A Brief Reflection on a Just Transition from Extractive to Regenerative Agriculture
Imagine Island agriculture where seed and land are held as agrarian commons.
Imagine if we all cared for land held in commons. Imagine if agriculture was less under corporate rule. Imagine what agroecology could do for reducing wireworm infestations and improving soil health and thereby nutritive value as well as reducing environmental impact of farming. Imagine working with land and soil and water instead of against it. Imagine ensuring that no Islanders were hungry. Imagine regenerative agriculture rooted in values of caring and sharing instead of those extractive mindsets of take, take, take from the Earth. Imagine what would be possible if we stood together to make positive, sustainable agricultural shifts towards land and seed held in commons and wealth that is shared instead of hoarded by corporate elites.
Let's get land back in our collective hands (shared as commons) and our individual hands back in the collective land!
The online class (Towards Cooperative Commonwealth) which I am halfway through invites us to imagine what might be possible as part of a Just Transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative one. Each module is filled with inspiring examples of people and places where change has/or is occurring on the ground.
For my module three reflection I used a Just Transition template which the course provided and applied it to a Vandana Shiva lecture. In doing so, it became very obvious that when the idea of commons (which Dr Shiva introduced us to in the first module) is not honoured, much harm is wrought.
From module one, Shiva defined commons as "...the space where we exercise common rights and common responsibilities...a place where you do not just extract but where you also have to give." (2 min video on the importance of commons)
In the module three Vandana Shiva lecture she welcomes us all "to see the earth in non-violent ways." She explains that agriculture ( the word which means "care for the land") operated under an extractive mindset brings widespread harm to the land, to soil and thereby to all beings. Whereas a regenerative mindset brings wellbeing to soil and farmers as well as revitalizes rural communities.
Shiva says that we have been made to think of money, instead of food, as the currency of life.
That the Green Revolution in the 1960's ushered in a post -WW2 era of violence and that the chemical destruction of soils and communities and the shift to viewing land and seeds as commodities under corporate control, have occurred much to the detriment of all life.
Farming, instead of bringing the highest dharma (growing and sharing of food) became reduced to adharma where the metric of yield was applied as a measure of value (instead of caring and sharing and nutrition).
Restoring land and seed as commons through "getting the tax money in support of the right things" is a shift she welcomes. Transitioning from an extractive to regenerative mindset/ heartset with land and seed as commons,"...doesn't need subsidy, it needs support."
I couldn't agree more! The values filter of the Just Transition template was useful in demonstrating this.
As well, her clarion call in module one, urging "... us to care for the planetary commons as well as the vulnerable in society and defend them against corporate greed and unsustainable extraction" is one which we all must urgently heed, in so many respects, but especially in the growing and sharing of food through land and seed commonly owned and cared for.
I share with you my interpretation...open to interpretation...and only a work in progress...or a tool applied for my own visual understanding. I wish I had drawn this in sand or with chalk as every time I look at it there are things I would change...you get the picture...a fun exercise!
Ps I adore that Dr Shiva's PhD in Physics is in Quantum Theory and rooted in the idea of non-separability. As she says in the beginning of the lecture in module 3 "ideas of separation are so false..." and I would add, so incredibly destructive! We are inextricably intertwined with all!
Let's get land back in our collective hands (shared as commons) and our individual hands back in the collective land!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzPyN_lAX6c (Vandana Shiva lecture from Mod three)
Thanks so much for taking a few minutes from your day to read my words and to share in my learning and caring for Earth!
xo
Be well,
Jill
Comments