| This book reminds me of a great quote I heard at Slow Food Nation last summer. I forget who said it, but they said that nature doesn't work based on supply and demand. When we need more topsoil, the topsoil doesn't notice the demand and quickly increase its supply. In other words: using the laws of economics to try to govern nature is not a smart idea.
That's basically where this book starts off. It says:
The problems we face with respect to soil fertility, biodiversity, food quality, and local economies are not primarily problems of technology. They are problems of finance.
I've been saying for ages that we already know from a technological standpoint how to produce healthy food in a way that will benefit humans, animals, and the earth. And yet we don't do it. I usually then point the finger at money-grubbing corporations and the idiotic politicians who make the laws in their favor. I guess I'm basically saying the same thing this book says. So I look forward to reading any solutions it might propose to the problem.
Here's a part I particularly liked:
You wouldn't use a 747 to go to the corner store for a quart of milk. You wouldn't use a backhoe to plant a garlic bulb. You wouldn't use a factory to raise a pig. You wouldn't spray poison on your food. You wouldn't trade fresh food from family farms down the road for irradiated or contaminated or chemical-laden or weeks-old food from industrial farms halfway around the world...
The paragraph goes on and you just think to yourself, "Exactly!" But then, why do we do these things? If the premise of the book is correct, it's because of money.
What I find interesting is that I've noticed a correlation between obesity and the financial crisis for a while. We spent and spent and spent on credit for a long time, until the bubble burst. This allowed our companies to pay us less and ship jobs overseas without suffering the inevitable decline in demand because we have no more money with which to buy their stuff. And they also sell us more and more and more food even though it makes us fat to appease their need to have continual growth. And here we are. Broke and fat.
I'll write more on this book as I continue reading, but from a first impression I can easily say: I recommend Slow Money. |
