Agri-industrial complex is on the way out, activist says

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on August 17, 2007

Americans are becoming disenchanted with industrial agriculture and turning more to farmers markets and locally produced food, said author and activist Bill McKibben.

He gave the keynote address at the annual conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association at Hampshire College. The conference, which attracted 1,350 people last weekend, focuses on everything from biodiesel to cheesemaking to worm composting.

"Farmers markets are the fastest growing part of our food economy, growing at 12 to 15 percent a year," said McKibben. "They're growing a lot faster than Wal-Mart."

He compared industrial agriculture to the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. "It's rotting from within, relying on subsidies from a central government and waiting for a shove to collapse," he said. "It can't continue to rely on cheap fossil fuels."

Life expectancy may begin to fall for the first time in the United States because of problems brought on by unhealthy food, McKibben said.

"Industrial agriculture has ruined rural communities, caused environmental damage, and left us a nation of puffy people," he said.

Farmers markets offer more than quality food, McKibben said. Social scientists have found that people who buy food there have 10 times as many conversations with people as they do at supermarkets, he said.

"That's how people have shopped forever," he said. "They've seen their friends and talked about themselves. It appeals to something deep inside us."

The number of Americans who report they are satisfied with their lives has declined every year since World War II, despite growing affluence, he said. The reason is "a loss of connection with each other," he said.

His comments about farmers markets were good news to hundreds of organic farmers, who practice a form of agriculture that has moved from the fringe to the mainstream. But McKibben said climate change restrains his enthusiasm.

Flooding in England and South Asia this summer has been accompanied by the warmest July on record in the western U.S., he said. Last week there was a deluge and a tornado in New York City, and some scientists fear that by 2020 there could be no ice left in the Arctic, he said.

These and other weather phenomena have accompanied a 1-degree increase in the worldwide temperature, he said. But the consensus of computer models is for another 5-degree increase this century, which could cause a 20-foot increase in sea level, he said.

"It's truly depressing that our political system hasn't reacted," he said. "We haven't begun to take steps to address these problems. We need to figure out how to spark a transformation from a fossil-fuel economy to one the world can live with. It's not the technology that's lacking; it's the political will."

This year's conference at Hampshire College is addressing climate change and how farmers can "survive the crazy weather patterns," said co-coordinator Julie Rawson, of Barre.

Many of the 215 workshops are designed to help people learn how to change their habits and consume fewer nonrenewable resources, she said.

"A surprising amount of energy is used in the food system, from farming to transportation to marketing," said co-coordinator Jack Kittredge, of Barre.

"We have taken the initiative to push for reducing energy use in food."

Friday's workshops ranged from peak oil's impact on agriculture to tomatoes and clotheslines.

Tad Montgomery, of Brattleboro, displayed a graph showing the imminent decline of world oil production.

Currently, food travels an average of 1,400 miles before reaching our tables, he said.

"Peak oil could be the thing that makes small-scale organic farming the norm in America," he said.

Amy Leblanc, of East Wilson, Maine, gave tomato-lovers some tips on heirloom varieties, seaweed fertilizers, supporting heavy vines and pruning.

Linda Avis Scott, of Shutesbury, spoke about saving energy by drying clothes outside. The practice saves money and gets people into a rhythm of doing laundry when the weather is good for drying, she said.

"It helps us connect back to something our mothers and grandmothers knew," she said.

Although the workshops are open only to those who register for the conference, there will be a free public event today from 3 to 6 p.m. It will include a farmers market, music by Erica Wheeler and a horse show.

There will be horses jumping through hoops of fire, a scarecrow-building contest, and butter-churning and apple-bobbing for children.

After 18 years at Hampshire College, next summer the conference will be at the University of Massachusetts.

The conference conflicted with a 10-week camp held at Hampshire, Rawson said. At UMass next August, it will have more space and the use of the Campus Center Hotel, she said.