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Page added on October 19, 2015
Food Sovereignty: This is What Anarchy Looks Like
“This is what democracy looks like” goes the popular protest chant. However, it’s not democracy that captures the imagination, provides answers, and drives today’s resistance movement. Something much more interesting has been taking place during protests, forums and intentional communities. In his book The New Left the anthropologist David Graeber states that anarchy has become the logical and probably last hope of the international resistance to capitalism. Mondeggi, an agricultural squat in the Tuscan countryside celebrating its first year this summer demonstrates how that might just be the case.
Anarchy is completely misunderstood amongst the larger public. The word in modern vocabulary has come to mean chaos. This is ironically the opposite of Anarchy, which could be described as organic order of horizontal self-governance. The misunderstanding comes partly due to political theory ignorance, propaganda from the right, and due to some of the “violent” acts of some historical anarchists such as blowing up bridges and factories in the context of oppressive monarchies, world wars, and Fascist regimes. These extreme strategies are ironically much less drastic that the systematic widespread organized violence of the various state regimes through history.
Chomsky argues that Anarchism is based on the assumption that any structure of authority and domination has to justify itself. All such structures have a burden of proof to bear and if they can’t bear that burden they’re illegitimate. If they are illegitimate they should be dismantled and replaced by alternative structures which are free and participatory and are not based on authoritarian systems.
Democracy allows for the exploitation and destruction of the environment that is taking place today because of the financial interests of a few organizing the nations states according to the bottom line of international profit. Direct democracy does allow for taking some of the responsibility and control of affairs yet it still maintains the existence of the state. The states governs the separate community as a whole, often disregarding their well-being in order to follow the international financial game of an economic system which like an addiction, has reached a point of unsustainability given the resources but must grow annually resulting in further debt and devaluation of labor and resources.
Direct action is one of the prime characteristics of the anarchist approach. It is precisely direct action in the context of land and food sovereignty that has proven to be most fruitful. In Brazil MST’s (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra) direct-action strategies of occupation and road blockage succeeded in expropriation of large estates. In Bolivia it managed to overthrow corrupt neoliberal presidents. It is the peasant movement that provides a possible route to opposing the Free Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA) in Brazil, Central America, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. It is the strongest force fighting against the detrimental agricultural practices of genetic modification promoted by Monsanto while offering an alternative of ecologically sustainable cultivation. Via Campesina (the Peasants’ Way) is another major land based international movement. It coordinates peasant organizations of small and middle-scale producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities, advocating family-farm-based sustainable agriculture. Via Campesina coined the term “food sovereignty” which asserts that the people who produce, distribute, and consume food should control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution, rather than the corporations and market institutions they believe have come to dominate the global food system.
The principles of food sovereignty are best followed in anarchy. The definition states that one should have direct control and choice over the kind of food one consumes and produces. The beauty of anarchy is that rather than worrying about a large scale, complex, centralized society one can focus on the immediate matters of one’s community. In case of peasants’ movements these immediate matters are exactly the production and distribution of food locally. The knowledge coming from direct involvement with food production ensures well informed appropriate decisions made directly by the peasants based on their immediate needs.
It is this right and the practice of food cultivation rather than abstract political ideology that is at the heart of Mondeggi “Terra Bene Commune” (Ground for Common Good).
Mondeggi is situated about 30 km South the city of Florence, in the beautiful Tuscan country side. The twenty acres of prime agricultural land are covered mostly with vineyards and olive trees. The land, currently property of the state, after numerous attempts to sell it through auctions, has been abandoned. The state of the vineyards, orchards and the two buildings has been continually deteriorating until 2014 when it was settled and revived by twenty squatters who live there presently. There are over one hundred temporary volunteers who help with the agricultural activities of the community. The state has not taken any action in either trying to evacuate or negotiate with the squatters. Even if the land is to be repossessed by the state, in the year that it has been cared by the community it has been cultivated for high yielding harvest making it more appealing for future owners to continue its use for agriculture.
Mondeggi is not explicitly an anarchist C.S.O.A. (Centro Sociale Occupato Autogestito, “self-governing squatter social centers” community). It’s fascinating how labels and ideology become unnecessary when the spirit and principles of anarchy are applied to such human matters as growing food and co-existence. Mondeggi is a squat and as such, it places the needs of the people over the state, overriding state law in order to create a sustainable community serving the people. These are the three guiding principles of Mondeggi expressed in the community’s own words:
1. Food sovereignty
We need to find the meaning of a real economy in the linking of the concrete local community, the large urban centers with its natural and traditional agricultural land. An economy based on creative relationships and shared among food producers (farmers) and co-producers (people) are at the center with equal dignity and respect for the custody of the environment and social justice.
