Local is a Lie

[unspeakablehorror]

The thing is, any farming done that is separate from the natural ecosystem is not local.  Any farming that considers the natural ecosystem 'just worthless empty space' without it is not local.  Any farming done that uses the pesticides or antibiotics or fertilizer or machines or buildings that use nonlocal inputs for nonlocally obtained seeds or nonlocally obtained animals is not local.  And anything that's going to end up in a waste dump who knows where rather than naturally composting back into the environment is not local.  And any farming that produces massive unnatural amounts of animal dung that ultimately contaminates the water supply and kills local ecosystems while spiking food poisoning rates is not local--it is the destruction of local and the fouling of our own food supply.  And massive cattle monocultures or banana monocultures or cotton monocultures or sugar monocultures or any other monoculture is not local.  Destroying the natural environment to make chocolate or coffee or leather or any other commodity at the expense of the local population (or offloading that expense to some other locality) is not local.  It's a system built on blood in the whole, and the whole of it needs to change.  But as long as people use the language of social justice to prop their favored portions of it up, to reduce environmental activism to the purchase of indulgences like 'local', it won't be going anywhere at all. 

Comments

[unspeakablehorror]

This is why if we really want the world to change, we both need to not get into the mindset that our individual buying choices will fix this, but also not believe that fixing this can be done without impacting our individual lifestyles. Both of those beliefs are nothing but fantasy.

And if that's too much trouble? Then I guess we get a front row seat while the world burns with all of us in it.