Author of Finding Lights in a Dark Age, Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future and A Small Farm Future
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Posted on February 27, 2023 | 24 Comments
Time to fire up my blogging machine again – but let me know if you think the small farm future bot that Clem’s being trialling does a better job than me. If so, I’ll be able to save myself some time, close this site down and devote myself to another worthy enterprise that no doubt will also soon be obliterated by the march of the robots. At least until they run out of gas.
But for the time being I’ll press on with a few news items and a roadmap for this blog’s short-term future.
So, all being well my new book is due to be published at the end of June. And I haven’t even finished blogging my way through the old one. At least that gives me a deadline, because I don’t want to be juggling with two at the same time on here. So the main order of business for the next couple of months is to work my way fairly quickly through Part IV of A Small Farm Future – the political bit about how we make it happen and all that stuff.
Watch this space for more info on the new book.
On other matters, vegetables are making it into the UK news, or at least the lack of them is – apparently caused by a combination of the unseasonably low temperatures in Spain, where this country in its wisdom chooses to source so much of its supply, and high energy prices dissuading UK growers from producing heated tunnel crops. A double whammy, then, for that familiar stock-in-trade of the anti-localism argument so heart-sinkingly familiar to local UK growers: it’s better to import tomatoes from Spain than to grow them in heated tunnels in the UK. People who say this don’t have much clue as to what localism really involves, but maybe the present imbroglio might be the wakeup call they need. Localist Futures 101 – you don’t get to import tomatoes from Spain OR grow them in heated tunnels in the UK. Next.
Actually, not quite next – there’s more. While the weather has genuinely hampered Mediterranean growers, it seems that other European countries are doing OK with their veg supplies. So what additional factors are in play? Well, it’s hotly debated among experts and I’ll leave them to it, but basically the finger of suspicion points to over-extended, non-resilient supply chains, excessively low prices and Brexit. I’ve always thought that a long-term positive of Brexit might be a dawning realization that if you want to eat food locally you probably need to produce it locally, for the most part. What a fine thing it would be if we could learn that lesson through the minor privation of not being able to buy tomatoes in February. But I fear it’s going to take a graver crisis than that before the lesson hits home. And by then…
Next is an item that’s scarcely making it into the UK news – a crackdown on climate protestors, with one protestor jailed just for mentioning climate change in court as a reason for his actions, and many others spending months in jail on remand or for minor offences, with others heavily curfewed by electronic tags. I think the powers that be have played this pretty well in terms of their own self-serving agenda. When the protests were making waves and gaining press attention they treated protestors with kid gloves (slightly rough kid gloves in my case, but still kid gloves in the grand scheme of things), opted not to use many of the legal options already available to them to limit protest and claimed they needed to bring in new legislation to do so, which they duly did. Then, with public attention dwindling and a pliant media looking elsewhere (elements of the media that didn’t look elsewhere getting arrested alongside the protestors), they’ve come down hard on those still willing to protest.
So, maybe a couple of straws in the wind in these items for how things might pan out – the shops emptying of food, and, if you’re minded to object, the jails filling with demonstrators. At least you get fed in jail, I guess. Though on the basis of my limited experience of His Majesty’s menus, I wouldn’t get too excited about that.
Talking of straw, a shout out here to Ernie Clothier, who’s sold me more than a bale or two over the last twenty years but sadly has recently shut up shop – a farm supply store of the old school, the like of which we won’t see again … unless … well, maybe unless we see a small farm future again. Enjoy your retirement, Ernie.
And finally to the title of my piece, a nod to Dougald Hine – co-founder of the Dark Mountain project and occasional contributor to this site. Congratulations to him on his new book of that title, which I’d thoroughly recommend – a sensible and intellectually subtle piece of thinking for present times.
There are two standout themes from his book that I’ll mention. First, a nicely drawn discussion of the weird cultural malaise that makes it impossible to have serious public discussions about the consequences of climate change, energy crisis and so on. I’ve felt this keenly in discussing my own book, where people seem at once both accepting of but also completely oblivious to the far-reaching implications of the changes now upon us. Kind of along the lines that, yes, it’s quite likely humanity will soon be extinct, but at the same time absolutely unacceptable that you can’t buy tomatoes in the supermarkets at this time of year. Dougald discusses this interestingly in ways that defy my abilities to summarize, but he touches on various themes I’ve written about here, and some that I haven’t but I’m glad he has. I’ve found his writing helpful in transcending the unilluminating doomer vs optimist framing, his title being a case in point – not despairing doomism, but a call to work. However, to work effectively you need to take a look around and adjust yourself to the nature of the landscape you’re working in.
