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Page added on October 16, 2016
The Local Food Revolution: How Humanity Will Feed Itself In Uncertain Times
We are being ranched,” says Michael Brownlee, and what is more, most of us are living in one kind of food desert or another.
In this book, author Michael Brownlee is inciting a local food revolution, and this revolution is far more expansive, far more radical, and far more life-altering than creating a few farmers markets and promoting one’s local economy. According to Brownlee, our industrial food system “has itself become the greatest threat to humanity’s being able to feed itself.” However, this revolution is not merely an uprising against the global industrial food system but also a “coming together to build something new in the face of nearly impossible odds.” In fact, it is a spiritual, as well as a social and political event because it will require us to learn how to feed ourselves. What is more, it is a “center of aliveness in the midst of a dying civilization” which “provides more than hope; it is a revolution of the deeper meaning and purpose and presence that lie ahead, emerging mysteriously out of a convergence of seed, soil, soul, and stars.” The Unholy Alliance—Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Pharma, empowered by Big Banking and Big Government has deprived us of the autonomy of learning how to feed ourselves and has also convinced farmers, entrepreneurs, and investors that solutions for feeding the world are technological only.
In other words, in the local food revolution that must happen, “we are not attempting to change or fix the global industrial food system. We’re simply putting all our efforts into building our own food system, our own regional foodsheds.” According to Brownlee, we must “resign as consumers” and opt out of the global food system which is what the Unholy Alliance fears most: Losing control of our food supply, but more fundamentally, losing control of us.
The author has been aware of the collapse of industrial civilization for nearly two decades, and he has witnessed a number of revolutions coming and going, but he asserts that “real revolutions are called into being.” Called into being by what? According to Brownlee, “…by something greater than ourselves.”
If this declaration brings to mind the word “sacred,” that’s because “sacred” is exactly what the author has in mind. “Food is sacred,” he says, and “We need to make eating sacramental again and come to regard farming and ranching, along with preparing and cooking food, nothing less than a spiritual practice.”
Brownlee takes us through the watershed moments of our human development: The Agricultural Age, the Industrial Age, the Information Age, and the Anthropocene, but he does not stop there. Drawing on the wisdom of geo-logian, Thomas Berry, and physicist, Brian Swimme, who have written volumes about the notion of partnership between humanity and the Earth community, the author hypothesizes that this might lead to humanity devoting itself to repairing the destruction it has inflicted on the planet. Such a partnership could, in turn, lead to a greater community era in which “we may then emerge into a realm of life that goes far beyond our planetary sphere.”
The alternative, of course, is human extinction. For Brownlee, the realization that we are now facing impending catastrophic climate change has been life-changing in the way that near-death experiences often are. He notes that abrupt climate change is giving humanity a near-death experience that may provide, as such experiences often do, an entirely new outlook on life. Part of this new outlook for the author has been his countless epiphanies with regard to food and the possibility of an emerging food revolution. Such a revolution could not have occurred in the context of business as usual but rather, as Brownlee states, “the food revolution manifesting around local food can occur only at the moment of the death of a civilization…in the same way that the supernova process is possible only with the death of a star.”
Throughout The Local Food Revolution, the author uses the word foodshed, which simply refers to the geographic region that produces food for the population in that area. A student of the work of Christopher Alexander and his pattern language theory, Michael Brownlee suggests that “we can see that a pattern language for food localization could be about discovering the inherent patterns that bring aliveness, wholeness, and healing to our foodsheds—and our communities. This is an extremely potent development.”
The fundamental pattern to which Brownlee is ultimately referring is the pattern of relationships. “The essence of all the patterns presented here is relationship, relationships of a particular quality. What is emerging is a web of relationships that forms the underlying structure of an emerging foodshed…Perhaps the reason that local food work is so attractive and engaging—and so satisfying,” says the author, “is that it is really about recovering our very humanity and all else that has been lost with the rise of industrial civilization.”
In a chapter entitled, “The Secrets of Co-Creative Collaboration,” Brownlee lays out a detailed strategy for a local food revolution which advances from one individual waking up to our predicament, through the establishment of collaborative community resilience and self-reliance. The Local Food Revolution does not propose “a few easy” steps to creating this resilience and self-reliance, but offers a hands-on strategy for fully inhabiting our foodsheds, including a stunning “Local Food Declaration of Independence” that is certain to warm the heart and also challenge the assumptions instilled in us by the Unholy Alliance.
The Local Food Revolution is no-nonsense reading that is at once profoundly practical and wildly inspiring. I’d be willing to bet that after reading it, your relationship with food will never be the same.
14 Comments on "The Local Food Revolution: How Humanity Will Feed Itself In Uncertain Times"
Ghung on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 5:31 pm
With about 2% of Americans involved in any significant food production, a lot more folks will need to start growing before there can be any meaningful local food ‘revolution’.
