GREED...
In this age of rising food cost and rising cost of fuel, where making a living seems to be the hardest of chores, how can we effectively fight the evils of our time? Fighting greed is one tough act especially if one is fighting against the financial powerhouses of our time.
The idea of writing about the subject has been hovering over my head for weeks now. I have been confronted with the idea on several occasions. First, on our church service, when our pastor had to show the congregation how food production in the United States have been "high-jacked" by the "big four" meat packing corporations to the detriment of the health of consumers and farmers alike. The documentary showed they they have reengineered chicken so as to achieved unprecedented growth for a very short period of time. And, these farmers who showed themselves up on the documentary are at risk of regulatory fines and court litigations for standing up for the truth. They stand lossing their livelihood in the end. This is something that these large corporations can do at will. And, the US government is powerless amidst all these as it has allowed itself to be held captive to the interests of these large corporations. These corporations maintained one of the most cogent and dynamic network of lobbyist, not only in the US Congress, but also in the legislatures of other states and even in the European Commission. One might be interested as to get a copy of the documentary and it is available at Amazon.com entitled Food, Inc.
The second time that this idea grappled with me was when I talked with a classmate in high school, an American citizen, now living in South Carolina. We talked about the extravagance of these companies in Wall Street. It is common knowledge that after the financial crisis that hit Wall Street, the United States Government came to the rescue of those companies that went down. The beneficiaries of the US bail out program in 2008 are Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mach, Goldman Sachs (bailed out by the US government and Berkshire Hathaway), Morgan Stanley (by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ), AIG, Citigroup, and two US carmakers, among others. There has been a couple of bailouts that followed in 2009. I could not help but hiccough at the sight of this list. Most of these are financial investment corporations. Serious questions were raised at the height of this controversy especially as regards to the hefty bonuses that executives (I call them execu-thieves) of these corporations were or are receiving.
There was report in FT.com stating how executives of the three car manufactures from Detroit came to the bail out hearing in Washington in their corporate jets. US lawmakers aptly described the arrogance of these car bosses "while asking for taxpayers cash" to bail out their "cash-strapped" companies. We could probably go on and on at the excesses of these corporations. Now the poor taxpayers have to shoulder much of the burden while that belong to the upper brackets of our social and financial system can basks in their unmatched wealth.
The final manifestation that maybe I would have to write about greed is when I found this video of a lecture of Vandana Shiva, a known Indian physicist, environmental activist and author. She talked about Earth Democracy, which, at first, was much of a puzzle to me. As an political science student, I never had an encounter with such concept. The idea is all about expanding the idea of democracy even to non-human entity. It is more of about protecting the web of life or the cycle of life, we now call it biodiversity. Hesperian.org aptly describes biodiversity in an article about environmental protection:
...people gather fruits to eat, which have nutrients that keep them healthy. These fruits grow on trees and bushes pollinated by insects.Without pollination, the fruit will not grow. Birds eat the insects, and the birds are hunted by foxes. A balance in the web of life means that there are just enough flowers, insects, birds, and foxes for all to live in the area. If you kill too many foxes, maybe because they are killing your chickens, then perhaps the number of birds will grow and they will eat too many of the insects. In this way, killing too many foxes can mean you have less fruit as well. http://www.hesperian.info/
Biodiversity, however, has been in constant threat coming from governments themselves, militaries and large corporations. An outstanding example is how biotech companies are able to introduce genetically engineered crops into our food production ventures. So we hear about BT corn, BT cotton, etc., substituting the natural and organic varieties we once have had. The same article from Hesperian.org says that the promise of higher yields by the use of toxic chemicals and large machineries is unsustainable. This is exactly in line as well with what Dr. Shiva said in her lecture.
There was report in FT.com stating how executives of the three car manufactures from Detroit came to the bail out hearing in Washington in their corporate jets. US lawmakers aptly described the arrogance of these car bosses "while asking for taxpayers cash" to bail out their "cash-strapped" companies. We could probably go on and on at the excesses of these corporations. Now the poor taxpayers have to shoulder much of the burden while that belong to the upper brackets of our social and financial system can basks in their unmatched wealth.
The final manifestation that maybe I would have to write about greed is when I found this video of a lecture of Vandana Shiva, a known Indian physicist, environmental activist and author. She talked about Earth Democracy, which, at first, was much of a puzzle to me. As an political science student, I never had an encounter with such concept. The idea is all about expanding the idea of democracy even to non-human entity. It is more of about protecting the web of life or the cycle of life, we now call it biodiversity. Hesperian.org aptly describes biodiversity in an article about environmental protection:
...people gather fruits to eat, which have nutrients that keep them healthy. These fruits grow on trees and bushes pollinated by insects.Without pollination, the fruit will not grow. Birds eat the insects, and the birds are hunted by foxes. A balance in the web of life means that there are just enough flowers, insects, birds, and foxes for all to live in the area. If you kill too many foxes, maybe because they are killing your chickens, then perhaps the number of birds will grow and they will eat too many of the insects. In this way, killing too many foxes can mean you have less fruit as well. http://www.hesperian.info/
Biodiversity, however, has been in constant threat coming from governments themselves, militaries and large corporations. An outstanding example is how biotech companies are able to introduce genetically engineered crops into our food production ventures. So we hear about BT corn, BT cotton, etc., substituting the natural and organic varieties we once have had. The same article from Hesperian.org says that the promise of higher yields by the use of toxic chemicals and large machineries is unsustainable. This is exactly in line as well with what Dr. Shiva said in her lecture.
