Trust on the Farm

       Bell's concepts through chapter 10 suggest that developing and mobilizing our economy (or any economy) is all about trust. Trust in the knowledge that we ourselves obtain and trust in the knowledge of others. We must trust the information we are distributed if we hope to navigate through our system with an understanding of our surroundings.

     The trust that we place in each other to maintain and protect our environment is one of the most important trust we as people can have for one another. The way one treats the environment has direct effects not only on those who may live in their community but everyone who is dependent on the same resources we are. Things like using water, gases and other natural resources have an environmental effect on the entire world. This effect and trust can rightly be applied largely to the agriculture setting and how farmers utilize and preserve land.

     The struggle between conventional and sustainable practices in farming all stem from trust when it comes to farmers making such a drastic decision. Farmers rely on their crops and herds to make a living. The more product they can put out at a decent quality the more profit they will make. I grew up in a small farm town where nearly everyone was, in some way, connected to a local farm. In most cases generations of families all lived within about a mile of one another where they could all fulfill their duties on the family farmers. Generations for men grew up taking over the farmland and animal stock as their fathers and grandfathers grew too old to continue in the production. The knowledge of farming isn't something you learn in the classroom. It's learned through hands on experience working on the farm and following what your parents and grandparents instruct you to do. Farmers have instilled trust in their elders and grow constantly utilizing the knowledge they have obtained from their elders. The trust they have in the knowledge they have gathered allows them to trust their work and themselves to produce a good product. This trust the farmers have in their families past generations of work and one another leads an entire community to place trust upon them from food and to preserve our environment the best they can.

     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dKUhUN5Yx4

     Trusting in your past generations and your production to gain a living is a wonderful thing. But what happens when something out of a farmers control goes bad? What happens when there is no production due to lack of resources or their land is too nutrient deprived to sustain crops?  
This is when farmers have to consider making that shift from their conventional values grown through generations to sustainable farming that will allow them to gain profit and keep their farm and production alive. This structures the economy, environment, personal beliefs and be placed on the same playing field when deciding between conventional and sustainable farming.
  

"We do not act in our own interests when we act in our own interests"

"The Tragedy of the Commons", it sounds like a play from Shakespeare or some sort of soap opera, but in fact it is a biological and sociological concept.

Bell sums up the idea best when he talks about a plot of land owned by an entire village where everyone's sheep are allowed to graze. The idea is that a farmer realizes he can increase his flock, while at the same time every other farmer also realizes he or she can increase his or her flock. All the farmers increase their flock, there is not enough grass, the resources dry up, sheep die, and the farmers all wind up with less than they had to start with. As Bell states, "We do not act in our own interests when we act in our own interests".

The Tragedy of the Commons is not an idea that has no implications elsewhere. Bell describes a term called The Dialogue of Solidarities. The basic idea is that "sentimental commitments" can lead to a promotion of interests, even if the parties involved do not know that such a phenomenon is occurring. That flies right in the face of the "rational actor model" discussed in The Tragedy of the Commons. Sentiments can possibly promote interests, but do not reduce them. In basic terms it is the idea that people can have sentimentality towards one another and develop trust that each party will do what is necessary to satisfy the interests of each other.

The question then becomes, can we just have a dialogue of solidarities with other people? The answer is no. There are things besides other people that have interests and have a connection with interests of our own. Copy and paste the link since Youtube has decided it does not want anyone to see this video apparently:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6vr48K3AeTc
The basic idea is that we rely on trees to breath and control the climate, and the trees rely on us to not destroy their natural habitats. There is a Dialogue of Solidarity between humanity and trees, the speaking part just lies exclusively with the human side.

It's All About Trust

I encourage you to evaluate the ideas that Bell discusses in this half of Chapter 10. Especially, because we are college students and we are surrounded by the same group of people and environment for four years. How is it possible to share this common ground, yet still provide enough resources for each individual person? Bell presents the question .... "How do we get that togetherness together?" This question of course, just like any other, has obstacles it must overcome. One of these being, The Tragedy of the Commons. Garret Hardin explains that this theory is the idea that commonly owned resources are doomed to fail. This is because humans are greedy and only pursue what is in their best interest. Take the example of cattle grazing on common land (while herders are trying to make the most profit). It is expected that the once the grounds become thin, herdsmen are going to add more cattle in attempt to bring their profit back up. This will create a domino affect: everyone's sheep will eventually die off, you will end up with less sheep then you started with, the ground will erode and is  now unable to support the environments surroundings and therefore, economic damage will occur.

