[BCFSN] Capitalism for Farmers is Broken

[Devon Cooke]

Thank you Jan, I'm honoured to get a response from you.  I have so much 
respect for the work you've done!

I also deeply appreciate the content of your response — I agree with 
most of it.  The inverse connection between freedom and community is 
something that's been weighing on my of late, and I'm thrilled to see 
those ideas expressed by someone else.

On that note, once my current project is finished, I'd be interested in 
exploring whether your co-op farm is for me.  I've been thinking about 
something similar; I'd like to see whether it fits.  At the same time, I 
would offer the critique that maybe the reason why you haven't found 
people willing to commit is because you are asking for too much up 
front.  I think marriage may be a suitable analogy here — you have to 
date for bit to find out if the commitment is something you're willing 
to make.  Although, given my generation's delayed marriage rates and 
inability to commit, I think your diagnosis that too much freedom is a 
problem is quite pertinent.

One quibble:  I disagree that land prices are driven by our transience.  
There was as much or more land speculation and farmland being sold 100 
years ago as there is today.  Even today, many of Canada's wealthiest 
families made their money by speculating on farmland in the first 50 
years of confederation. More fundamentally, I think land prices are 
driven by population growth — an ever growing number of people 
squabbling over the same amount of land.  There's lots more to say on 
that topic, but I'll leave it there for now.

Much respect for your writing.  Thank you again!

All the best,

Devon Cooke
The Hands that Feed Us
604-321-9706
devon at thehandsthatfeedus.ca <mailto:devon at thehandsthatfeedus.ca>

On 2020-04-29 12:15, Jan Steinman wrote:
>> 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/> ::::
>
>
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