In following the words and pictures in both print and electronic media, I have noted people who consider themselves to be experts are rediscovering the folk wisdom of former times and displaying it as new. They claim we should eat more vegetables and these should be purchased, unprocessed, in farmers’ markets. Some have even been brave enough to advocate a mass revival of urban gardens. Others claim this return to the practices of our pre-plastic past would have benefits beyond the gastronomic. I agree. I have even coined an aphorism; “Grow vegetables if you don’t want to become a vegetable.”
Yesterday, a young man, amazed at his own discovery, told me everybody should have a purpose if they wanted to live a long and healthy life. When he is a little older he might decide every purpose should be a good one and that he should have as many of them as his state of mind and body permit.
In 1798, Thomas Malthus, an English scholar, in arguing against the current belief humankind and society were perfectible, advanced the theory that unrestricted population growth would outstrip the capacity of Earth to produce sufficient food. It has taken a long time for his theory to be tested. New agricultural lands were found and seized in continents outside of Europe. Subsequently, agricultural research and new technologies have made agriculture far more productive. We are approaching an inevitable limit. The human race is a part of a web of life. Other life forms – animals, insects, micro-organisms – are essential to our survival. We cannot destroy the wild places where they dwell by trying to turn them into more grain fields.
Respectable historians have long known of an example of the truth of the Malthusian Theory in Canada. Before Europeans came to our continent, the Inuit had found ways of surviving in a hostile environment. Hunters and fisherman were individuals, but the distribution of food was communal. What the hunters and fishermen provided was their contribution to the group. When the food was insufficient to meet the needs, old and infirm individuals were abandoned on the ice floes to die. That was their contribution to the group.
Extrapolating from the centuries old practices of the Inuit, it easy to see that in times of crisis, the individual is never as important as the group. This understanding is the basis of measures taken to combat terrorism. This understanding will be the basis of measures taken when governments fully understand that unpolluted oceans and unpolluted land and inland waters are more important than any other economic values.
The most visible battleground in the conflict between individual freedom and government control is in the United States. There, the strong belief that the best government is the least government still seems credible. Perhaps it is in a peaceful, unthreatening world. But our world isn’t peaceful. It is in continuing crises. Looming larger is Thomas Malthus. He was right.
If the countries of the world delay in finding more human solutions to the impending population crisis, there will be Draconian laws. I wonder how many years after my lifetime a woman will require a government licence in order to conceive.
I neglected to note something in my brief revue of the experts’ strengthening appreciation for folk wisdom. They like the idea of nobody eating meat. This is because livestock produce methane, which is a greenhouse gas. Again, they are right on the mark. Vegetables don’t fart.
On the second day of 2016, I will study seed catalogues. Happy new year!