Anyway, appropriately enough I’ll be joining Dougald on the Doomer Optimism podcast along with Ashley Colby and Jason Snyder soon. Not exactly sure when it’ll go live, but it might be of interest to some here, and his book certainly will be.
The other big theme in Dougald’s book is science, and the way scientific knowledge has become bound up with the energy-hungry, planet and community-chewing authoritarian aspects of progressive modernist ideology in such a way that scientific knowledge becomes part of the ideology – ‘following the science’ – armouring it against critiques that can then be dismissed for their mysticism, lack of rigour and so on. Scientism rather than science. And also the way that climate change in particular so easily gets framed through this as a scientific problem, rather than the essentially cultural or spiritual problem that it fundamentally is. Which in the face of crude ‘pro’ vs ‘anti’ science framings poses difficulties for those of us who are not anti-science, but are anti-scientism.
I’ve written about some of these themes in the past, but I found Dougald’s book balm to a weary soul in steering his own path through them, in refuting the charge of ‘doomism’ and finding ways to be at work in the ruins. For disclosure’s sake, I should probably mention that he has some kind words to say in his book about a certain other book concerning farms on the not too large side, but of course my recommendation stems from loftier motives than that.
Anyway, talking of that certain other book, in my next few posts it’s time to turn to its final section.
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well, worrying though the future may look, at least I’m self-sufficient in tomatoes. Whatever else happens to me I won’t lack lycopene in the summer months.
The question is really Why do people eat tomatoes in the winter ? They are awful, bland and mealy. No wonder so many people say they don’t like tomatoes.
I’m not at all optimistic that humanity will figure out how to deal with climate change before it is much too late. Consuming less energy and fewer resources is bad for the economy. But as far as the doomer stuff, isn’t that a question of what makes life meaningful ? Nobody is getting out of here alive. A big house and a fancy car won’t change that. Just do the best you can to leave this place a little better than you found it.
I’m not quite self-sufficient in tomatoes yet — I still buy tinned ones to use in winter — but the last time I bought a pack of fresh cherry tomatoes (in season, even) the taste so disappointed me that I haven’t bothered since. We’ve only just eaten the last of the carrots, though, and I have hopes to do better on that front this year; we still have French beans in the chest freezer, and a couple of squashes that I should probably get around to eating in the next few weeks.
I’m pleased to hear we have to wait until June for your book: in an attempt to kick myself a tiny bit further toward what local resilience I can muster while living in London (try not to laugh too hard), I have given up online shopping (among other things) for Lent. I’ll have to try the library or a bookshop for Dougald’s new book, but I have a few new projects of my own on the go and they don’t leave a huge amount of time for reading, so I might just wait in the end.
I am, as is often the case, finding the season of Lent a useful and instructive time for reflecting on transitions and uncertainty and other wilderness conditions. In that light, I am glad you are getting back to blogging.
Any book that gets advance praise from Amitav Ghosh, Brian Eno, and Chris Smaje piques my interest.
Really looking forward to hearing more about your upcoming book too!
IMHO this paragraph bears repeating:
The other big theme in Dougald’s book is science, and the way scientific knowledge has become bound up with the energy-hungry, planet and community-chewing authoritarian aspects of progressive modernist ideology in such a way that scientific knowledge becomes part of the ideology – ‘following the science’ – armouring it against critiques that can then be dismissed for their mysticism, lack of rigour and so on. Scientism rather than science. And also the way that climate change in particular so easily gets framed through this as a scientific problem, rather than the essentially cultural or spiritual problem that it fundamentally is. Which in the face of crude ‘pro’ vs ‘anti’ science framings poses difficulties for those of us who are not anti-science, but are anti-scientism.
While I’m not completely against the advice to ‘follow the science’ – I will join in a mantra to NOT follow the scientism. For me, science is a verb. Hence the method… it is how we discover, and how we find things we then have a opportunity to use. If scientism is one of the uses – it may or may not help.
