During the course of my MA studies there were a handful of activists and scholars that I can now point to and say that they were incredibly influential in my thinking and further study. Tonight I had opportunity to see Frances Moore Lappé speak. My attention was captured by her books "
Diet for a Small Planet," "
Hope's Edge," and "
The Quickening of America," to name a few; as well as her activist work and the work of the organization she co-founded--
Food First.
Although she did not explicitly discuss food issues tonight, I feel that old familiar excitement that came from reading her books. So much so that I have to get it all out right now or I feel that I'll lose it to another day of sitting in my office reading. Lappé is on tour for the new edition of her book "
Getting a Grip" and is, in my opinion, spreading the enthusiasm for a different kind of social, economic and political future. Just to highlight some of the sticking points from her talk tonight where she identified three major issues that cause such unevenness and disparity in a world of plenty and then turned them on their heads.
Problems:
- The concentration of power in the hands of the few (and with that I would add wealth)
- The lack of transparency (at multiple scales) in politics, economics and social welfare
- The increased propensity to "other" (or play the blame game)
Solutions for what Lappé refers to as 'living democracy':
- The dispersion of power
- Transparency and community cooperation
- Recognition of accountability
We are living in a time of a facade of democracy in which we have what Lappé calls the biggest oxymoron ever..."privately held government." What a contrast it would be if we scale-jumped to allow for community interaction and citizen voice. I get a sparkle in my eye with this kind of talk and then slowly and quietly doubt and cynicism creep up on me and I become angry with the reality of life, the universe and everything. She must have been prepared for my train of thought because she started giving examples of where this is happening. I certainly didn't write them all down, but several caught my pencil and I will be exploring them in days to come. I will highlight briefly that she spoke specifically to Bellingham which warmed my heart. Apparently, Bellingham has been extremely successful at convincing citizens that buying local is the way to go, to the tune of 60% I think....
...more on this...
some things to look into:
- timebanks.org (could it be?! a social wage?!)
- Apprentice citizenship in Maine (youth activism and education)
- The Fair Elections Now Act (what if we were able to exercise our free speech rights as well/much as corporations?!)
- Brazil, food as a right
and a thought to chew on....in our super individualist society we have great difficulty, it seems, breaking away from social norms, how is it that as individuals were operate in a way that will not let us leave the dominant group and choose differently?
The brewery is now the proud parent of 8 little chicks! Fuzzy, chirpy goodness, these girls will (eventually) provide eggs to the greater brewery family. It is quite a fabulous treat to be a part of this...what is really step 1 in a larger urban farm that is being established at Oakshire (hurrah!)
As I'm sure other chicken owners will acknowledge, they're fun and they grow fast, it's absolutely amazing.
