BY MARJORIE STEWART
Flashpoints of civil disobedience, mostly at railroads and highways, erupted across Canada and beyond in support of land protection actions by traditional leaders of the Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation. Pushback in varying degrees came from people whose interests were threatened by direct action disruptions. Some feared for their livelihoods; others just put monetary values before planetary values, which means they are a big part of the problems which led to the protests. And we don’t know in what proportions the conflict between land protectors and people afraid of change was reflected within the Wet’suwet’en nation.
Young people can reasonably demand that since hardship is on the horizon, unpalatable decisions should be made now and procrastination by business and government leaders must end.
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Food systems illustrate the same cleavages between global policies producing ecological disasters and the peasant agricultural systems that feed 70 per cent of the world’s population. There is a growing understanding that concentration of ownership of food systems has created a monstrous burden of resource depletion, mal-distribution and ill-health worldwide.
Twenty-five years ago ETC (Erosion, Technology and Concentration) Group began to study seeds. Today they state: “Life itself has been manipulated, picked apart, re-assembled – and then patented.”
In their 2017 Who Will Feed Us report, ETC announced “Governments are powerless in the face of runaway corporate power” and “data is fast becoming an agricultural input – as fundamental as seeds or fertilizer.” ETC compared the Peasant Food Web with the Industrial Food Chain which “accounts for more than 80 per cent of the fossil fuel emissions and uses over 70 per cent of the water supply used in agriculture, but it actually produces only about 30 per cent of the world’s food.”
In the face of such totalitarian commercial power over the most fundamental human need, what can we say to the protesters who have reached the conclusion that only disruptions will force those with their hands on the levers of power to take some positive actions?
We know about the need for resilience: the ability to adapt and recover from disruptions. We know that the only sane future goal is sustainability: stable cultures and systems which can be maintained into long-term futures. But unless we stop the juggernauts of Big Agriculture and Big Data from thrusting us into apocalyptic dystopias, we are demonstrating contempt for future generations and the young folk know it.
What can we say to Generation Z, the first screenagers, now in their mid-twenties?
We can warn them that the first modern use of the word ‘terrorist’ is found during the Reign of Terror in France, following the Revolution of 1689. It wasn’t used to describe the rebels. Or foreign agents.
‘Terrorist’ was the term used to describe the government officials who created and executed the oppressive tactics of The Terror under the guise of keeping people safe from their enemies.
Or remember the immortal words of Homer Simpson: “Our generation will never be useless. Future generations can always use us as a bad example!”
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Marjorie Stewart is past chairperson of the Nanaimo Foodshare Society. She can be reached at marjorieandalstewart@gmail.com.