2. Access to land and knowledge for farmers
We demand the right of every person to be able to take at least part of their food needs from working the land and therefore the right to have access to the land regardless of their ability to pay. We encourage and support all the places and opportunities for free exchange of knowledge between old and new farmers, so that traditional agricultural practices and good new practices meet to enrich each other.
3. Refusal to sell agricultural land
Starting from what already belongs to the community, we want to give life to new experiences and vital rural agriculture released from the concept of ownership. Public land is the most “fertile” to give birth to a healthy food economy shared by local communities. To do this it is essential that farmland, a public common good, becomes subject to civic use, inalienable and managed by local communities.
(From Mondeggi’s official website)
The revival of the land is possible due to the hard work of the twenty members and the many volunteers. Their efforts turn the abandoned land into a functioning two hundred acres of olive trees, vineyards, rye fields, and agricultural community. It also has developed a large vegetable gardens and is raising stock. The neighboring local farmers are invited to and do in fact collect food from, the restored vineyards and orchards.
My peek into Mondeggi happened during its first year celebration which took place in the form of a tour of the massive agricultural projects and an assembly. What was taking place was much larger than a simple celebration .The assembly included a variety of people most of whom were part of or interested in Genuino Clandestino. Genuino Clandestino started in 2010 and has become a network of hundreds of farming communities on the Italian territory. One of the major efforts of Genuino Clandestino is the preservation of organic seeds and part of the event was an exhibit of the seeds. The discussions related to alternative economies center around the Italian GAS (Gruppi di Aquisto Soledale) solidarity buying groups movement. From just one group in 1994, the network has grown rapidly and now has over 700 registered GAS groups, though the actual number of groups in existence is estimated to be nearer 2000, involving over 100,000 people. Usually, a buying group is set up by a number of consumers who cooperate in order to buy food and other commonly used goods directly from the producers. Mondeggi sells and buys through GAS. Mondeggi is one of the key grounds where the Genuino Clandestino was conceived. The massive diversified functioning farm is one of the driving forces of the movement as it gives confidence of the scale it can take. The community also uses the help of many transitory volunteers, and in this way provides food, shelter, a stopping point, and valuable agricultural training for them.
During the tour I had the opportunity to ask a few question about the community to Roberto, a forty-something geologist, one of the core founders of Mondeggi. From my conversation with him I learned that his decision to co-create Mondeggi was a carefully considered one and came out of dedication to a political cause rather than necessity. When I inquired regarding problems facing Mondeggi he admitted that water was a major issues since there was no spring or river passing by. He mentions that they have managed with the help of the volunteers and villagers but they were looking for a permanent solution. The toughest challenge and the essence of the movement lie in co-existence, self-governance, and conflict resolution. Roberto explained that Mondeggi members govern themselves through assemblies, following the difficult but fruitful principle of horizontal discussion and decision making based on consensus. Other individuals such as the volunteers, and organizations such as Genuino Clandestino participating in Mondeggi or implicated in its governance, meet at larger assembles. He seemed really comfortable with the discussion and explained that for the members of the Bena Comune the priorities have to do with the practical issues of the fractatoria. The community agreement on those seems to be a strong unifying factor. The short visit did not allow putting the principle of self-governance to the test; however what could be said is that Mondeggi is still governed by the twenty people who started a year ago and all of its various projects are successfully ongoing.
Mondeggi’s anniversary celebration embodied the efforts of the community that go beyond simply sustaining the farm and aim at creating and preserving a space for people opposing industrialization, capitalism, and the poverty resulting from class-based society based on private property. Similar to Via Campesina and MST, and in the spirit of the massive factory occupation of Argentine 2005 and Italian Fiat in 1920, involving hundreds of thousands of workers, it serves as an example of how human beings can collaborate, work and produce. These principles, embedded in various communities from squats, co-operatives, occupied factories, eco-villages, are what Anarchy looks like. Mondeggi, GAS and Genuino Clandestino are still quite new and small and only the future will show if they manage to make an impact on the Italian society, but their existence, alongside the well-established movements of Via Campesina and MST, is a testimony to viral contemporary resistance movement.
