Minding Our Ps and Qs

Our grandson, like many other children learning to write lower-case as well as capital letters, has had some trouble with b and d (and p and q). Which comes first, the straight line or the circle?

We could ask the same question about the food system. Which comes first, the straight line of The Economy or the inclusive circle that describes the deep relationships between peoples and food?

As we have pointed out in recent issues of the Ram’s Horn, The Economy is an ideological construct based in a linear model of inputs – outputs – exports. As such it is deeply foreign to the food system, which is holistic and circular. Wherever you enter the food system there are connections to other parts of it. If you look at seeds from one aspect you see  the beginning of a crop; from another aspect they’re the product of selection through climate, geography, and human nurture (including culture). Or take  Friday dinner. On  one side it’s connected  to the store where the fish and frozen peas were purchased and the back yard where the potatoes were grown, and further back to the income of the fisher and the state of the waters where the fish grew and the farm where the peas were grown and the plant where they were processed, along with the trucks that got them to the store. On the other side are connections to the nutritional needs of the family, the cultural tradition that calls for fish on Friday, and the composting or garbage disposal of the remains of the meal.

The food system is about how people have gone about organizing their lives together to provide equitably and satisfactorily for their bodily needs for food, including hunting, gathering, fishing, and farming. The food system would also include storage (including root crops left in the ground) and minimum processing – butchering, drying, salting and pickling – as well as distribution to ensure that the elderly, infirm and very young are looked after. Considering agriculture and food as factors contributing to the GDP or balance of trade, however, is quite out of order, just like the capitalism that thinks in these terms.

This issue explores some of the  adverse reactions and costly consequences of this approach.