At the same time, it might be worth holding on to the notion that there are other ways of knowing. Science (even when properly held as verb, as an activity rather than a hobby horse) can offer deliverables – but it holds no patent, no exclusivity to such.
As long as I’m at this – science is NOT a democracy. Whenever someone offers that ‘the scientific consensus is’ all the little red flags of my imagination start waving furiously.
I was once in a board of an international organisation. A colleague in the board said, after a unanimous vote in the general assembly: “if everybody agrees, it just means that some have not understood the question.”
There is also another reason for why “follow the science” is dubious: it is essentially undemocratic. The end result if we (and the politics) are to follow the opinion of scientists is technocracy.
I have some thoughts on this, because as I see it, the end result if we ignore all findings of the scientific method is pretty grim too.
I don’t think science is the only way to know the world, but it’s certainly pretty important.
The thing that really gets to me is people claiming to “follow the science” when they are doing no such thing. But that is usually a political problem, not a scientific one; similarly, trying to find technological solutions for spiritual or philosophical problems doesn’t mean technology is somehow the root of the problem.
I think one very clear example of this is in the eco-modernist impulse to insist that if we simply reduce the proportion of fossil fuels in our energy use, all will be well. But increasing energy use at 1% a year instead of 5% a year (probably not the real numbers, I made them up) doesn’t solve the problem, merely kicks the can down the road, and it requires only a very basic understanding of exponential increase within a closed system to see that this is likely to have unpleasant and unwanted consequences.
Just because someone claims that their approach is scientific doesn’t mean that it is.
One of our many presenting crises is, I think, one of epistemology. Saying “The Science says so!” is not actually doing any kind of science, but an appeal to authority; that doesn’t mean science is authoritarian, but rather that authoritarians would like it to be so. Actual science can be scrutinised and questioned.
Currently the Meme Machines are routinely running rings around our ability to slow down and think things through: what are the sources for this or that statement? If it conflicts with what we already know about how the world works, is there an explanation offered? Is that explanation plausible? Is it based on observed reality or did someone cherry-pick the measurements?
I think the Center for Humane Technology has some good work on this subject. Meanwhile I’m generally happy to “follow the science” after establishing what the science actually says.
“The other big theme in Dougald’s book is science, and the way scientific knowledge has become bound up with the energy-hungry, planet and community-chewing authoritarian aspects of progressive modernist ideology in such a way that scientific knowledge becomes part of the ideology – ‘following the science’ – armouring it against critiques that can then be dismissed for their mysticism, lack of rigour and so on. Scientism rather than science. And also the way that climate change in particular so easily gets framed through this as a scientific problem, rather than the essentially cultural or spiritual problem that it fundamentally is. Which in the face of crude ‘pro’ vs ‘anti’ science framings poses difficulties for those of us who are not anti-science, but are anti-scientism.”
****
I’ve yet to read the book. It’s on order. But I’ve been listening to the various pocast and YouTube videos and such, and reading Dougald’s Substack website. So I know a bit about the book through these means.
Yes to the comments about scientism. But I think a crucial part of the book — based on my understanding from these other sources — is Dougald’s naming of, and narrating, what became of the green / ecology / environmental movement/s since the 1990s. His narrative tells the story of this movement (these movements) being absorbed into what Dougald calls “technocracy” — which is basically (as it seems to me) the ecomodernist strand of “the movement” — one which promises that technology under “free market” economics will surely fix everything up just fine, so no need to change anything of any significance. “Just wait a bit and it will magically be taken care of by the marked and technology.”
This technocratic arm of “the movement” has pretty nearly eliminated its alternative orientation, narrative and voice. And I think this is where the really strong medicine Dougald offers lies — in a narrative, a story of what the hell went so badly wrong.
On the matter of the current lack of out-of-season imported vegetables, you may have seen this:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/therese-coffey-turnips-tomato-shortages-b2288274.html
Rather unfortunate – but unsurprising – how easy of a target for mockery this is even though the message of eating seasonally and locally is sound (sadly, even outlets such the otherwise incisive Baffler magazine portrayed the call for local seasonal eating as basically another instance of cold-hearted neoliberal austerity). Sad too that the minister is quick to emphasize getting back to year-round global food “normal” as quickly as possible.