16 Comments on "Food Sovereignty: This is What Anarchy Looks Like"
Davy on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 8:14 am
Sounds great but when you bump up against large AG that dominates the world including the third world it is just a mouse fart. The real anarchy will come when oil based big AG breaks down and along with it the food chain. Whole nations will see failed state symptoms with hunger insecurity. Nowhere will this be truer than in Asia where you have a huge new middle class with middle class expectations and a region that is at or near food insecurity. North America will see the high energy intensity food diminish with a stunned population seeing grocery shelves half empty and later the same hunger as Asia.
One must see the dynamics here and many don’t. We have a triad of peaks. These peaks are the underlying basis of the global food chain. We have peak global economy, peak oil, and peak land/water/climate. The peak global economy impacts the food chain with the just in time distribution and global exchange. This makes possible the distribution of vast monocultures with letters of credit acceptable between nations.
Peak oil impacts the food chain because oil is food in a significant way in regards to the physical inputs and mechanical activity to producing food. There is then the significant modern processing, preservation, and preparation all involving fossil fuels especially oil.
We then have a deadly combination of degradation of the land and water through pollution, erosion, and development. This is most notable in Asia where vast swaths of that region have been rendered unproductive by all three destructive conditions. We know climate instability cannot be good. It is only a relatively benign climate that allowed civilization to begin with. That climate has now been disturbed by forcing that all available science tells us will eventually be catastrophic to the food chain from disrupted temperatures, drought, and floods.
We will have a small window ahead of us when we can and may be able to move large amounts of population back to the land. We will need human power, animal power, and the traditional nutrient cycle to produce food as industrial agriculture fails from a forced power down. I am not sure we as a species will choose that moment to act. It is uncertain how this will unfold and if rational voices will be heard.
We have to have a hybrid of industrial agriculture along with human and animal dominated permaculture at least in the beginning. The seven billion people predicament complicates any agricultural mitigation strategies. Our economic system cannot survive a large movement of people back to the land. Without the economic system food production and distribution breaks down. Large starving populations create failed states. Failed states destroy trade and resource availability.
This is a catch 22 moment and a profound predicament. One thing is certain we are going to have a die off. Populations as large as ours and growing cannot experience food production declines let alone lower food production growth. The catch 22 is changing our food system will destroy the food system at the level of quantity and global distribution. We will be forced into destructive change that will kill off significant populations and force migrations disrupting other areas.
This appears to be irreversible. There is no way for the global system to adjust. There is potentially only managed descent strategies which will be reactions not proactive efforts we need. We can be proactive but only at the local. The global is just completely unable to adjust. Make your impact locally. Move to the right local if you are in the wrong one. Prep now individually for the most important thing in your life and that is your food chain survival.
ghung on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 8:19 am
“3. Refusal to sell agricultural land
Starting from what already belongs to the community, we want to give life to new experiences and vital rural agriculture released from the concept of ownership. Public land is the most “fertile” to give birth to a healthy food economy shared by local communities. To do this it is essential that farmland, a public common good, becomes subject to civic use, inalienable and managed by local communities.”
Not so sure. My two forays into community agriculture, especially opening my own big garden to community members, taught me that if users of that land don’t have any particular long-term interest in maintaining the sustainability of said land, they’ll exploit it, short-term. Certainly left me with a mess, one that meant I spent a full season cleaning up all sorts of artefacts left behind in my soil from our community garden experiment. Ownership of arable land generally imparts a certain jealousy about that land, and a tendency to be protective of its long-term viability as arable land; maintenance of its value.
makati1 on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 8:22 am
Another unicorn hugger article of dreams.
paulo1 on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 8:44 am
As Ghung alluded to, my property is now posted with no trespassing notices for a very good reason. I grow extra food and used to tell neighbours to just come and get it, but you have to dig the spuds yourself, etc. No one bothered. The woodlot is untouched and is like money in the bank as far as I’m concerned.
ghung on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 8:56 am
Yeah, Paulo, that’s another thing. When I let friends come pick their own, they’ll invariably “cherry pick”, take the “low-hanging-fruit”, all that. That, after all, is where these sayings came from. That means I have to come behind them and find the hidden beans and cukes that they passed over, or watch those rot on the vine.
None have ever offered to help offset the costs of growing those things. Weren’t too happy when I started harvesting everything and charging $2 per pound. Sometimes we’re compelled to be assholes, eh? There are a very few exceptions. One older woman I know came in and expertly pruned my tomato vines without my asking. She’s always welcome, and won’t abuse the relationship; kind of rare these days it seems.
claman on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 9:36 am
davy, Yes and real soon the american population would be down on world average BMI.
