Patterns of Destruction.
Indigenous people have an innate skill that could offer them an advantage over the rest of us, modern westerners. The lack of this skill leaves some of us highly vulnerable to being lied to, exploited or harmed for profit and third party gain.
This lifesaving skill is the ability to read patterns and work with principles rather than rely upon instructions, prescriptions and a blind faith that some new technology will have all the answers.
I believe this is why traditional cultures have proven to be the best custodians of intact nature and have exceptional levels of health and vitality.
As holistic managers, we strive to reintegrate these lost skills and ways of looking at the world. We work with frameworks, principles and watch for patterns emerging in the natural systems with which we work.
Most modern westerners operate from a rational and mechanistic mindset. This is sensible and appropriate when working with actual machines, mathematics, architecture or engineering, but sadly we applied the same logic to health and the management of our land.
Human bodies and natural systems do not work like machines – they are complex, self-organising and dynamic living systems that work perfectly when the ecology is in balance.
Trying to ‘fix’ or control the outcomes of such systems by using an instruction manual leads to severe consequences.
Those who wish to exploit these living systems have a big marketing job to do. But they have a lot of expertise in that department and seemingly limitless financial resources with which to pursue it!
They have first to convince you that the natural system is just like a machine and can be understood by separating and studying the parts in very clever and advanced ways.
They then must convince you that the natural system is inferior to their products, and to apply them successfully the environment must be sterilised, quantified and controlled. In the case of food production their ‘big job’ looks something like this;
They say;
”Land is simply geology and chemistry, you see. All we need to grow our food is a medium to hold up a plant and the right cocktail of inputs. But, to make the best use of this resource, we need to tackle the messiness and inconsistencies. This resource works best when it’s fully understood and completely under control.
We can use science to achieve highly efficient and productive agriculture. And thank goodness we have modern technology and scientific advances because this is the only way to feed our rapidly growing population.
This is a looming emergency.
We have some useful tools for you to use to make your land easier to control. These are of course, expensive and do need quite a lot of fossil fuels to make and run, but it’s the only way we can feed the world.
This is an emergency, after all.
Now your soil is sterile and a consistent medium for growth, we need to add the fertility that your plant requires to grow a bumper yield. Yes, this is an energy-hungry process involving many fossil fuels and specialist equipment. But this is modern agriculture; we need to step up our technological advances if we are going to meet the challenge of feeding humanity.
This is an emergency, after all.
We have bred some specialist plants for you to use. These are highly productive and profitable when used with additional artificial fertilisers.
It turns out the ‘super plants’ are a bit vulnerable to pests, but that’s okay because our top chemists have created a way of protecting them. So, yes, we do own the patent on the plants but that’s because these specialist plants are genetically modified to be better than anything nature can create. Thank goodness we have such clever technology.
Especially in an emergency like this.
What our scientists have now learned is that some weeds have evolved variants that can get around the pesticides you are using to protect your super plants. We have an advanced solution for this, and top scientists have blended the most promising properties of all the different pesticides to increase their toxicity and effectiveness. We can beat these weeds.
We have had reports of some farms seeing a reduction in yield. Our specialist teams have found a solution for this. If you increase the artificial fertilisers by 100%, you see an increased yield benefit of 10%. We encourage farmers to step up to the challenge of increasing yield; only technology will feed the growing population.
This is an emergency, so we must use all the available tools.
Yes, the environmental and financial cost of the equipment, the herbicides, the seed for the plants, the artificial fertilisers, the protective pesticides and the highly specialist harvesting methods are increasing. Beating nature so we can feed the world is a technical and expensive business!
No, sorry, you can’t save the seed just because you are on the edge of bankruptcy. We own the patent, and that must be protected at all costs. We will also take legal action against those in possession of our super plants who ‘claim’ they hybridised naturally with their heritage plants. Suggestions that this hybridisation has damaged the heritage plants underlying immunity is not supported in the scientific literature, and we accept no liability.
We need to feed the world; strict action is required. This is an emergency.
There have been reports of some farmers committing suicide because of debt, which is regrettable. In response, we encourage farmers to educate themselves on being more efficient and profitable when using our products.
Those claiming to have been poisoned by the pesticides must ensure they are following the manufacturer’s instructions. Our Science team have done extensive trials in our world-leading laboratories and found zero health risk for the proper use of these products. They are safe and effective. We will release the results in due course.
We all have to accept there will inevitably be a few minor casualties. However, this loss must be suffered for the greater good of humanity.
This is a food crisis and an emergency.”
The above narrative has become familiar to many of us working in food sustainability over the last decade.
There is a simple and highly profitable formula put into play.
Create a problem. Offer a profitable solution. Ensure the solution makes the original problem worse or creates a new problem. Offer a new or more advanced and even more profitable solution. And on and on….
When the C19 health emergency burst onto our scenes in early 2020, alarm bells started to ring. My preference – along with my husband Stephen Grindrod, our kids and a quiet but supportive minority – was to sit back and watch, to trust in our principles and intuition.
There was a pattern emerging. Can you see it too?
Caroline Grindrod x