Also, as one of the commenters on the above link correctly observes,
“She does know that she works for a govt that is quickly selling our farmers down the (polluted) river with their trade agreements that floods the country with imported food?”
This stands as great debunking of the AI myth from Noam Chomsky, he’s been interested in computation since Turing’s famous essay on the subject as a way to further our understanding of language and cognition which his area of interest. It seems AI has no true understanding of the world, no real spacial or contextual knowledge, and it can’t learn it! It gives rise to a priori knowledge in the human allowing us to ‘fit’ language and objectis into this already existing structure:
https://youtu.be/PBdZi_JtV4c
I’m afraid the answer is we’re gonna need you to carry on small farm futuring Chris!
I’ve been pretty bowled over by Simon Michaux’s science recently, I wanted to ask you what you thought about his work?
Thanks for the comments. Just briefly –
Yep, beats me why anyone wants to eat out of season tomatoes from the shops.
The fact that anybody thinks the injunction to eat locally & seasonally is some manifestation of callous neoliberalism is one more indication if it were needed of how low the present base is that we have to build from…
Agree with James on that other theme in Dougald’s book. It’s a tome of many riches…
My own forthcoming book and my promised pamphlet are one and the same. It’s a pamphlet in the form of a book. It’s a book in the form of a pamphlet. Anyway, more on it soon…
Regarding Simon Michaux, I’ve only come across his work recently but I’m a fan. He’s done a couple of good podcasts with Nate Hagens. And he’s written some truly doorstopping reports on energy futures. If anyone knows of a good, concise Michaux tome I’d welcome a pointer. Basically he’s arguing that we’re not going to replace the fossil fuelled economy at current prices or supply levels, which I find entirely plausible. I’d be interested to discuss this with folks on here more. But right now I have to go!
On Simon Michaux (etc.) –
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-10-31/energy-transition-the-luxury-economy/
Great article, I feel like we’re gonna need something like the underground railroad to get people out of cities and onto the land. Setting up the new village farms, getting people out to see them. I grew up on a council estate in a post war new town, it had local parks and shops (15 minute city!) Totally destroyed by supermarkets. David Holmgrens sees these suburbias as ripe for transitioning, or transforming. I don’t know how that translates to the US.
What beasts me is why renewables need subsidies with energy prices this high , really they should be in profit and as they are not goes to prove that at these prices which are shutting down just about everything , renewables are not viable .
As you know, it is hard to find reliable numbers on anything on line but…
It looks like the US subsidizes renewable energy by about $15 billion per year.
At the same time it subsidizes fossil fuels to the tune of $20 billion per year. The fossil fuel industry, which is hugely profitable, collects ( according to Forbes) around $5 trillion in subsidies.
Why is that, when energy prices are so high ?
Any actual figures about oil company subsidies ?
https://grist.org/accountability/follow-the-money-us-subsidizes-oil-and-gas-so-investors-never-lose/
https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costs
or just search for “us subsidies to oil companies”
Here is another link:
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/fossil-fuels-received-5-9-trillion-in-subsidies-in-2020-report-finds
Renewables may not be the answer, but it would be interesting to see how they might fair on a level playing field.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/drillinginfo/2016/02/22/debunking-myths-about-federal-oil-gas-subsidies/?sh=75706acf6e1c
I found this from Forbes
I’d love it if any of those non subsidies applied to our farm, especially the one where I get to deduct 9% of our resource base per year from our taxes and collect the difference.
Capitalism seems to be just a little more sophisticated form of colonialism. It gets the ‘colonists’ to enthusiastically support the system of wealth extraction.
Big companies get to buy congress critters and set the rule of the game in their favor. Don’t let them fool you.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2023/02/08/cbdc-bait-and-switch/
Looks like the great financial reset is a bust , this looks like the start of deindustrialsation and the birth of small farms where barter is king .
Can’t wait for the pamphlet/book/pamphlet!
I think the podcast is put now:
https://anchor.fm/s/68308b7c/podcast/play/67170611/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2023-2-23%2F319869454-44100-2-a232781b52fd3.m4a
No idea if that link means anything outside of the app I use for podcasts.
Out, not put.
Sigh.