Nevertheless, Bell argues a good point - this is not so much a problem of collective ownership but more a problem on the individual level. So would it not make more sense to call this, Tragedy of Individualism? Stepping back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, people are going to consume what they want based on their own self interests, what is most important for them to survive - that being basic needs such as food or if it is safety needs (doing what they can to put a house over their heads).

So lets get back to the main question here, how do we get people to come together to make our economy work? We all have certain values and or beliefs that make us interested in specific things.  Bell says, interests promotes sentiments. Just like the example of the Lion and Androcles, where they spared one another's lives because they knew what it was like to be hurt and alone. They made this decision based on their pure self-interest. And because they learned to rely on each other they shared a sense of commitment to common norms of social behavior. Bell would define this phenomenon as, complementary.

While I was reading this I kept referring back to Phi Mu and the living circumstances we are encaged in. How is there enough hot water to go around for 47 girls everyday? How are we suppose to get our laundry done with only 3 washers and dryers - which 50% of the time one is always broken? Not only are the resources scarce, but what about our personalities?! How do they mix? There are always issues of space in complementary action. We cannot keep track of each other 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We cannot keep track of who needs to clean up what or whose food is whose. So we require one thing ... trust.

My sisters and I are bonded by similar values and beliefs.  They may not all be carried out the in the same manner or even the beliefs we have at home might not be similar to my neighbor on the second floor. However, we all have affection towards one another and a sense of common commitments to common norms. These could be donating our time to serve others, being there for our sisters when they need to be cheered up ... we know what it is like to be in one another's shoes depending on the situation. And in that sense, we are individuals that come together as one. We complement each other in ways that are hard to explain. We rely on trust. Trust not only allows us to be best friends, sisters, and most importantly family, but it is also what makes our chapter so successful.

Risky Business

After reading this chapter you might be questioning whether you should ever get into a car or eat a hamburger ever again.  At least that's what I was thinking.  I do agree with Ulrich Beck that we have become what you could call a "risk society."
 We partake in many activities even though there is a large risk associated with them.

1. Driving/riding in cars
2. Swimming in shark infested oceans
3. Skydiving
4. Skiing
5. Eating Hamburgers (mad cow disease sounds terrible)
6. Mountain Climbing

  The list goes on and on.....

So my question is WHY?  Why do people continue to do things that they know are risky to the point of possible death?  Why in the world do people decide to free climb a mountain with no safety harnesses.  (I get scared just thinking about it.)
 The national risk assessment says that we shouldn't be so foolish as a society.  But is it really foolish to partake in activities that we enjoy?  Would it be more foolish to live a life never having taken risks?  I think so.  Life's only worth living if you take the occasional risk that makes you feel alive.  So are we really a foolish society?  I don't think so..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H46iBP_8Nc  ( I couldn't upload this from youtube, but it's a really interesting ted talk so you should watch it!!)

-Georgia

Stop! Collaborate! Listen!

Today we finished reading Richard Reed's Forest Dwellers, Forest Protectors, in which he describes the lives of a group of indigenous agroforesters who lives in Paraguay and Brazil.

 

These agroforesters have been able to do quite well for themselves. While they have maintained loose connection with the Western industrial Market - they buy goods to help them with their labor, and they sell good to earn some extra money on the side - they have still been able to maintain very much of their culture and traditions. This, in the world of today, is a shocker.

Because the Guarani are argoforesters who use several useful farming techniques, they are able to keep the forest in which they live alive and healthy. They don't use more than they need, and they live in coexistence with nature. Did I mention they make a surplus, and can have enough food to feed their families, with extra to share with other locals?

I read or heard once that indigenous hunter/gatherer societies worked less than Modern Western societies do, and they have more time for fun and games later. They get to spend more time with their families, and they usually have enough to get by.