WTO/TRIPRs
According to Dr. Shiva, the issue of food production being held hostage by huge multinationals was compounded after the World Trade Organization (WTO) enacted the Agreement on Trade Related Intelectual Property Rights. A monstrosity, as the name alone suggests. The agreement encompasses, among others: copyright (real intellectual property) and neighboring rights (rights of performers), and industrial property rights (trademarks and patents). Now, tell me what's completely wrong with that?
The said agreement has effectively allowed large biotech corporations to patent life (seeds) making it illegal for any farmer to keep seeds for the next planting season. If a farmer has to plant crops, he has to buy the seeds from a company, like Monsanto. In India alone, Monsanto controls at least 95% of cotton seeds according to Dr Shiva. So what did Monsanto do to deserve patents for seeds? Monsanto genetically modified a plant variety to make it resistant to at least one kind of pest. By altering the behavior of the crop, the treated variety would then be able to remanufacture the pest-fighting bio-chemical on its own. Little did we know that the chemicals used to treat these plant varieties kill helpful insects and organism that could have been a great help to fight other diseased. As reported by www.naturalnews.com, Monsanto's Roundup triggers at least 40 plant diseases (click here).
So, should we award Monsanto with a patent? Dr. Shiva negated. She said, "They should be punished for poisoning our food." And if I may add, they should be held liable for destroying the environment.
THE FOOD BUBBLE
Dr. Shiva recommended an article on how speculators captured the pricing of one of the world's basic commodities--food. An article by F. Kaufman titled The Food Bubble, published on Harpers in July 2010, explains how food speculators control the prices of major food products like wheat, cattle, cocoa, corn, and hogs. It is of little wonder why the prices of bread could go that high so easily without us knowing exactly why. They have assigned the investment value of these products "then reduced what had been a complicated collection of real things into a mathematical formula that could be expressed as a single manifestation, to be known as the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index," the article said. This actually started in 1991, the time when almost everything has been expressed with investment value except for agriculture. So, the bankers at Wall Street thought of a better way to gain more and they trained their eyes on food commodity.
For a period of time the prices of these commodities had been relatively stable. However, by 2005, price of wheat began a steady climb, along with prices of rice, corn and soy beans. In 2008, wheat giant Cargill attributed an 86% rise in profitability to commodity trading. The same article said, "It was as if wheat was generating its own demand, the more it cost, the more investors wanted to pay." A global speculative frenzy ensued afterwards, where prices of wheat went up to atmospheric heights. It caused riots in at least 30 countries worldwide and sent hundred of millions to famine. (If you are interested in reading more on the said article please visit http://www.epure.org/pdf/js7f000001-33b2-d802.pdf).
HOW DO WE DEAL?
Our pastor suggested that we eat only non-GMO food, which was in line with what Vandana Shiva espoused. She reintroduced me to the concept of Satyagraha. All the while, I thought that Satyagraha is a mere Gandhian principle. I never that it could have a bigger and more realistic impact in our fight against greed. Government regulation is important in ensuring the safety of the food we eat and our environment. However we can do our share. By collectively refusing to toe the lines set forth by these corrupt and greedy entities, we would be able to fight them off effectively.
In as far as GMO is concerned, creating GMO-free zones in the country is a viable option, something that has been done in the island of Negros. Negros Oriental for its part already declared itself as GMO-free province and the same is true with its twin province of Negros Occidental.
For most of us who could only do so much, I would even suggest backyard gardening. Making organic fertilizers by composting enables us to bring back to earth the necessary nutrients needed for sustainable agriculture. On the other hand, you are able to produce for your own consumption organic based food. It's about time we do something. It has been said that when Gandhi started the indigo satyagraha, he got a spinning wheel and urged everyone to leave the sweatshops and start spinning cloth inside their households. Everyone laughed at the frivolity of his idea.
However, what was inspiring about it was that he said, that the spinning wheel was the only one that could bring them to freedom for it was so small and so humble. And, because it was small and humble, it could be in the hands of the very last person. The hand-woven cloth that it produced could be in the poorest among the poorest of huts in India. And, that the poorest and the most marginalized can be a freedom fighter.
I think that the idea of satyagraha is relevant in the face of the rising cost of fuel. We have to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels or entirely reduce our depended on motorized vehicles. We still have our two feet, we can use them if the destination is not that far. For those who have bicycles it is high time we put them to good use.
You see that the idea of satyagraha is that you are not only fighting for yourself. You are fighting for the environment, for other people and for the future generations. That is what sustainability is all about. Vandana Shiva said that, what's good about it is that it's a form of education at how powerful one can be that he can generate his own freedom.
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Copyright © 2011 by Leonel Agir
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