So says one of the suggestions on a recent post by Sharon Astyk. Good advice.
So don’t buy rice right now. Take a deep breath again, and recognize that you and I will always be able to outbid poor people for rice, and that part of why food storage buying made sense is because my audience was so small – everyone wasn’t doing it. When the problem was not acute, buying rice for your family made sense. Now, it is acute, and it is more important to do what we can to help the poor.
Does this mean you shouldn’t store food – no, you absolutely should, but don’t contribute to the drive up of rice prices. By oatmeal, plant potatoes, buy quinoa – but not big sacks or pallet loads of rice. Forgo CAFO meat, and eat only meat, milk and eggs that is raised on pasture or with minimal human food grain use. Send the money you would spend on that stuff (or on soyburgers – buy whole black soybeans and eat them instead) to the relief of the poor.
If we all start rushing out and panic buying now, we will only make the situation worse and push prices up even further. So what should we be doing? Plenty more good ideas on Sharons post. The problems are of the longterm kind, so after breathing
deeply and relaxing (panicking never helped anyone), get out of your car, do something in your garden or community. Something that actually improves your longterm situation, forges closer ties to your neighbours or increases your food growing capabilities.
Next, take a look at what you would want to accomplish if you had a couple more years and some money. Make a list. I’m going to bet that there are some duplications on both lists – that is, there are things you have to do that you want to do anyway. Guess which things are now numbers 1 and 2 on your priority list. Maybe you still won’t be able to do them – but at least you know. And maybe you will.
But think it through. I know, it isn’t much fun – it is far nicer to ask “what do we want the world to look like.” But just in case, have a plan for fucked up too. If you need guidance, I would encourage you to read Dmitry Orlov’s articles on his life during the Soviet Collapse, and to read his book as soon as it is available – it is terrific.
Of course there’s more – health care, transport, education…but start here. Breathe first, then get to work. Yes, things are falling apart rapidly, we’ve acknowledged it. But then again, your life is different from yesterday now…how?
Thanks Sharon for these words of wisdom. The world that we have grown up in is coming to an end. We are at a crux, where we can continue to allow big business and heirarchies to dominate our realiites, watching as they finish chewing up what is left of our planet. Or, just maybe, if enough of us see the opportunities, we can create a world closer to how we’d like to live. Time to get those garden tools out, and invite the neighbours around for a chat and a cup of (local herbal) tea.