 

Americans, I think, work more and enjoy less. Office Space is an example of art imitating life. Are we really happy with ourselves? I think it's an appropriate time for a Vanilla Ice quote:

"Stop Collaborate and Listen!"

Perhaps it's time we stop what we are doing as a society, collaborate with each other on sustainable means to solve our community's problems, and listen to one another for effective means to solve these problems. The Guarani provide one example that leads me to believe that the answers to the problems we face in our day-to-day lives may be in our back yard. Or someone else's backyard many many miles away in South America.

Agroforestry

Before we can get started on agroforestry, we need to address the question, "What is agroforestry?"

Now that we have a basic idea of what agroforestry is, lets look into its pros.

It seems common sense to grow what is native to the land, yet we seem to have molded our culture around growing mass crops more for their quantity, rather than their quality. Profit has become more important than the product.

Here's a preview of how to implement agroforestry into your farm:

We Want More PSLs

While reading about the Guaraní people, naturally I began to compare our culture and theirs. If you have been doing the readings you may realize how hard that is. In America, we get upset if the season changes and we can no longer order the Pumpkin Spice Latté at Starbucks while the Guaraní people actually have a season where many of their people go without corn and beans for months...oh and without Pumpkin Spice Lattés. This is called the karuvaí or also know as the hunger season. After this season is over, the Guaraní have religious gathering and initiation rites. During this time, the religious leader announces the new children and praises them as well as they recognize and appreciate the corn initiating both into the community. 

How interesting is it that we live such different lives and value such different things than these people? While thinking of things in the American culture to compare to the Guaraní culture, I focused on foods we value. I came to the conclusion that many Americans seem to value the huge feast we all prepare for on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if you're anything like my
family you prepare it at home and bring it to to Grandma's ready to eat. I leave you all with one question..what is something your family values greatly and celebrates every year? It can be anything. 

PERMAnent agriCULTURE

An example of agroforestry

In the forests of Paraguay, the Guaraní people participate in a holistic way of life which values productivity, ecological diversity, and sustainability. This way of life is also known as agroforestry, which is a system that integrates tree crops with cash crops, food crops, animal raising, foraging, fishing, hunting, and trapping. As described by Richard Reed in “Forest Dwellers, Forest Protectors”, the Guaraní’s choice to employ this agroforestry system allows them to participate in the global market but does not tie them to it. This is to say that while they have the freedom to purchase food and goods, they do not rely on these items to survive. Their survival, instead, lies in the successes of their gardens and their hunting, trapping, fishing, and foraging skills. Each man and woman has all that they need to thrive in their own backyard, so to speak.

Suburban permaculture

While the positive prospects of agroforestry are many, the question remains: can we, as Americans, employ a similar system successfully within our own culture? Although it seems unlikely that we will be able to completely separate ourselves from the bonds that we have formed between ourselves and the capitalist market within our lifetimes, there are steps that we can take to at least mimic the ways of the Guaraní.
The answer to our question, posed above, may lie in a movement which has already taken hold on a small scale within our society: permaculture. The word “permaculture” was coined in the mid seventies and it derived from the words PERMAnent agriCULTURE. In short, permaculture can be defined as an ecological design system which aims for sustainability in all aspects of human life. It teaches us how to design natural homes and abundant food production systems, regenerate degraded landscapes and ecosystems, develop ethical economies and communities, and much more by following nature’s own patterns.

Urban Permaculture

In its ideal form, permaculture encompasses the cultivation of a relationship between domestic and wild animals in the effort to encourage success within the sustainable ecosystem as well as in the garden. It also focuses on rainwater harvesting, watershed restoration, incorporating heirloom (non-GMO) plant varieties, the natural building of the community, and waste management. Although, typically, permaculture does not facilitate a total break from the market, it does, in fact, decrease the dependency of an individual on capitalistic commodities.
At this point, if you’re thinking that the establishment of a self-sustaining garden in your backyard is impossible, think again. Check out this video of a man in Seattle who will prove that growing what you need to survive is possible, even in a relatively small space: 

  Permaculture can be successful in both the suburbs and the city. If these people can do it, what’s your excuse? Despite the fact that the prospect of agroforestry being a prevailing system within my lifetime or yours seems unlikely, there are steps that you can take in order to make your life a more free, sustainable, and fulfilling one. So get up, plant something! Be proactive, be the change!

