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.