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Sep 9, 2006 7:25:22 PM
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I do not think that humankind was unable to produce enough food. We could if we wanted to. So what are blocking reasons?
Let's look at what keeps me busy. I get up in the morning, go to work, do my thing and hope to receive a reward for my doing: financial (income) and otherwise (social rewards). I am not alone in the world; I am one piece in a bigger puzzle. So is everyone in the food chain. It starts with a farmer, a dealer who distributes food, a processor who does something with the food, a dealer again maybe and the end consumer in the finally.
Since we have left stoneage we have introduced the above complexity in our human interactions. No the farmer does not trade an apple for 1 MB of data transmitted on the internet. We have introduced a couple of things: money for one as a place holder for physical goods exchange. A trust and rights system that enable everyone in the chain to trust that agreed contracts are honored, that money will be exchange back to goods when need be. For this work there needs to be freedom: freedom to use my own brain, to do my own thing and rules that tell me how far my level of freedom goes.
Yes it is easy to blame those non-tangible bodies: the state, the rich, capitalism, multi-national companies, etc. for doing the wrong thing. But in my mind whatever happens in human interactions is done by human beings, in the end always by one individual. And we know every individual has their own internal world of values. How realistic would it be to convince millions and billions of people to change their internal values? We know it is totally unrealistic. It could be saddening and I could feel so terribly sorry that the world is so bad to me.
Why not follow a different strategy and start changing my own behaviour? I have the option to buy products from fair trade. I have the option to buy from my local bakery or butcher. I have the option to buy a non-genetically modified apple. I have the option to elect a party that demonstrates believe in people and liberal thinking versus a party that openly says we go to war. Many more examples.
To conclude: in my mind the question we started with is wrong. It should be something like "what barrriers in ourselves do we need to overcome to enable the world to feed themselves"
by Mr Process
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