~Carly

May the Odds Be Ever in Their Favor

The year is 3050, and the time has finally arrived. It's everyone's favorite part of the year: the 84^th annual Hunger Games. You enter the arena confidently: after all, you have a solid Hanover College education, about $700 in your bank account, and you're in, like, the greatest sorority ever (shout-out to my sisters watching at home). “You're fine, you've got this,” you think.. Until you see the competition. It's a 20 year-old member of the Guarani community. This is about the time you start thinking that you hope he takes credit cards or will trade 35 used text books for a chance to live. Otherwise, you're screwed. That's that. I don't know how to trap my own food. I don't know how to fight, and I don't run fast. In this setting, these are the things that matter. However, these are not the things that my life in rural North America has taught me because these are not the things we value. We often mistakenly use our title as Americans interchangeably with “better.” Because we are “civilized,” we MUST be better than a tribe in the rainforest. However, while their definitions of good/bad, important/useless, edible/inedible vary from ours, that does not make ours better. There are so many things that our culture could learn from theirs, if only we could admit that.



There were so many things in this chapter that stood out to me about the Guarani way of life. One of them was their independence. Because of the farming and hunting abilities within the communities, they are able to operate completely autonomously from market systems. They know that they can grow or catch what they need to survive, so buying from retailers is an option that they avoid when they are unhappy with prices. I don't know of anyone who can do this. (In fact, while reading this chapter, the closest comparison that I could make with the Guarani tribe was Wendell Berry. I then realized how strange it is that Wendell Berry has received years of national publicity and praise for choosing to do with his life what every Guarani man and woman has been doing for generations.) The importance of their economic independence is that they have not become slaves to the market. While people in the Global North may feel sympathy for these people for being constrained by the forest or for lacking our level of freedom, we voluntarily lock on the handcuffs of society and capitalism every time we purchase at Walmart what we could have grown in our own backyards.

The second thing that interested me about the Guarani culture was that one third of the daylight hours are spent "resting, relaxing, and socializing" (52). As a North American college student always striving for more (just like I've been taught and told to do), I feel fortunate if I interact with people for more than 30 minutes between 8 am and 10 pm. The Guarani people are able to spend so much of their day socializing because that is something that their culture values. Yes, there is emphasis placed on success and production, but what are the benefits of these things if there are no friends with whom to share them?

This summer, I had the privilege of volunteering with an organization in the Peruvian Amazon called crees. This organization serves two purposes: one is to research the rainforest's biodiversity in order to gauge the rainforest's ability to regenerate after deforestation (which, it has been concluded, is almost fully). The second goal of the organization is to improve the lives of the forest's inhabitants. Given permission by the homeowner, the organization plants gardens in yards and teaches civilians how to grow food and tend to their garden. A second part of this community education focuses on agroforestry, which is something that the Guarani seem to have perfected. However, not everyone is as knowledgeable about the rainforest as the Guarani. As the chapter stated, the rainforest actually has very infertile soil and in order to reap its benefits, a worker of the land must know how to interact with nature rather than against it. Unfortunately, many people in the forest do not know how and are not willing to learn, preferring to continue planting unprofitable banana trees than to integrate more profitable plants, such as hardwood trees, into their agroforestry plots. The following video shows Reynaldo, a crees employee, practically begging his fellow forest dwellers to practice agroforestry and choose to live in harmony with the nature around them, much like the Guarani have been doing for centuries.



Can the Guarani Tribe Teach Us (United States) a Lesson?

Throughout the entire reading I noticed one common theme that really stuck out to me, the importance of kinship in the Guarani tribe. Kinship is different from family in the fact that kinship involves a person's extended family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) rather than just brothers, sisters and parents. Kinship decided where people could live, it's seen in the politics of the tribe, the religion of the tribe, and even the economics of the tribe. What really struck me about the importance of kinship was how they relied on each other very heavily in the food exchange system. Everyone holds everyone accountable to feed each other in the tribe. If you give someone rice one week, the week after, you'll most likely get something in return, and its an ongoing cycle. Which leads me to the question, do they have it figured out better than we do?

