Re: A few priceless comments about regenerative ag from knorth picked up in the sanet-mg forum.
Steve Hart <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.politics.activism.permaculture |
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| Message-ID | <CALkGY+pxMNw8OaGPqymKgaRV6Uy88=nsVyD39vD789N6cy_Veg@mail.gmail.com> |
LL...is this your writing ? Steve Kia ora Ehoa *Steve Hart* *Ecology Architect* Designer, Teacher, Builder of Ecologically Sustainable Resilient Environments, through Urban Design, Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Systems Ecology via Ecological Agriculture.. *Skype: tipenemanawaPhone: +64 220 75 62 11* The Permaculture International College https://permacultureeducation.com/ https://permaculturecollege.academia.edu/SteveHart On 2 July 2018 at 15:54, Lawrence London <[email protected]> wrote: > Mass deception: > > "Most all of our society is the victim of a stupendously successful, > century-long effort of mass deception. The idea that organically certified > farming is making a significant difference is just one of the many myths. > More on that below, but first, let me sketch a more general, historical > picture - the necessary context. > > The advent of mass communications and the arrival in the US of Freud's > kinsman Edward Bernays, both at the beginning of the 20th century, was a > fortuitous convergence for our rulers. Bernays showed industrialists how to > manufacture desire using psychology, and spread it via the growing media of > mass communication, and the first industry of mass deception was born, > known as advertising. It was so successful in ramping up consumption, > burning through resources at the fastest rate, and thereby maximizing > capitalist profits, that Bernays was engaged to apply his methods of mass > deception more generally to allow ruling strata to achieve near total > social control with rare use of force. Bernays taught ruling strata how to > use propaganda to, in Chomsky's words, manufacture consent to a social > system where most of the power lies in the hands of the few, by using a > psychologically sophisticated narrative to sell the myths of democracy, > free enterprise, free market, free trade, and free speech. > > The result is that today most people are badly misled as to how our society > works and who its most powerful institutions serve. Government, media, > markets and the knowledge business itself are sufficiently under the > control of ruling strata that they serve primarily the interests of the > few. Hence government agencies serve the economic sectors that they are > supposed to regulate: the USDA serves industrial agriculture, not the > public interest. The historical record shows that it always has. The first > Secretary of Agriculture created the Pioneer seed company, which used > hybridization to take control of seeds away from farmers. > > What is the reality regarding the present food system? Certified organic is > a joke, just another brand that agribusiness uses to more fully exploit the > discretionary consumption capacity of the gentrified market. Make oats into > the letter O, call them Cheerios (because they start your day with cheer), > then call them Honey Nut Organic O's to sell even more oats - at twice the > price. Moreover, this branding hardly makes a difference in the quality of > the US food system. 10% of US farms produce most of the food. These are the > biggest, foulest farms in the food economy. The same is true for organic - > the biggest, least sustainable certified organic farms produce the lion's > share of the organic food economy, thanks in large part to the NOP that > nationalized organic food miles. Worse, organic is a drop in the bucket: US > acres in farming is 844 million, certified organic acres is 5.4 million - > 0.64% of the total farm economy (see below and also in attachment). > > Think about that. After decades of the organic movement, certified organic > food is a tiny fraction of the US food economy, less than 1%. And > incessantly corrupted, at that, gradually eroding trust even in the > miniscule gentrified market that it serves. Not that agribusiness cares > that much for such a small market fraction. > > None of the above is meant to lay blame on farmers, conventional or > organic, or on anyone who works for a more sustainable agriculture. But > when we falsely believe we are making much of a difference, or expect any > help in that effort from the government or any of its agencies, or any of > the other major institutions in our society, we are deluded, duped, in a > word, and the system will not change for the better as long as that mass > deception reigns supreme. > > We have been taught to dismiss any attempt to lift the veil as 'conspiracy > theory', but knowledge about how things really work is available, not > secret, if one is willing to look beyond the sources the oligarchs daily > put before our eyes and ears. Education must start with an understanding of > the concentration of power that makes possible the control of institutions > and the success of indoctrination. The public is even misled about that, > although the information is readily available if one looks for it. The > public is aware that there is inequality, but the concentration of wealth > and power is orders of magnitude above what the average person thinks. > > Those who try to lift the veil will be called names, suggesting they are > promoting some impossible future, and diverting attention from the real > question: how much of our conception of the present is myth. " > > NPR: > > "NPR, National Propaganda Radio, bravely soldiering on the business of > serving up the same garbage as the rest of the mass media while > masquerading as an alternative, thus misleading millions of politically > illiterate liberals into thinking they are hearing anything but fake news." > > > > -- > Lawrence F. London, Jr. > [email protected] > https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared > permaculture mailing list > [email protected] > subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info: > https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture > permaculture mailing list [email protected] subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info: https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture