[BCFSN] Capitalism for Farmers is Broken

[Jan Steinman]

> From: Devon Cooke <devon at thehandsthatfeedus.ca>
> 
> In Canada, we take it for granted that starting a business, including a farm, involves a little bit of capitalism… and it’s expected that those investors eventually see a return.

Throughout much of human history, the three major western religions forbade charging interest on loans, and once a lifetime or so, the Pope would declare a "debt jubilee," whereby all debts suddenly disappeared.

These two things point to a tacit assumption that modern civilization seems to have forgotten: debt assumes growth, and infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.

Debt — whether with or without interest — implies that one can obtain a yield from that debt, so that one can support oneself AND pay he debt back. That's growth, even without interest.

"Capitalism" gets tarred universally with the same broad brush. But I submit that it is not simply "private ownership of the means of production" that is the problem. Rather, it's the notion that bits of coloured paper copulate in dark bank vaults and produce more bits of coloured paper. Or bits on a computer disk, if you'd rather.

It isn't capitalism per-se, but *financial* capitalism. That's an easier target than the entire system of capitalism.

Why is it important to divide and conquer capitalism? Because the zeitgeist is firmly wedded to capitalism. You can't change the system without changing the people.

Case in point: we set up a small-s "socialist" co-op farm. In ten years of trying, it has been impossible to get people to sign up. The first thing they want to know is "what is the return." That's the capitalist zeitgeist at work!

After I explain that the "return" is healthy food, clean air, clear water, and "right livelihood," the second thing they want to know is, "What's the exit strategy?"

We have become so divorced from place that the second thing we want to know about a gift is, "How am I going to get out of it?" As this pandemic is demonstrating, humans have become so transient that the chance to own a portion of a cooperative farm is trumped by the wandering eye. People are more committed to getting away from something than they are to making it work.

So, long story short, I am not optimistic about doing away with capitalism, and I don't think that the cost of farmland is driven by it, as our non-capitalistic experiment would give people lifetime access to farm land for 1/3 to 1/2 the market rate.

Oh, yea — how about zero financial investment? We tried that. We offer a five year apprenticeship through which one can earn $100,000 worth of equity and the right to permanent habitation. But people who will willingly go in debt for at least half that much to get a four-year college education aren't willing to tie themselves to the land. No takers to date.

I submit that our transience, our reverence of "freedom," is what keeps farmland priced out of reach, more than capitalism.

Two hundred years ago, you were connected to the land for generations. Even a hundred years ago, the sale of farmland was a last resort. But today, it's like, "Well, if this doesn't work out, I can do something else," and people demand an exit strategy before they've planted their first seed.

:::: I don’t take vacations because I find them boring, unless I’m going to visit farms. -- Eliot Coleman <http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=Eliot+Coleman> ::::
:::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality Co-op <http://www.ecoreality.org/> ::::