will plan their families based on how much healthful food they can grow or buy, not how much there seems to be. We can, in part, blame the drop in farming population. In 1900, 40% of the US population farmed; it has dropped to 2% today. In India, from 1995 to 2010, 250,000 farmers committed suicide, bleakly protesting debt, subsidized imports, and GMOs. Small wonder Monsanto rules the world: half the world’s population lives in cities. But brilliant farmer Joel Salatin and author Michael Pollan tell us that, all things considered, the most productive farms are the medium-size organic ones. No doubt, conscientious returns to the farm and home garden are crucial, and many young foodies are excited and willing to feel their hands in the earth. These existential and natural measures are basic and essentially anchor citizens in positive amalgamative activity, that is, they bolster and reunite the connections of community. But today’s leaders perhaps aren’t simple enough to adopt these measures: they must climb through a sticky web of commercial exploitations before they’re given the microphone.
Wisdom inc.
Nelson Mandela, The Elders’ pioneer, recently turned 95 while battling a lung infection. Despite his political differences, Mandela’s life marks the legacy of one of the world’s few globally treasured leaders. His illness comes in tough times: when old age and the wisdom it garners are isolated from popular lifestyle and advertised aesthetics, and when living conditions are becoming more odious for the elderly, especially. Shoot, wisdom just isn’t cool these days. What has always been cool, though, are rights and autonomy. We should learn from the population control jargon and escape its prejudicial character. When today’s leaders speak in terms of humanity while dishonoring rights to life and procreation, freedom and autonomy are eclipsed by an idiosyncratic ideality unique to particular leaders and certain demographics.