Mitigating Population Growth - A Small Step but Crucial Step

In the first chapter of Utopia, Milton discusses the move from farming to wool production in medieval England. Basically making large tracts of land into pasture and forcing all the inhabitants (who use to farm the land) to leave. This resulted in lots of homeless people and an increase in food prices.

Now somehow this got me thinking about our current global situation. In all of the discussions, not a lot is mentioned about population growth, or how the planet is going to continue to feed itself. We are going to have to keep eating, it has to come from somewhere. Do you know where your next meal is coming from?

My initial thoughts towards mitigating this problem begins with our lust for beef. I am not a vegetarian, I like beef, but cattle consume a lot of resources. There is a well cultivated, global demand for beef which ends up seeing third world nations producing beef for the first world, at very high environmental costs.

But you restrict something, you make it rare, it becomes a luxury item. This is something we need to avoid, instead, we have to adjust societies eating habits, but how? I can start with how not to, don't talk about diet and healthy eating because we don't want to hear any more about that! Instead, talk about independence.

That's right, independence. If you can make people see that to be environmentally responsible, have a healthy life, to change societies eating habits, we need to teach independence. Independence from commercial food providers and big box stores, free from driving to and fro to maintain the basic needs of yourself and family.

How can all this be accomplished? Being independent starts and ends at home. Regardless where you live, you can grow food. If you can produce even a fraction of your own food, you become that much more independent. From a pot on the windowsill to an acre of cultivation, everyone can grow food. Now it would be very difficult to ever grow all your own food, and we don't have to. Another thing to remember is that you don't have to be extreme to be independent, in fact, it works better if you are not. We all participate within the global socioeconomic structure until we transfer to a better economic system, we are basically stuck with capitalism. Whether we participate in this system or not, it will determine large parts of our life. It is better in this case to at least maintain a working knowledge of it all if not submit to active participation in the market economy. It is very difficult to change a system don't participate in.

Independence starts and ends in the home. If you reduce or eliminate the power a person or organization has over you, especially over where you live, you gain more independence. The farmers in England had no power to resist being kicked off the land as it was made into a pasture. We are going to have to pay taxes, and perhaps have a mortgage, we are never going to be fully independent (and if we are it is a lot of hard work).

Start the revolution now, plant a garden, grow some food at home.