Farming Food Sovereignty
Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Food Chain Radio Host Michael Olson
#932 • August 31, 2013 • Sat 9AM Pacific
Guests: Beverly Bell & Tory Field, Co-Authors Harvesting Justice
Is profit the means or the obstacle to food sovereignty?
In the 1920s, the British government controlled all the salt in India, and forced Indians to pay a tax for the essential nutrient.
In 1930, Mohandas Gandhi led a 240 mile march from his ashram to the seacoast village of Dandi to make salt in direct contravention to British authority. When Gandhi broke the British Raj salt laws by making salt, he was joined by millions of others, thus precipitating a movement that resulted in the independence of the Indian people.
Though there are no longer any laws that grant monopoly control over essential foods, there is economic consolidation, and rules and regulations, that attempt to affect the same end. Thus throughout the world people still must rely on being granted access to the essential foods controlled by others.
Like Indians making salt, many throughout the world are striving to farm their way to “food sovereignty.” Though their efforts take them in many different directions, they all seem to be searching for the energy that will power up their farms and keep them running. This effort leads us to ask…