Davy on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 6:35 pm
I like the tone of the article but it is misplaced except for local efforts. This will not scale to the global but it can for locals who choose to embrace this just as communities of people create congregations and perishes. This is really what it is about and that is community in close proximity and partnership with nature. The food chain is where we need to find out spirituality. We need to connect to ourselves and our “Ecos” through the food chain and watersheds. This is a classic avenue to reject modernism and embrace post modernism.
But wait, don’t think you are going to get off that easy and joyfully. The other part of this process is embracing a die-off that is coming. It is only by embracing the coming die-off that you will have the focus to maybe survive it. Death must become part of our spirituality. It is only by embracing death that you will find life. What does this mean? It means leaving denial and acknowledging destructive change both human and with our man made civilization. It means embracing local food and turning away from modernism in every way possible. If you can survive more primitive living then you will be one step ahead of those who will be weak and vulnerable because they choose to be little more than cattle herded into the slaughterhouse of what we call globalism.
Food has always been man’s connection. It is only very recently we have become estranged from nature and our food sources. In the process we have destroyed the once bountiful food chain that was present pre modern man. We can still find something of value now that everything has been despoiled and that is with and through what is left of the land. We can regenerate what we can from the wasteland of modernism. This cannot happen fast enough and widespread enough. It will not happen as it should and the consequences will be deadly. Hunger, food insecurity, and famine are going to visit in ever more regular intervals until finally after significant loss of life there will be efforts to feed ourselves with more than just the industrial food system. This is until industrial food productions stops as it will. I assure you.
peakyeast on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 6:52 pm
@Davy: I completely agree.
All governments has contingency plans that puts food production as an essential consumer of fuel.
Before we see real trouble there will be a short? period where governments will force allocate fuel and resources for food production.
When that happens its likely to be the end of a lot of trade and businesses – and therefore income for ordinary people.
Shortly after that we will see massive police/military presence to control riots and civil war.
Then starts the hunger and famine…
Sissyfuss on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 7:19 pm
Does Soylent Green qualify as part of local food revolution?
Larry W on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 8:03 pm
“The alternative, of course, is human extinction…”
Scaremongering propaganda. The Author’s ideas may help a small segment of the population in some possible circumstances. We should welcome diversity of options for any resource, not be swayed by alarmist nonsense.
Northwest Resident on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 8:53 pm
Historically, around 90% of the population was directly engaged in food production. That all changed once industrialization and the age of oil got underway. But that was just a blip in time, one that we are at the tail end of. The wave of the future is local economies and local small-scale food production. Prepare for that future or prepare to meet your maker.
energy investor on Sun, 16th Oct 2016 10:47 pm
During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, in New Zealand, I gather the indigenous Maoris in towns and cities were sent back to their local communities rather than receiving any government welfare. They enjoyed a far better standard of living than everyone else because they were in communities of hunter-gatherers and gardeners.
What I find intriguing is that in the coming bust, the poor countries with peasant farmers will also likely be far better off than folk who live in the OECD. Many peasants have unsophisticated non-fossil fuel dependent agriculture, however it won’t support their big city populations too well.
Cloggie on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 1:58 am
test
Cloggie on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 2:01 am
@admin: larger piece of text gets repeatedly the red blocking sign. A single word post gets through.
Ban?
Cloggie on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 2:01 am
As always the real “revolutionaries” are located in the East:
“In 2011 the dacha gardens of Russia produced 40% of the nation’s food”
http://naturalhomes.org/naturalliving/russian-dacha.htm
Cloggie on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 2:05 am
Can’t get a small post through.
I assume IP ban.
That’s it then. Bye bye and good luck.
peakyeast on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 5:18 am
What now dear cloggie? I dont assume its an IP ban – since you are posting. And please stay – you come with a lot of good links and interesting arguments. I like reading your posts.
Lawfish1964 on Mon, 17th Oct 2016 8:40 am
Where I live, I would posit is a food oasis. I get chickens from a local guy I trade with. I get local grass-fed beef from a local farm that sells at a farmer’s market. Last night, I put half a hog in my freezer from a guy who hunts my timber property. There are plenty of wild hogs around here. My eggs come from my back yard and the only fish I eat is fish I catch (and I catch a lot of fish).
All around me are small farms, people with 30 or 40 acres who plow small plots and plant corn or soy. In a 200 mile radius around me, there are countless pastures with cattle grazing the old fashioned way. It seems we’re either already transitioning or never really abandoned the old ways.
And of course I grow a pretty fair amount for having a small yard. 88 lbs. of potatoes this year, along with bushels of tomatoes and peppers.
Kenz300 on Tue, 18th Oct 2016 12:11 pm
Too many people create too much pollution and demand too many resources
China made great progress in moving its people out of poverty One reason was slowing population growth.
If you can not provide for yourself you can not provide for a child.
CLIMATE CHANGE, declining fish stocks, droughts, floods, air water and land pollution, poverty, water and food shortages all stem from the worlds worst environmental problem OVER POPULATION.
Yet the world adds 80 million more mouths to feed, clothe, house and provide energy and water for every year… this is unsustainable… and is a big part of the Climate Change problem
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