One third of us crops goes to an unnescesarry ethanol production, a lot goes to corn sirup, wheat exports, a huge amount to empty calories (buns and cakes) and just a fraction goes to real nutritional food. American food production could be much smaler without any health hazards. I personally hardly ever eat wheat or corn products.
Davy on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 9:37 am
G-man & Paulo, I had an acre of land in Hermann, Mo I purchased for a community garden back in 06. I advertised in the paper and offered the land free for use to any organization who would utilize it. I had one teacher at the local school express interest but nothing came of it.
This was at the time when I was really getting geared up with doom and prep efforts. I had read “The Long Emergency” and like Kunstler I felt locally produced food was vital. I was right then and I am now but the economics will prevent the scale we needed for local food efforts.
The obstacles are systematic leaving locally based food struggling to compete with large monocultures. At one time I thought high oil prices would change that but now I am thinking volatility will not give locally based efforts the stability they need to use traditional BAU sources to grow. Can you quit your job to start a local farm? Not so easy in a time of economic uncertainty.
Unfortunately when locally produced food gains relative economic strength the economy may be so bad efforts will be again handicapped by recessionary obstacles. Without a clear mandate that would come from acknowledgment of limits of growth and economic descent we will not have that mandated support. What will be left is ad hoc, hobby, and prepper efforts.
claman on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 10:23 am
Davy , sorry for being sarcastic in my earlier comment.
You focus on food PRODUCTION and urges people to by locally.
I wonder if not the real bottleneck is the distribution of these products.
As I understand it a lot of poor neighborhoods in the US don’t even have access to stores that sell the good food, but they have to settle for big ag’s local empty-calories outlets.
claman on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 10:43 am
Some years ago I watched a documentary about Wendell Pierce (the black cop “bunk” in “the wire”) where he emphasised the need for better grocery store in black neighborhoods.
“he opened Sterling Express(2011), the first in a chain of grocery stores selling fresh produce and other staples in his hometown of New Orleans.”
Davy on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 10:47 am
Clam, you are correct with the empty calories. As the cost and or availability of food becomes an issues empty calories including fast food will slowly die out. Preindustrial food choices will increasingly be the options.
onlooker on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 12:21 pm
Davy your wise thought are greatly appreciated. However, we all know that it would be much much easier if governments and corporations would be on board for such a world changing path. Unfortunately, they show no signs of wishing such changes or even acknowledging the need for them. They have human resources which would help greatly this whole endeavor. Now, the other path is one of creative destruction where the whole system must be dismantled and a new grassroots system to take its place. Yet I do must concede a large die-off because the population has grown too much. Yet the Western Hemisphere is better positioned in terms of resources per capita so if this wholesale change can be accomplished it would be be done so in the Western Hemisphere.
PrestonSturges on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 5:33 pm
“…..Ownership of arable land generally imparts a certain jealousy about that land, and a tendency to be protective of its long-term viability as arable land; maintenance of its value…..”
Heh heh, they don’t call it “the tragedy of the commons” for nothing.
jjhman on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 8:28 pm
It seems, sometimes, that humans are caught between the little red hen and ConAgra. But I wonder. Perhaps if you looked at the distribution of land in the times of the yeoman farmer there was something somewhere in between private and public ownership. People were attached to the land, sometimes as bound peasants but later only by family tradition and familiarity. These people had incentive to treat the land well because lost harvests meant they would all starve.
Offering free stuff without obligation never worked, never will. But there actually are community gardens that seem to work pretty well.
Sometimes I think that a lot of possible paths to a better life are now blocked to us because we have lived too long in the capitalist dog-eat-dog value system. Community has been bred out of us.
Davy on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 8:36 pm
We will rediscover community once crisis is the normal. We have crisis now but it is disguised. Millions of people are being disenfranchised covertly. Eventually the social fabric tears. If the powers that be can keep food and fuel adequate most people will not feel in crisis. Shortages will be the marker of serious problems.
Boat on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 9:17 pm
Davy
Preindustrial food choices will increasingly be the options.
I hope you have a plan for plant disease and weeds choking out crops. It won’t take long for their big comeback.
Back when Grampa farmed with a team of horses and a two bottom plow he had one field he lost around 7 acres every year to weeds in the same area. He never did figure out how to combat them. It was a wheat field. They ended up feeding the invested crop to the cows.
makati1 on Mon, 19th Oct 2015 10:40 pm
Boat, you can add in the fact that most Us farm soil cannot grow a crop without chemical fertilizers by the ton. It is not much better than sand.