Discuss: The Era of Small and Many

It seems that we have hit a tipping point in agriculture and what is starting to happen is good.
In my neighborhood are many Amish farms which are smallish 60 acres and the John Deer reproduces itself
and runs on grass and oats. Most of my Amish neighbors are growing and selling to regional supermarket chains
and a bit in their front yard stands to passers by. Smaller towns are starting to have farmers markets twice a week.
Madison, WI which is a city of half a million has a mammoth Farmers Market all years that literally surrounds
the state capitol.

Not only the Amish but a few English farmers are serving local markets in some major cities here in the Upper Midwest.
Madison, WI, St. Paul, MN, Rochester, MN and much more. People are starting to demand good food rather than the
usual stuff we have had for the past 70 years.

A major concern I have is the fact that 40 years ago most of the farms in my neighborhood were 160 acres. Today they are 800+
Most of the infrastructure of these 160 acre farms was bulldozed and burned. So, here we are with destroyed farmsteads and like
much of our mess we probably will have to rebuild farm structures and homes if we can afford to and have the resources? Our rail
systems are in the same mess. So, good things are starting to happen but it will take a lot of work. The Amish are leading the way
in my opinion.

And we probably need a shift in mindset about work, Jeff, if we’re going to survive. Or maybe not so much about work, but about money (as has been discussed elsewhere in response to articles Orion has published) about money and entitlements, actually. If we look at everything in terms of energetic exchanges, then we can interrogate ourselves about this subject. Certain work continues to be demeaned and certainly not paid for; this is often work that builds/creates (teaching, homemaking, child care, some of the healing arts, to name a few), whereas work that is destructive—destructive of life-support systems and human psyche/heart—often tends to be very well paid. So, I’m curious to know when you say “if we can afford to and have the resources,” what kinds of things are you picturing as barriers?

Here’s a parallel conversation coming out of the world of marketing and business. The end of the mass market….

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/kBZkwjOypSo/please-consider-weird.html

Love reading both!

Bill Leahy,

Thank you for posting that link. Interesting item! Brings up a question: With what kinds of goods is going customized likely to work—or work best? Food is one thing as is medicine (or herbs) customized to meet the needs of a specific person. But I’m not sure it can be done as well with something like autos, because of the safety and emissions regulations.

I’m not familiar with either Mr. McKibben nor with the Orion zine. This article is thin as a veil yet just enough to inspire folks to think small and yet big. It’s nice to read good news.

It’s good to read articles like this, in the stew of bad news we generally get. But he does end with a somewhat ominous implication. We can change too late. My worry is that while we’re going to move towards the small and the many, it might look more like the fractured world of the Dark Ages, which basically boiled down to rule by local strongmen, the subjugation of the weak, and constant warfare. It could be easy to see people, in chaotic and insecure times, going to alternative power structures, like gangs, militias, and the Mafia, and that bodes none too well for liberty and democracy.

This is why it is essential that we heed such warnings and calls to action as this article makes. I am disturbed to see most people, willfully or not, remaining blind to it, sitting on their hands, doing nothing

I’m re-reading McKibben’s article again as the Colorado Senate seeks to turn over all oversight of oil and gas to the state commission, thus cutting out local people from the decision making process.  But, the “small” in my part of the state (South Park) are vocal, active and incredibly well informed. And they are howing!!!