[Cid_Yama]

As I witness the varied responses globally to Post Peak Oil, I find myself more and more concerned about the ethical treatment of our fellow men in a time of profit and scarcity. Throughout history are examples where the lure of profit has led to atrocities against large segments of populations. These have not just happened in small African or South Asian countries. The West holds no ethical high ground in these matters. Nor are these occurrences in the far past or 'beyond us' now.

Exports of food during the Irish Potato Famine.

http://www.wolfetonesofficialsite.com/famine.htm


The Highland Clearances in Scotland come to mind.

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/hclearances.htm


Also, Stalin's push for industrialization.

http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1988/458814.shtml


As well as the decimation of American Indian populations to fulfill America's 'Manifest Destiny'.

http://www.nemasys.com/ghostwolf/Native/genocide.shtml



It is easy to rationalize any position that profits oneself and to discount arguments against. Every journey begins with a single small step, even ones that lead to atrocities.

We must seek to recognize the ramifications of our policies and positions with regards to their effects on our fellow men. Markets and political decisions do not exist in a vacuum.

I strongly urge the reassessment of the issue of Ethanol and the food supply. I truly believe this is a journey that will not end well.

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http://www.energybulletin.net/16544.html

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But the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee said higher food prices aren't all bad.

"Frankly, we have been underpricing our food in this country," said Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn. "What this fuel thing is going to do is cause us to re-price our food to some extent. So consumers are going to pay more, and in my opinion, they should be, because we've been subsidizing them."

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Do you feel you have been paying too little for food?

The first step on that journey has already begun.

[wisconsin_cur]

When I first started selling home raised eggs in 2006 I was charging 1.00 a dozen, the same price my mom charged in 1983! The price of corn has gone up so I ma now charging 1.5 to local customers and 2.00 for individuals in the Twin Cities (80 miles away... I am there for work a couple of times a week). On the specific question, yes, we pay too little for food.

On the larger question of ethics this is an issue that has occupied my mind for a few months. How many of my values are a result of cheap oil? I hold a number of things to be universal and uncompromisable... how have these opinions been shaped by the transient? Do I prepare now to act in such a way that I would reject today but tomorrow might find acceptable or even honorable?

To this point I have been able to handle the change of expectations that come with the end of cheap energy. I can deal with the changing expectations and lifestyle; I inhereited a distaste for the modern from my mother anyway so peak oil is a kind of gospel ("good news"). What I have emotional and intellectual difficulty navigating is the issue of my own faith and moral commitments. Perhaps I have always been a bit of a skeptic and PO is just the catalyst for this difficulty.

I am like a dog bred to fight who has accepted a Mennonite gospel of non-violence. Then sniffs the wind and realizes there are a lot of mean dogs in the neighborhood. My genetics, my upbringing say one thing. My faith says another.

I ain't got an answer on this one. Looking for some way to weave through I guess and somehow try to keep my sense of self intact.

[PraiseDoom]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', 'A')s I witness the varied responses globally to Post Peak Oil, I find myself more and more concerned about the ethical treatment of our fellow men in a time of profit and scarcity.