The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Character & Agriculture

1. The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Character & Agriculture Chapters 1 & 2 of The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture Wendell Berry

2. The Crisis of Culture

3. Conservation groups own stock in the corporations that are against their interests. The Sierra Club, owns stocks in Exxon, General Motors, Tenneco, ect. This situation represents the modern character of many groups The split between what we think and what we do is profound…There are no people who are free of destructing the environment, just some who are less destructive than others. The disease of modern character is specialization. Specialization removes various competences and responsibilities that were once personal and universal. The ‘ideal’ American citizen now cosigns the problem of food production to agriculturalists and agribusinessmen, problems of health to doctors and sanitation experts, the problems of conservation to conservationists, and so on. The idea is that specialization will make us happy by opening up free time. But between stints at our jobs, we do nothing but mow our lawns, watch television, and eat processed food. This existence is not the happy-go-lucky existence we would expect. We are the most unhappy average citizen in the history of the world. Citizens have no power to provide anything for themselves but money. Specialization has caused a lack in culture, an increase in obesity, a decrease in health, an increase in polluting the essentials, and really just sucks.

4. From the public’s point of view, the system is a flop because everything is done by an expert, but very little is done well. As a society becomes more intricate, it has less and less structure. With specialization, we loose the understandings, forms, and enactments of the relations among materials and processes, principles and actions, ideals and realities, past and present, present and future, men and women, body and spirit, city and country, civilization and wilderness, growth and decay, life and death. Our world view of “the environment” as separate is one of the worst developments that have come with specialization. It is simply what is around us, not part of us, not our mother. “Time is money” This idea is ruining us. We define ourselves by the money we make and the superficial stuff we buy. We have become so interdependent with every corporation and government official that we have NO power. Consumers spend their money recklessly, and will buy anything that is “attractively packaged.” To be good consumers, we need to be our own producers also (taking time to make your own meals). Households that produce their own fun will not be hopelessly dependent on the entertainment industry.

5. …The take home message….YOUR ALL A BUNCH OF SHEEP!!! STOP FOLLOWING THE HERD!!!

6. Crisis of Agriculture

7. There are class-structure issues that play into eco-people’s attitudes. For example, eco-people say “no trailers on prairie,” which is an action that successfully ghettoizes the poor. Our biological & cultural roots are in nature. We need to have areas that we do not use at all, sacred groves….We need wilderness as a standard of civilization and as a cultural model, model agricultural maintenance of fields after the forest floor, for the forces of growth and the forces of decay are in balance there. The land is too various in its kinds, climates, conditions, declivities, aspects, and histories to conform to any generalized understanding or to prosper under generalized treatment. Farms used to be little communes, the consumers of food were also the producers. • At some point, the merchant usurped the functions of both household and farm, becoming more and more concerned with economics. Social fashion, delusion, and propaganda have combined to persuade the public that our agriculture is for the best of reasons the envy of the Modern World.

8. The GR technologies transformed sustainable farms into two different kinds-those who have sufficient “business sense” and managerial ability to handle the large acreages necessary to finance large machines and those who do not. “The real measure [of agricultural strength] is productivity, combined with processing and marketing efficiency.” Says the man… “Agripower” is not measured by the fertility or health of the soil, or the health, wisdom, thrift, or stewardship of the farming community. It is measured by its ability to produce a marketable surplus, which “generates agridollars.” “Achievements” of American agriculture are (1) “economy of size,” and (2) specialization, which means the abandonment of the ancient, proven principle of agricultural diversity. Farmers are being told to put all their eggs in one basket. Petroleum based agriculture is ludicrous. We half to have oil before we can get food?!?! The industrialization of farming encourages a simplification on both ends of the spectrum. Consumers eat worse, and the producers farm worse. The crisis in agriculture is not a matter of supply and demand, but it is a crisis of culture.

9. …The take home message….YOUR ALL EATING WHAT A BUNCH OF SHEEP TELL YOU TOO!