Hungry Cities

Carolyn Steel in Hungry City,

” Limitless quantities of cheap grain began to arrive in Europe [from the USA] in the 1870s, sparking an agricultural depression from which the continent would never fully recover. Rural England was hit particularly hard: with more than half the British population living in cities, food shortages were acute, and feeding the urban poor was a more urgent government priority than protecting local farmers. “

” It doesn’t make much sense, but then very little about the modern food industry does. “

A different mode of production is possible.

” The criteria for a sustainable agriculture can be summed up in one word – permanence, which means adopting techniques that maintain soil fertility indefinitely; that utilise, as far as possible, only renewable resources; that do not grossly pollute the environment, and that foster biological activity within the soil and throughout the cycles of all the involved food chains. “ (Lady Eve Balfour)

Instead, hungrier cities, impenetrable spaghetti junctions and stressed environments are today blighting whole countries. One bad apple spoils the whole bunch. Religion, politics, economics, technology and science are as bad as each other. A new era is announced daily alongside with a mandatory brighter future.
All cars and boats have forward and reverse gears – do we know where we are heading and do we know how to change direction?