I think these were good articles to end the course on. I found Berry's article very entertaining. The man clearly has a very strong bias towards farming and rural communities. Excluding some of that, he still makes some valid points. The book was published in 2010, so over ten years ago (yikes!), but it's still relevant today. I am not quite sure how much I believe Berry's claims that the disappearance of an agriculture community is "NOT an accident", but I do see how some of the factors he talks about lead there. I found the part where he mentions corporations coming in and plundering local communities, only to leave them high and dry, especially poignant. It's something we've seen echoing over the length of this course multiple times in far-away places, but it's a good reminder that this is also happening here. The second article, by John Cavanagh and Jury Mander (not sure if I read the handwriting right there), create a sort of rallying cry around supporting your local community. I can see that ravagement and decline in the agricultural community is something these authors also rail against. I like that they make quite a few lists on how to effect positive change; many of them I can see Berry agreeing with, like joining or a CSA. I do like that the Cavanagh/Mander article has multiple lists on what you can do. I feel like a lot of the rage and discontent Berry's article drums up, gets lost when faced with the "What now? / How?" step of things. I do not think we've reached Berry's prediction of a two-party system that's based on "local vs. global economy" as he thought. I think if that ever comes to fruition, it'll be slowly, and subsumed by one of the two parties we already have. I do see Cavanagh/Manders article as a nice playbook for it, though.
2 comments:
I like the article of "Global to Local", because the author gives out different ways that citizens whether they're global, national, or local, they can make a significant contribution to their communities and neighborhoods and they are detailed ways that it can be done. It shows that anyone can make an impact and help the people they care about.
I liked your point that Berry thought the destruction of the American farmer was a purposeful act. This seemed a little far-fetched for me as well, as it truly was the process of economic globalization that diminished the amount of farmers in America. I think if he had investigated the reasons behind less farmers he may have had a stronger argument.
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