The Madness of the Global Food Industry

This is a great youtube clip with Helena Norberg Hodge talking about the need to localise food production and other economic activity.  She talks of rebuilding community and the local environment.:











Main points:

• There is a split between governments and their people
• Governments are pursuing an outdated economic model
• This economic formula says 'more trade' 'more foreign investment' 'more production for export'
• Governments implement local cuts while investing in the global economy
• There are local movements (permaculture, urban farms, farmers' markets) that shorten the distances, increase diversity of production
• The global food industry asks farmers to grow in larger and larger scale monocultures which leads to a loss of biodiversity and food waste (crops not of standard size are thrown away)
• More food per unit of land can be produced with small scale diversified local farming as well as more jobs.
• Locally grown food means cutting out waste (irradiation, preservatives, refrigeration, packaging ....)
• It's a case of reducing the ecological footprint while increasing productivity and increasing diversity and getting rid of toxic chemicals
• This appies to fisheries and forestry as well as agriculture
• The global economy with its long distances is responsible for the widening gap between rich and poor
• The issue is global versus local
• Small, slow and local is the way to go
• The globalisation of the food industry has led to the breakdown of communities and an escalation of energy consumption