In some of the food and agriculture (and adjacent) headlines I’ve seen in recent weeks, the word “crisis” has been thrown around quite often, either as

-          A crisis of prices- food prices, fertilizer prices, prices for fuel and petroleum-derivatives.

-          A crisis of availability- that there won’t be access to fuel, fertilizer, certain food items, etc.

These are big claims, if you consider all the implications of a price or availability crisis at the grocery store level, and the ripples that would have preceded that throughout the food and agriculture web, and more broadly through the people, places, and additional webs making up the fabric of society. I recognize that, yes indeed, that would be a monumental disruption for our lives and wellbeing.

But are those expectations of insurmountable challenges and problems on the horizon accurate, and are they foregone conclusions? No. Instead, I am suggesting there are many alternatives, and we’re all, right now, in positions to choose how this goes. We all have a say in how the future of food and agriculture unfolds.  

And unless you’re not eating at all, you’re already actively casting your vote on this question of how we grow food now and in the future, and you’re casting that vote multiple times a day. This goes beyond a vote on how we grow food, because it’s truly an affirmation of how we’re in relationship with land, plants, animals, each other, and all that’s alive.

A Crossroads, Individually and Collectively

It’s not that the economic threads of our globalized economy are new. But much like in the time of the pandemic, where threads that had been invisible to the average person suddenly became visible and questions like “Where is the beef in the grocery store?” and “Why isn’t there toilet paper here?” arose, we are likely to see the threads of our global economy revealed in an unprecedented way in coming months and years. Why is that? In part, because there is an unprecedented globalization in our ways of living, more so than at any other time in recent history. And, we’re also in a period of global disruptions and ripples that are reaching at foundational aspects of that globalization.

Part of what is perhaps even less visible than the threads of globalization are the threads of sustainability that are also present in the world. There are unseen or underappreciated threads of reciprocity and care that are also present in the world. This is in part because the threads of sustainability, by their nature, cannot truly be monetized or destroyed. But that doesn’t make them less present, or less substantive.

And, we do all need clear eyes on which systems we’ve been contributing to and cultivating, and how those impacts may play out.

Because, relative to the weaving that’s been done on the global economy and consumerism infrastructure, our PRACTICAL COMMUNITY WEAVING is often lagging far behind.

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But how did we even get to this conversation of a crisis, and what does that even mean?

The word “crisis” has its roots in Greek, and indicates a time of decision, choice, judgement, or turning point. In that sense, that “crisis” has already arrived. The inflection point is here in our physical realities. It seems unlikely from where we are that our current way of growing food, fiber, and fuel will stay unchanged through the coming decades.

Instead of fearing the ways the world around food and agriculture is shifting (it IS ALREADY shifting, in my opinion), perhaps there is a chance to see it as a way and a time to build something that works better. What won’t move the needle is putting our heads in the sand indefinitely. Even ostriches don’t do that.

Not everyone is arriving at this choice point at the same time. Many have already arrived here and have been making these choices for generations upon generations. But more and more people, both who grow food in collaboration with the land, and who eat food every day, are finding themselves aware that what and how they engage with food matters, not just for them, but for their families, communities, and ecosystems.

If you don’t find yourself at a choice point today, that’s totally fine, file this in your back mental files (or in the round file, I won’t take it personally), and come back to the idea of having choice when and if it ever comes back around.

Some Common Ground to Consider

Before we continue further, there are also several layers to acknowledge here.

-          One, many in the world are ALREADY in extreme hunger and poverty circumstances. For them, the urgency of this conversation is already present, and in many cases has been present for an extended time.

-          Two, there are major factors in the world that are changing by the moment, and as a result, many factors are moving within food and agriculture. While this isn’t new, some of the changes we’re observing now and how they affect the current iteration of where and how we source our food are creating bigger ripples through the food and agriculture webs than we might be accustomed to.

