the United States, equating to over 1,200 calories per day per man,
woman, and child. On average, this
suggests that as a nation almost one-third of the edible food that could meet
our caloric needs goes uneaten. Globally, in developed countries such as the
United States, Canada, and Australia, almost 40 percent of the food is wasted
after the dinner table. In contrast, in
developing countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, almost 40 percent of
the food is lost before the dinner table, owing to pests and supply chain
issues, including inadequate storage, transportation, and marketing challenges.
The food waste in landfills decomposes, emitting carbon
dioxide, methane, other gases, water vapor, and leachates, thus exacerbating
our ecological footprint. Additionally,
consider the land, water, fertilizer, labor, energy, and other inputs that went
into producing that food, which is now wasted. Indeed, globally food waste/food
loss is contributing to the estimated loss of one quadrillion liters of water
per year—enough to fill Lake Erie approximately eight times over.
Studies point to the need to double food production to feed
the nine plus billion people predicted to populate planet Earth by 2050. Imagine the possibility: By eliminating or significantly reducing food
waste and food loss, humanity could be closer to achieving food and nutrition
security without having to bring in significantly more arable land, energy,
water, labor, and other inputs needed to double food production. Mitigating
food waste and food loss globally is the “low hanging” fruit in our toolkit to
ensure the food and nutritional security of humanity, while husbanding our
natural resources such as water and land, and minimizing our ecological
footprint.
Americans have steadily moved from farms to cities. The
country was 95 percent rural in 1900. Today, 81 percent of Americans live in
metropolitan areas. It is predicted that 70% of the entire world will be urban
by 2050. For most of human history, food was produced within walking distance
of where it was consumed—a way of life in which people maintained a direct connection
with the land and their food. Urbanization and the industrialization of food
production have rendered this a distant memory for most of us.
Too many households abound in areas that have little or no
access to healthy fruits and vegetables. Most of our food is grown from
genetically modified and hybrid seeds, sprayed with chemicals and shipped to us
from around the world. Quality food is the most important part of being healthy
and we are not getting it. Fast food is killing us. We’re eating 31 percent
more packaged and processed food than fresh fruits and vegetables. We are
consuming more packaged food per person than people in nearly any other
country. And food insecurity is growing. Americans spend considerably more on
healthcare than any other country. Yet, too many of our children are unhealthy.
Our elderly are sicker for longer periods of time.
How will we feed, clothe, shelter, and educate these
steadily swelling urban populations? Up until now, too much of the discussion
surrounding global warming and the climate crisis has been cloaked in gloom and
doom. The fact is, we have the power to reverse, not just mitigate, global
warming. We can avert the impending climate catastrophe, mass starvation,
resource depletion and endless wars. And while we’re at it, we can also restore
soil fertility, eliminate poverty and hunger. We need a global grassroots
movement. Our immediate task therefore is to spread this profound message of
hope. What is important is that we identify the different messages that will
motivate different segments of the population, and then build upon our shared
concerns. Through a diversity of messages and campaigns we can build the
largest grassroots coalition in history—for our survival, and the survival of
the future generations.
Humanity has a shared history and culture, came into being
based on some very specific factors. Principle among these was/is a population
having access to food and natural resources. Throughout history, population
centres formed in the most fertile places – river deltas (Nile, Amazon, Ganges)
and those places where plentiful rainfall allowed cropping (Europe, sub-Saharan
Africa, SE Asia, where rain-fed agriculture is a viable way to produce food. If
we look at a world population distribution map, there is a very strong
correlation between rainfall and where people live. The density in South East
Asia is incredible, something only possible by historical high rainfall and
fertile land. Also, in India, Pakistan and China, this rainfall fed agriculture
is supplemented vastly by annual glacier melts that feed their inland river
systems. Agriculture is the foundation of life, as we know it. It is what led
to our contemporary human societies. “There is no culture without agriculture.”
Civilization began when humans settled in one place and started growing crops.
We cannot live without a system that grows our food. We cannot flourish without
healthy food. Most experts agree that despite advances in modern medicine (or
perhaps in part because of them), as a population, we face a serious health
crisis. This is particularly apparent in western nations, where there is plenty
of food—but much of that “food” is highly processed, nutrient-deficient junk
food. Yet the food produced by our modern industrial agriculture system debilitates,
rather than enhances, our health.
