To Lead or Be Led? 7system, what happens to consumers afterward is no more important
than the fate of cattle destined for slaughter.
So long as people accept being just another step in a food system that
transforms energy into somebody else’s money, the power of the system
over us grows, and our resilience to resist erodes. In extreme cases, food
becomes a crutch, an opiate we use to endure desperate and unfulfilling
lives. In his book The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell chronicled
the coal-mining region of northern England during the depression
times of the 9 0 s. Miners and their families lived on sugared tea, white
bread and margarine, tins of fatty beef and potatoes. Dentists remarked
that people over thirty who still had teeth were becoming an anomaly.
Observers commented that the local diet made no sense when whole-
some food would have served the community far better. Yet none of this
mattered. These people had set up their relationship to food to provide
them with “cheap luxuries.”
Closer to home, a while back I visited with a family I have known
for years. The parents asked about my recent projects, so I shared some
thoughts about how, on our part, we have conformed our lives to the
modern food system, forfeiting our understanding of the connections
between food, life, and the environment.
The topic piqued the interest of their older children, who joined
in and asked questions. No, building more dams did not increase the
amount of water on a finite planet. Yes, boosting the yields of crops
such as corn has relied on consuming more land, depleting reserves of
underground water, and short-circuiting the Earth’s natural nitrogen
cycle. Yes, intensive food production requires additional water, which
comes from drilling more wells and depleting existing aquifers, setting
the stage for future shortages and land collapsing (subsidence).
More meat production has relied on the wide use of antimicrobials
in concentrated animal-feeding operations. In return, as pathogen
resistance in the environment increases, fewer treatment options for
infection are available for humans. A similar pattern can be seen in
expansive fields of monoculture crops. Constant application of the same
chemicals increases resistance in pests such as weeds, spawning a vicious,
unending cycle of applying more and more chemicals.
To increase profitability while compensating for differences in
geography and climate, as well as labor expenses, more liquid fossil fuels