Or how to betray yourself to become a nature and space abuser
There's a french intellectual called Jean Viard, doctor in sociology and head of a publishing company, who goes around in different conferences between Paris and Marseille talking about social processes and economic issues in a very inspired and see-through way, giving a whole historic perspective to present reality. One of his analysis, about french farmers, is particularly enjoyable.
Poor french farmers that got so fooled and robbed of their most precious gift by the mirage of modernity.
During the last decades, they bought thousands of massive tractors, spread tons of chemical products on everything alive : that was modern (at the time).
Nowadays modernity is caring about the complexity of ground's life and what makes it alive inside, by associating the best from both scientific and traditionnal knowledge to respect the environnement and find sustainable solutions that avoid to destroy things while producing others.
At the highest level of the world institutions - as proved by the latest report of Pr. Olivier de Shutter, special rapporteur of the right to food at the United Nations (read the report submitted at the 16th session of the Human Rights Council in december 2010) - the productivity of intensive agriculture that justified until now the massive spread of pesticides, is contested and over-ruled by the positive results gotten by agroecological farming. And this is all very serious.
United Nations reporters are not old ladies or moviestars promoting bio-food (not that old ladies and moviestars aren't credible but they can be suspected to not have in mind the heavy burden of feeding millions of humans), United Nations reporters are concerned with the future of humanity and therefore concerned with productivity :
On agroecology :
"Agroecology is both a science and a set of practices. It was created by the convergence of two scientific disciplines: agronomy and ecology. As a science, agroecology is the “application of ecological science to the study, design and management of sustainable agroecosystems.”" (Part III - Contribution of agroecology to the right to food page 6- "Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food", Olivier De Schutter - Human Rights Council Sixteenth session, United Nations - december 2010)
On productivity of agroecology :
Exemple of smart new ways to achieve high production levels : "Sometimes, seemingly minor innovations can provide high returns. In Kenya, researchers and farmers developed the “push-pull” strategy to control parasitic weeds and insects that damage the crops. The strategy consists in “pushing” away pests from corn by inter-planting corn with insect-repellent crops like Desmodium, while “pulling” them towards small plots of Napier grass, a plant that excretes a sticky gum which both attracts and traps pests. The system not only controls pests but has other benefits as well, because Desmodium can be used as fodder for livestock. The push-pull strategy doubles maize yields and milk production while, at the same time, improves the soil." (Part III - Section A, Availability: agroecology raises productivity at field level, page 7 - "Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food", Olivier De Schutter - Human Rights Council
Sixteenth session, United Nations - december 2010)
Those innovative methods, mix between "back to basics" and new insights from eco-systems science, also have the positive consequence of creating a whole social network and community around themselves and their environnement, much more than a industrial farm do. Nevertheless they will be even more difficult to apply in France than in Kenya, because of french farmers transformation into industrials over the last decades, making it hard to convince them to take it all back.
On the way to what they think was modern, they lost what mattered, the precious knowledge that had been linking them to the earth and the sky so far. Even more than during the 19th century that had already massively changed the scale of production levels, the 2nd half of the XXth century with its massive use of chemicals and increased power of engines drove farmers away from any understanding of the subtile equilibrium required by the earth on the long run.
Nowadays they are the most grant-maintained sector and still they're struggling, ruining the environnement and using more than 53% of the french territory.
And the situation is gonna get even harder for them as the pain will get psychological. Industrial farmers start to see coming a new kind of farmers, smart-asses from the city, newly educated high-profile agronomists experts in ecosystems who develop ecological farms and short cycles of production/sell. Telling them they are the ennemies of nature and that their methods destroy the earth, waste the water, and produce a useless amount of food, directly wasted by not being sold or used to feed animals that we kill and waste too.
The funny thing about Jean Viard is that he completes his speech by saying that in a way agriculteurs - without blaming them, cos everyone got fooled by the idea of modernity, architects in first line - fail over and over again in their quest to be desirable. Even at the time they got equipped with big tractors they've never been "sexy" and women from the 60's still prefered to go out with workers from the city, and now, they're even less desirable as they're still poor and still not modern, getting double-crossed in their own field by young guys reminding them the precious knowledge they once had and spoiled, betrayers of their only friend, Nature, fooled by the idea of progress and now blinded by their pride.
So its just about taking those big guys on our laps and tell them "its ok, agriculture is not about being strong, big and chemically violent, its about being subtile and respectul. Let's learn about the small worms in the ground that increase your productivity by 40% and allow you to recycle 100% of everything you use, you can give them names if you want".
AP