-          Positionality within this conversation matters. Those who are on land and growing food are in a different current position, and thus have different possibilities and responsibilities, than the folks who are currently not stewarding land nor growing food for themselves or their communities. Those who are stewarding other resources may find themselves with far more obvious and accessible choices than those whose resources are already stretched thin.

-          I’m not going to cover every factor or aspect of this conversation. Maybe I’ll get into more detail on different aspects later, if there’s interest.

On the opposite end of this view that we’re at a crossroads, there are also lines of thinking out there that nothing lasting is happening in agriculture, that nothing fundamental is going to come of the global moment we’re in, and that agriculture will be able to keep trending broadly the way the dominant trend in agriculture has been trending. That is, towards more concentration, more input intensity, and more industrialization of how food is both grown and used.

Lastly, just because we start making aligned choices today that are supportive of more community, more resiliency, more capacity, and more alignment with the flow of Life, that doesn’t mean we’re all going to get exactly what we want, or that things will go exactly our way. Disruptions likely can and will still happen, although perhaps less extreme or perhaps of less reach.

Vulnerabilities and Resiliencies

Do you understand the vulnerabilities of our global food and agriculture web? These are areas where changes in the global atmosphere and underpinnings could cause ripples throughout the food and agriculture web. Here are some of them:

-          Fundamentally, any places where there is disharmony with Life

-          Highly concentrated ownership of processing, distribution, and retail networks that lack redundancy and alternatives

-          A high degree of debt and lack of strong working capital on many farm operations

-          Input intensive systems that are brittle if inputs are cost prohibitive to use or not available

-          In some countries, extreme reliance on imports of food and/or agricultural inputs

-          In some communities, minimal local production capacity (resources to start, physical capacity to scale, skill capacity, relational infrastructures)

-          Forgetting- Of the ways of being in right relationship with land, of following the signs, of the wisdom of what naturally grows and thrives in a place, of resourcefulness and adaptability without reliance on intensity of inputs

-          The way food ties in with our deepest fears about getting our basic human needs met and how food can be tied into patterns of individualism, hoarding, and separateness from community.

But for each of these vulnerabilities, there are also resiliencies available. For example:

-          Opportunities to create harmony with Life

-          Creating the new networks of ownership and distribution with more adaptability

-          Re-imagining finance and investment paradigms in how we grow food, fiber, and fuel

-          De-industrializing agricultural production systems

-          Cultivation of local stewardship and growing capacities

-          Asking the hard questions of where do we live and grow as humans in relationship with plants, animals, and all living Beings

-          Remembering- Ways of being in right relationship with land, of following the signs, of working with the eco-web instead of against it.

-          Simultaneously working with our fears while taking appropriate and empowered action to freely have our basic needs met.

The Bottom Line

The most straight forward, simplest step is often the most important one to take next. Understand where you’re at in your relationship with the food and agriculture web. Ask yourself what you can do next.

If you don’t farm or garden, maybe that is to plant one thing that you can eat. Maybe plant a few things you can eat. Start building relationship with how that plant grows, with what it needs to live. Allow yourself to be a student. Grow what inspires you. You can grow lettuce on your windowsill. If you’ve ever wanted to start, now is a good time to grow something to eat.

And if you have more positionality within the food eco-web, then there is even more you can do, and are being invited to do at this time. You’re in a space to make bigger changes, and to start making them today. There is a lot more detail to go into on what some of the questions to ask are and how we each might start taking the next steps, but even some basic considerations of thinking through if you have the necessary resources and infrastructure in place to pivot when and if needed, that can be a huge step forward.

Can we grow food, and more of it, in way more local communities than we currently do? Yes. Is the infrastructure in place fully to do that? No. Does that give us a place to start? Yes.

A food disaster isn’t inevitable. Every day we get to choose how we show up and what actions we take. Do what you can, give yourself grace for what you cannot, and find the part within yourself that knows that something better than how our system has worked in the past is possible.