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There is a food revolution happening. It is louder, bigger, and more important that any other movement to date.
Yet, most of us are not seeing this protest for what it is, mainly because we are disconnected to the very thing that keeps us alive.
We see food as Styrofoam/plastic wrapped little bundles in the store, or as things put on the produce shelves by Whole Food elves – we reach for jars and tins of prepared food by our favourite brands and labels – we buy neatly carved meat, fresh filleted fish, just laid eggs…we grab them all off the shelves of convenient grocery stores. But do we ever stop to think how it got there?
This utter loveliness was provided to hundreds of millions of businesses that thrive under the blanket of farmers. Farmers are paid the least amount of dollars and yet they are the only ones betwixt life and death for all.
No Farmers No Food. If we do not resist, rebel and revolt right now, while we still have food to eat then the consequences are unimaginable.
Hunger is not a trifle matter, it gnaws in the gut, it weakens our resolve and it brings on starvation if not satisfied. Starvation kills, we can all die.
Dire as it may sound, it is exactly where we are heading if we do not treat this total disregard of farmers as something that affronts our sense of right or wrong. Anger, not apathy, is needed to move this revolution into the foreground of our minds. We must act by raising up our voices.
Hunger and starvation is one and the same and it is happening in many countries around the world. It is a tough topic so we avoid it. I get that. Unfathomable millions around the world are living in refugee camps under the most abhorrent of conditions. Sick and starving children and parents and grandparents are featured daily in the media
This food revolution is about a worldwide hunger rapidly approaching in our global horizon. Maybe if we all act now, everyone on the planet can eat again.
The farmers protesting in India are rebelling against three new laws that will take away any shred of a minimum price guarantee (MSP) they may have from the government. Without an MSP in place, the farmers will be subjected to the greed of the rich and shady – richer landowners, grocery cartels, crooked government workers (bribes). Without a basic living income, what will keep farmers farming? How can they possibly farm a crop without the money to buy the necessary supplies, to feed their families, to pay the bribery and the taxes that will be demanded of and imposed upon them?
These laws are worded in such a way that most of us in the west will look at the words and think it is in the better interest of the farmers…but please look beyond the wording:
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act – in theory, anyone can buy their (the farmers) product at a mutually agreed price. In reality there will never be a mutually agreed price between a money shark and a poor working farmer.
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act – in theory, farmers can do contract farming and marketing on their own. In reality, millions of poor small farmers are now thrown under the crushing wheels of a crooked government.
The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act is an amendment to the existing Essential Commodities Act – in theory, it frees up essentials (food grains, pulses, oils etc.) to trade except in crisis situations. In reality, let the price gouging by the food cartels begin, except when they are shoved aside by the government to take it free of charge in “crisis” situations.
“In the past, when Indian agricultural workers have protested for fair prices and working conditions, the Indian government has responded with violent crackdowns that include documented torture, human rights abuses, and extrajudicial killings…keep an eye out because that is coming” CNN World News.
If we cannot connect to the farmers protest happening far away in India, it means we are complicit in our upcoming shortages on rice, spices, cotton, medicinal ingredients. It means we are complicit in the millions of suicides to come in India, and around the world.
This food revolution is happening everywhere, look at our own backyard here in British Columbia. There are activists and politicians shutting down fish farms right here, right now. The same fish farms that provide jobs for thousands of British Columbians, the same fish farms that provide food for millions of people, the same fish farms that contribute millions upon millions to our economy.
Our fish farmers, including these young farmers below, are protesting this atrocity too, but very few people are listening.
Not until it is too late will we all wonder why we are releasing billions of salmon into the ocean for pirates to net up and ship off to their countries.
It will be too late when the very same activists and politicians admit they were wrong, when there are no fish, farmed or wild, for ceremonial purposes or for the marketplaces.
It will be too late when Canada, the country with the longest coastline and the best fish farming practices have to purchase subpar fish from the United States. Which is highly improbable – solely based on the fact that there will be little funds available for such trivial matters as fish for ceremonial or food-security purposes.
Shutting down fish farms in the Discovery Islands is just the beginning according to the activists. Right now they are ramping up, while bloated on their “success”, to take on all fish farms.
Our food is under attack. Our farmers are being assailed from all sides. In India, farmers are protesting for their very livelihoods…so they can continue to feed the world. Despite the potential violence to come raining down upon their heads from the Indian Government, they continue to protest. What happens to these farmers will happen to all farmers, in India and around the world.
Meanwhile here in British Columbia, farmers are already reeling from the decisions made by our duplicitous politicians and vengeful activists. For all intents and purposes, according to most, the die is cast, the decision is set in the stone. Read Beyond the decision to close salmon farms in the Discovery Islands
I strongly disagree. We, along with the farmers in India, must continue to protest for our right to eat, for their right to grow food. We must join this food revolution to secure a starvation-free future for everyone on the planet.
Humans are known to be self-destructive, we will tear down the very things that make us better…we have:
Anti-vaxxers in the middle of a pandemic who do not want the medicines farmers grow, while the majority of us are begging farmers to keep growing valuable ingredients for medicines.
Vegetarians who believe their carnivorous dogs have a right to be vegetarians too, so their demand is all protein farmers must cease and desist immediately.
Vegans revolting to shut down dairy farms, because they believe the entire world, every culture, can survive on tofu and avocados…that only a few farmers grow.
Paid anti-fish farms activists padding their own pockets while they trample upon the heads of a people already subsisting on the fringe of poverty. These people the activists are using are not poverty stricken, they are beyond poverty…they are in need of fresh water in a land of ‘the most fresh water on the planet’. They are in need of healthcare in land that prides itself on ‘free healthcare for all’. They are in need of economic freedom in a land that makes others rich…the paid activists are getting richer…but not our First Nations peoples.
There is a war between farmers wanting to grow food, and politicians living out of the pockets of the rich.
There is a war between concerned citizens, and governments who turn a blind eye to the future of food.
There is a war between ideologists and realists, where the former are tearing down food industries faster than the latter can pick up the pieces, much less repair and rebuild our food-future.
Join the food revolution, we must stop this war against farmers. We have to revolt against the powers that be, drop the slogan No Farmers No Food and yell our heads off for More Farmers More Food!