Food Free for All
Jacob Keary-Moreland, Lakehead Farm Club
Flipping through recent headlines, one may conclude we are either in the midst of a global extinction and climate emergency requiring revolution, or merely a #FakeNews Liberal Conspiracy, simply resolved by re-electing Trump and his acolytes.
As a thought experiment, let’s say the global scientific consensus is accurate.
What is the plan? In the absence of a comprehensive transition strategy and climate leadership at local and global levels, we are left to lead ourselves towards structural change.
The tens of thousands of scientists issuing annual warnings to humanity have outlined a few key areas in need of immediate transformation. For the purpose of this article, I’ll focus on food, which is deeply integrated within other key areas identified such as energy, economics, nature, pollutants, and population.
When we think of food systems transformations, some trends come to mind -- for starters, the movement towards plant-based diets and local organic food. Other proposed solutions involve the genetic engineering of lifeforms to supposedly produce more with less, increasing dependence on machines and killing sprays, soilless indoor grow-ops, and “lab-grown meat” and lab-grown everything.
Underpinning these movements is the idea that food is a commodity, to be produced for profit and sold in the free market. This proposition results in an often closed, competitive environment of corporate consolidation and big food monopolies -- patent-protected proprietary plans, plants, and planets. These movements do not directly address the reality that millions of people in this country, and billions around the world are currently experiencing food and water insecurity -- not because of shortages, but because of systemic economic and political inequality. Corporate led food movements do not challenge the root causes of hunger or ecological destruction because their primary motives are to maximize short term private profit.
Dare to imagine food as a public good and a foundational human right free for all. We can create a better, more sustainable society by making food universal, like we proudly aspire to for our healthcare and education.
What good is a school or hospital if you can’t afford to eat?
The revolution this ecological crisis demands is as much political as it is technical. To make food free for all, we must tap into our collective imagination to envision new realities and ways to get there. We need to democratize food production and put the interests of people and our planet over private profit. Remember when Wikipedia made hardcopy encyclopedias obsolete? Similarly, through open-source systems that encourage mass participation and collaboration, we can transform our food system to feed everyone while stabilizing and regenerating biodiverse life-supporting ecosystems.
Introducing… Wikifarm!
Agriculture has been so far spared from major disruptions caused by the so-called internet of things. As it stands, farmers are aging. There are fewer of them than ever, and farms are larger and more industrial. Overall, people’s participation in the food system is increasingly limited to consumer status, if at all, yet so many people want the power to grow the food they eat. Like Wikipedia, Wikifarm is a free site that anyone can visit, where user-generated content is free for all. My use of the content does not make it unavailable for you to use. Until such a point that Wikifarms can produce surpluses of food-content at zero-marginal cost, other valuable content can be generated abundantly and universally enjoyed, such as seeds for seed libraries, plants, clean air and water, relationships, art, culture, beauty, recreation, education, and holistic health.
Our community gardens on campus, in Orillia, can be conceived of like a Wikifarm. Presently, our student-led Lakehead Farm Club is seeking collaborators to co-generate and curate content for the use and appreciation of the entire community. Long term, we are imagining and growing towards a next-level Recreation, Research and Educational Farm (RREF) to avert planetary extinction and cultivate a fresh n’ free food future for all.
@LakeheadFC
