Give our species a fighting chance

GUEST: Orion Kriegman, food sustainability activist, writer and Co-Director of NET New England, will talk about an alternative food paradigm that fosters public health as well as social justice.

Both Gary and I share an interest in the exploration of the local food revolution. It seems to me that it offers a template for other revolutions, perhaps even the non violent peeling away of the empire. The Soviet Union accomplished it; why can't the United States?

In a way, the corporations have gone beyond America already. The multinationals are using trade agreements to free themselves from any democratic control. Although the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being negotiated in secret, it will surely erode further the people's right to set labor and environmental standards. Think child workers, and pesticide laden foods. Think the end of safety standards for any product produced by the global monopolies. 

The multinational corporations have reduced the United States government to running the war and spy machines, instruments of their global domination. Think the Pentagon and the NSA. The rest will gradually be cut away, including any services that benefits those who are not extremely rich already. The political fights in Washington will be about who gets the bigger paycheck from the corporate lobbyists. 

Can we the people resist by asserting local control? Can we refuse to send our sons and daughters to fight in the Middle East? Can we pay our taxes for education, healthcare, housing and things that matter to our lives. Can we starve the empire from within?

I know it is a lot to ask the food movement to do. But I think it is a template we can begin to use, if just to give our species a fighting chance against this century's Horsemen of the Apocalypse, nuclear war and global climate change.