It was made clear that the Guarani tribe wastes no food. Each member will strategically harvest one food item, while the others harvest other important food items. Although they do harvest in large quantities they share the abundance with each other so no food is wasted. Should this be something we turn to, if possible? America has turned agriculture into just another corporation. Farming is no longer about feeding yourself and family. Its about mass production and making the most money from all of the products that you produce. We cannot seem to feed our own country efficiently with the abundance of food we produce, so maybe we should try the other extreme, the Guarani food exchange system. Radical? Yes. Efficient? Again, yes.

In the video above we are given the evidence of just how wasteful Americans are with food. I believe that the Guarani tribe gives us a good way to think about food. Yes, we can produce it in abundance, but let's make it worth it. I believe small communities in this nation could realistically adopt this method between farmers, but it's the willingness that I'm not sure about. Nevertheless, it was nice to see some alternate ideas about food, kinship, and taking care of one another just because it's expected of you. We have lost that in this nation.

Stuffing or Yerba - We're Not That Different

Avatar, one of my favorite movies in which a human assimilates into a foreign alien culture while his fellow man attempts to destroy the unfamiliar yet profitable land, might be the best representation of our author, Richard Reed, and his journey to the Guarani community of Itanarami. And just like the Navi people of Pandora in James Cameron’s Avatar, the indigenous people of Itanarami have lived for years in peace, working within their sustainable resources, and whether those tactics employ agroforestry or a neurological bond with the environment, the underlying lessons still resonate.

Reed continues by foreshadowing the looming possibility of an environmentally bland, urbanized, and dim future for the communities of the Guarani people in Itanarami. The ethnocide taking place in South America is another story which parallels our class discussions in which those in power exploit the naive indigenous populations. And in this video we can see the dull lives of those forced from the forest.  

Our author then spends the majority of the first chapter discussing the innervations that familial connections have throughout religion, social structure, economics, and spatial living arrangements. And although the Guarani world seems distant from the hustle and bustle of Wall Street, this indigenous community embodies our basic human nature. Think of a world in which our family exists as our only form of trade and socialization. The realization that a transaction requires more than money and profit, but rather feelings of an emotional connectedness, creates an unwritten agreement between the people of Guarani communities. Imagine your family’s Thaknsgiving coming up in which every family will bring something to benefit the whole; whether it be Aunt Kathie’s homemade stuffing, or my cousin’s perfect mashed potatoes, every family member has their role in the occasion. And in my family, my eldest and only living grandmother will lead us in prayer, be the first to eat, and will be catered to throughout the day, while the kids eat at a smaller table, and wait their turn. Fast forward to Christmas in which gifts are exchanged, and maybe an elder uncle offers his advice like the man who taught his nephew against domestic violence. Our lives do not deviate much from the traditions of the Guarani, and considering the social constructs that govern our closest relationships it is not surprising that we stay close to our families, and willingly share our possessions to benefit our loved ones. Therefore, if these interactions are derived from our humanistic mind which seems to transcends societal pressure based on our familial organization, the next step is realizing our intrinsic relationship with nature, and allowing those feelings to surface again, giving us a connection to earth like the people of Guarani have.     

Trapped Between Two Worlds

The Guarani people have been interacting with the outside world for hundreds of years. For many of these years, the Guarani people and the people outside their tribe traded ideas and goods freely. The Guarani people were able to find goods and food in the vast forests. They could use these goods to trade for other items they may need like tools.

However, after years of good interactions, the native people are losing their land to outside groups. The forests that they depend on are being destroyed at an alarming rate. The people are shoved onto small reservations. These reservations directly conflict with the Guarani ideas of community. The native people prefer to live in homes that have only the immediate family and possibly an elderly parent. When the people are placed on small reservations, they are not given the space they had grown up living with.

Since the Guarani people are losing their land, how are they going to survive? Is the government helping them? In the short video, a shaman pleads for help for his people.

The standard organization of the Guarani people is changing. Many native people across the world, however this group has been able to interact with outside people for years. Now, unfortunately, the interactions are less friendly.