Why does it matter if the temperature changes? Hotter earth
means more energy, which means more frequent violent storms. The NAOO in the US
believes that once a century storms will occur every two-three years with 1.5-2
degrees warming. Storms like that wipe out crops, destroy homes, ruin
infrastructure, in places where the majority of human beings live. It matters
because if the temperature changes, the location and degree of rainfall will
change as well, because of changed ocean and atmospheric conditions. 70% of
African food is produced by farmers at or close to subsistence level and in SE
Asia the level is around 50%, any substantial change in yields will impact
those populations hugely. By definition, subsistence farming produces no or
small surpluses. We live in a hungry world already. If yields drop too far,
literally billions of people will face chronic food shortages. Who cares if the
globe warms up? Well, all those hungry people will. Drought, storms and
changing rainfall patterns will combine to drastically reduce crop yields.
Massive storms will destroy homes and infrastructure. What will hundreds of
millions of hungry, homeless people do? What would you do, if your home was
repeatedly blown away, and you couldn’t feed your family? You’d find somewhere
else to go, just as sure as they will. It’s demonstrably clear that most
Australians don’t like boat people. Imagine if millions of starving boat people
made their way to Australia?
The hour is late. We are facing the life or death challenge
of our lives. Each and every one of us must join the world socialist movement. Environmentalists
have argued that waiting for "the revolution" in order to try to save
species from extinction, or prevent the planet from boiling over because of
climate change, is denying the urgency of environmental problems. They have
argued that, given the urgency of environmental problems, we have to use
whatever mechanisms are available to us, from high-tech geo-engineering solutions
to market mechanisms, to rich philanthropists. Critics of many
environmentalists, however, accuse some in the environmentalist movement of willing
to accept compromises with elites in ways that ultimately compromise and
undermine the environmental cause. Socialists draw attention to the common
cause the myriad of different ecological problems share and point to the common
enemy, capitalism. Socialists grasp the conclusion that many greens are
reluctant to accept, society will have to make massive changes to the economic
system, and that the reforms being offered up are not deep enough to stabilise
the climate change much less reverse the consequences of global warming. The
reformists’ compromises and concessions with capitalism is like driving towards
the edge of a high cliff. It doesn’t matter if we roar at it at 150kmh or
trickle towards it at 1kmh. Once we reach that tipping point, where global
warming is self-reinforcing, we’re not going to stop until we hit the bottom.
A global poll of more than 6.5million people has placed
climate change at the very bottom of a long list of priorities, with the
finding being consistent across both genders, almost all age ranges, all
education levels and in most regions of the world. Across the whole of Africa and
Asia climate change rated last, but Europe, Oceania and the Americas promoted
the issue to around half way up the table. In the US it ranked 10th, whilst in
the UK it was placed 9th. Participants are offered a choice of sixteen policy
issues, which also include “a good education”, “Political freedoms”,
“Protecting forests, rivers and oceans”, and “Equality between men and women”.
We are failing to communicate the urgency and the seriousness of the threat to
the environment and the planet.
Many socialists are willing to concede that a key problem is
failure to point to solutions. We tend to point to problems - endlessly - as if
that will somehow automatically generate action. In the city of the future we will no longer
jump in our cars, burn fossil fuels to go and buy “food” at giant suburban
shopping malls that is grown on farms far away. Instead, we will walk to a farm
or garden in our neighborhoods to get fresh, nutritious food harvested by urban
growers that we know personally. We will no longer pass empty blighted
waste-ground. We will eat, work and play close to home, in beautiful spaces.
Urban agriculture empowers people with food self-sufficiency, maintains
stewardship over the environment and builds a sense of community. And all of it
can be done with just a hoe, a rake and a spade. Urban agriculture and the
development of local food systems is a way to bring city dwellers closer to
their farmers and provide an abundance of natural, nutritious food. In the city
of the future, wholesome food will be a right for all, not just a privilege for
the few. Urban agriculture transforms both people and places. Growing food in
urban areas will grow remarkable cities. The Chicago city planner, Daniel
Burnham, famously said, “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s
blood”. We have no other choice. We must become advocates and campaigners for
socialism.
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