I’ve heard a lot of arguments lately for advancing agriculture in developing countries to end the hunger crisis. I agree, the global food economy is bonkers. Cash crops are produced in developing countries and exported to developed countries while the subsistence farmers go hungry.

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What’s that piece of advice from Jesus? Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, teach him to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.

It’s less a matter of teaching the proverbial fisherman to fish, or farmers to farm – it’s about slowing down a system that takes the fish and the crops right out from under them.

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I firmly believe that scaling back industrial agriculture in favor of small-scale, locally produced alternatives needs to happen now. Industrial agriculture depends on cheap fuel and government subsidies, and drives small farmers out of business.

On a per-acre basis, small farming is more efficient than the most pesticide-laden, oil-soaked ADM cropland in Kansas.

We need more small farmers in every corner of the world. Someday soon, the days of flying lettuce across continents will be over, and without a local infrastructure of food producers, we’re screwed.

Proponents of industrial agriculture argue that the world is too over-populated, and the global poor depend on big agriculture for grain production. Yes, there are a lot of hungry people in the world, but again, small-scale agriculture is simply more efficient. Driving African farmers out of business by flooding them with cheap grain imports may make economic “sense” from Wall Street’s perspective, but it’s a travesty from the point of view of the hungry abandoning their farms and forced into urban slums.

Read Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan and Bill McKibben for more.

(Report comment)

I've heard a lot of arguments lately for advancing agriculture in developing countries to end the hunger crisis. I agree, the global food economy is bonkers. Cash crops are produced in developing countries and exported to developed countries while the subsistence farmers go hungry.

(Report comment)

What's that piece of advice from Jesus? Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime.

It's less a matter of teaching the proverbial fisherman to fish, or farmers to farm – it's about slowing down a system that takes the fish and the crops right out from under them.

(Report comment)

(Report comment)

I firmly believe that scaling back industrial agriculture in favor of small-scale, locally produced alternatives needs to happen now. Industrial agriculture depends on cheap fuel and government subsidies, and drives small farmers out of business.

On a per-acre basis, small farming is more efficient than the most pesticide-laden, oil-soaked ADM cropland in Kansas.

We need more small farmers in every corner of the world. Someday soon, the days of flying lettuce across continents will be over, and without a local infrastructure of food producers, we're screwed.

Proponents of industrial agriculture argue that the world is too over-populated, and the global poor depend on big agriculture for grain production. Yes, there are a lot of hungry people in the world, but again, small-scale agriculture is simply more efficient. Driving African farmers out of business by flooding them with cheap grain imports may make economic "sense" from Wall Street's perspective, but it's a travesty from the point of view of the hungry abandoning their farms and forced into urban slums.

Read Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan and Bill McKibben for more.

(Report comment)