Ecological Crisis of Character of Agriculture

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Ecological Crisisof Characterof Agriculture

• Wendell Berry
• Essayist Farmer

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Background

• "Eating is an agricultural act.
• http//www.heureka.clara.net/art/berry.htm
• Always ask of any proposed change or innovation
  What will this do to our community? How will this
  affect our common wealth.
• Always include local nature - the land, the
  water, the air, the native creatures - within the
  membership of the community.
• Always ask how local needs might be supplied from
  local sources, including the mutual help of
  neighbours.

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Background.

• Understand the ultimate unsoundness of the
  industrial doctrine of 'labour saving' if that
  implies poor work, unemployment, or any kind of
  pollution or contamination.
• Develop small-scale industries and businesses to
  support the local farm and/or forest economy.
• Supply as much of the community's own energy as
  possible.

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Background..

• Sees that the old and young take care of one
  another. The young must learn from the old, not
  necessarily, and not always in school. The
  community knows and remembers itself by the
  association of old and young.
• Account for costs now conventionally hidden or
  externalised. Whenever possible, these must be
  debited against monetary income.
• Always be aware of the economic value of
  neighbourly acts. In our time, the costs of
  living are greatly increased by the loss of
  neighbourhood, which leaves people to face their
  calamities alone.
• I hate to advocate the use of drugs, alcohol, or
  violence, but theyve always worked for me.

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Crisis of Character

• Specialization
• Doctors and prevention..Professors and education
• Agribusiness and soil conservation
• Accountants for tobacco companies
• Journalists and global warming
• Political reporting advances career
• Report two sides of an issue
• Not trained to understand science
• Dont connect hurricanes to global warming
• No systemic view to guide weighting of issues

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Is our character better or worse?

• Modern vs. Pre-modern
• Whos smarter founding fathers/mothers or us?
• Tribesmen or us?
• Can technology make you stupid?
• Who is more attuned or nested in natural world?

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Fractured lives

• Consumption without production
• How does fast food change us?
• How did meal preparation discipline grocers?
• Giving money vs. Building community
• Environment vs. Dwelling
• Protecting scenic wilderness
• Conservation vs. Kindly Use
• Others
• The graduate Plastics
• TV as entertainment work time vs. leisure time

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Device Paradigm How Technology Fractures
Experience (1)

• Fireplace (Thing)
• ritual of building, starting, and stoking fire
• not immediately available
• symbolic center of human
• transparent, present reality
• manifold engagement
• Thermostat (Device)
• no skill
• no ritual
• no understanding or control over process
• merely a means to an end a tool

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Device Paradigm How Technology Fractures
Experience (2)

• Bicycle (Thing)
• manifold engagement
• skill, sweat, muscles, fatigue, arrival, journey
• sense of SPACE and TIME
• under your own power
• experience breeze, smell, heat, cold WORLD
• extension of self
• Car (Device)
• no skill, no understanding
• interstate, numbered exits, green signs, ride
  between lines
• merely a means, no shaping of character, no
  demands
• watching television vs. living life
• tendrils of dependence foreign oil, pollution
• reduction of self

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Device Paradigm How Technology Fractures
Experience (3)

• Book (Thing)
• manifold engagement
• skill, imagination, construction,
• depth, weight, complexity, richness
• character
• TV (Device)
• flashy, fun, easy, quick
• emotions vs. substance
• common denominator vs. importance
• The Learning Channel vs. Growing own Food

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Owning Responsibilities

• Responsibly Free
• Provide own food
• Provide own entertainment
• Authenticity
• grounding in self or larger realities?
• what makes something authentic?
• clothes
• style
• choices
• expression

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Crisis of Agriculture

• Terrarium View
• Kindly use
• What makes it possible?
• Whats the influence of skill?
• Assumptions?
• 96 of Americas manpower freed from food
• Business sense
• Large technology
• Productivity
• Agripower

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Industrial Model Hog Farms
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http//www.themeatrix.com/
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Industrial Model Get Big or Die
www.enr.state.nc.us/ files/hogs/hogplan.htm
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Industrial Hog Model Problems

• Surface Water
• Run off contaminates water
• Groundwater
• Leakage contaminates underground aquifers
• Odor
• Unpleasant
• Neurological damage?
• Root problem
• Solutions Mother Nature Never Intended
• Mimic?

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AgriPower!!

• Larger Farms, Fewer Farms
• 1940 195 acre average
• 1970 390 acre average
• Contrast with
• Fertitlity
• Health of soil
• Wisdom
• Thrift
• Stewardship
• Disciplines of soil maintenance conservation

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Paradox of AgriPower

• Role of Petroleum
• Independence vs. Dependence?
• More people dependent on land, fewer thinking
  about it

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Essence of Berry

• What values drive Wendell Berry?
• How are these different from AgriPower?