Time to champion our regeneration generation
Wakelyns (pictured above)
20 October 2022
By Max Fraser - A respected design commentator across the media of books, magazines, exhibitions, video and events broadening the conversation around contemporary design, and more recently food and farming. www.maxfraser.com
The call to move away from anonymous industrial farming practices is becoming more pressing and, with it, the discussion more widespread. Understandably, that call is met with resistance mostly by those most invested in it. As I highlighted in a previous article here, we have created systems where dominance, control and efficiency is everything and where the collateral damage to animal and human health, ecosystems and biodiversity, pollution and planetary warming are an inconvenient truth. Until now, in the eyes of the polluter, these have conveniently been someone else’s problem. But for how much longer is it up to taxpayers and insurance companies to pick up the bill for the myriad crises that are hiding in plain sight?
Now it’s easy for me, as a middle-class white guy in a wealthy country with minimal experience of farming to write about how we need widespread adoption of regenerative farming systems, where we put the health of the soil and all of its living species first. However, I fully acknowledge that it’s a gargantuan task to undo the systems we’ve created across the globe. The food shortages experienced during World War Two struck fear into governing bodies across the world, ushering in an era of synthetic chemicals and technological fixes that would ensure abundance and the political notion of food security. The introduction of the Haber Bosch process to manufacture synthetic fertiliser triggered a crop boom, with yields never seen before. Pests were kept in check with chemical applications and seeds were engineered to be genetically identical, making them consistent and efficient for the ever-growing machinery used to tend them. Agricultural policies subsidised farmers willing to adopt this plentiful system, millions of them turning to the few agrichemical corporations heavily invested in the supply of these miracle farming inputs.
For all of the technical and scientific prowess that humans have pioneered, I would suggest we need to enter a new era of humility, where we put our hands up and confess to the unintended yet harmful consequences born from our relentless march for progress. In so doing, we should leave our egos at the door, admit our wrongs and our knowledge gaps, mute the shareholders and elevate our citizens.
Let’s remember that it’s very easy to lump the blame on corporations and governments and while their respective greed and inaction is apparent, we are almost all complicit in the systems that we also chastise, with the very notable exception of vast swathes of the human population treading lightly in less privileged climes. For many of our fellow inhabitants, the damage has been inflicted upon them through exploitation, suppression and the (often misleading) promises of prosperity.
Back to regenerative organic farming – the criticism often comes that the produce derived from these nature-first, holistic systems is too expensive for most to afford. And indeed, often it is because these smaller-scale systems are purposefully removed from the margin-squeezed commodity markets and the bullying tactics of those dominating their procurement. In many ways, regen food reflects the true price of production, respecting what the primary producers need to earn to steward their land and nurture their animals respectfully, mitigate against downstream damage while fostering the fauna and flora of our existence. All of this is done with the aspiration of leaving the land in a better condition than they found it, ensuring longevity and continuity for future generations and our cohabiting species.
But rather than screaming that it’s too expensive and elitist, perhaps we need to shift the rhetoric. We should ask ourselves why food that is grown as closely to natural systems as possible is more expensive than chemically doused alternatives. We need to ask who and what is suffering for us to enjoy such cheap produce. We need to make more effort to communicate the flavour and nutrient benefits of real food. We need to make a stronger link between our western diets and the pervasive creep of chronic and debilitating diseases. We need to be respectful of the sentience of the animal species we have targeted for consumption and to honour the best existence throughout their lives rather than turn a blind eye to the horror of their antibiotic-laden, confined and short lives of intensive production.
And if we still find ourselves in a situation where we can’t afford it, perhaps we need to dig deeper on some uncomfortable yet societally engrained inequalities. Why do we have a society where some have to choose between feeding themselves or heating their homes, where job instability is standard and if we are employed, our energy is so extracted that we have little energy and mental headspace to question much of the absurdity happening around us? Why are we referred to as consumers, as if we’re passive zombies blithely meandering from purchase to purchase? Why do we need to be wealthy to be healthy? How is it that those who can find the energy to vote seem to be choosing to elect divisive politicians who so often don’t act in the collective interest, choosing tactics of ridicule, hatred, fear and deliberate confusion to exhaust and distract us from the things that matter? Can’t we create a society that doesn’t treat property and land as a perpetually tradable asset of the rich but an attainable priority for all? Why do we accept low-carbon travel by train to be considerably more expensive than high-carbon air travel? And why does our education system take a spreadsheet-led approach to childhood and subsequent careers, channelling us like drones through a few ‘key’ yet binary subject areas? Why should the essential individuals and collectives of our time be left to catch the crumbs that the rich brush off the table? Why do we allow the fluctuating whims of capitalism to determine the dignity of individuals as well as the prosperity or ruin of communities? I could go on. It’s no wonder we have a mental health crisis (which we seem unable to prioritise) when, in fairness, all that most people want is a comfortable life, to shelter and feed their kids, and enjoy their short time on this planet.
Back to food again. If anyone uses the argument that real healthy whole foods are reserved for the better-off, perhaps we all need to remind ourselves of the aforementioned inequalities in society. So many complexities need to be overcome if we’re to bridge the cavernous void between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ but none of it is beyond the realms of possibility.
Wakelyns (pictured above)
We need to take everyone on the transition journey. We need to transfer the subsidies that go into fossil fuel extraction and other damaging practices and transfer it to renewables and regenerative projects. We need to make some contentious political moves that rebalance society and elevate essential workers to superior status. Let’s honour those who feed us; let’s make farming sexy; let’s give platform to unsung voices; let’s embed food and wellbeing into our school curriculums; let’s localise our agroecological food network; let’s make green living cool not fringe; let’s get people living on the land again; let’s make zero waste a duty; let’s embrace the methods used by nature herself to right imbalances; let’s evolve beyond continually producing more iterations of the same things; let’s acknowledge that just because we can, doesn’t mean we should; let’s stop accepting political ineptitude, mediocrity and sabotage. And fundamentally, before we make decisions or add anything else to the world, let’s always ask the questions – does it really matter and what does really matter?
And with all that said, it’s time to proceed with gusto and not be crippled by our quest for perfection but rather be led by iterative yet steady progressive change. In multiple micro or macro ways, we can enhance, improve and revive this damaged human and planetary ecosystem. We are existing on borrowed time but now is the moment to pay it back and to do so with joy, imagination and pride, making sure to carry everyone along for the ride.
Ends
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