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A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (Now with poll!) | 37 comments (37 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
I'm getting old (4.00 / 2)
And what we have talked about re the role of agriculture in society is dependent on small farmers, not on industrial farming.

I can't imagine a society that has no respect for small farmers. It's a quality of life thing. But I'm probably turning slowly blimpish in my dotage....

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 03:52:20 PM EST
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Re: I'm getting old (4.00 / 3)
If Socialist parties could engage with small farmers, it would hugely enrich and strengthen both parties.

notes from no w here
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 03:56:43 PM EST
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Re: I'm getting old (4.00 / 2)
Yes, I am surprised this has not taken place. But if you are only counting votes, the farmers are ignorable in the short term.

But I see considerable benefits in the future for parties that can make the philosophical argument about local food production/control over sustainability/visual environment/social values etc. It would be an especially easy sell in Finland.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 04:04:06 PM EST
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Re: I'm getting old (4.00 / 4)
It is imho about identities.

The socialists takes their identity from the workers position in the industrial society, the farmers party from the farmers position in the industrial society.

To merge these an overriding identity and narrative needs to form.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 04:11:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: I'm getting old (4.00 / 2)
Farming is industrialising too, and farmers are increasingly de facto employees of their customers - dairies/grain wholesalers/retail multiples.  The whole business of subcontracting work to nominally independent self-employeed contractors is all about avoiding the legal and other obligations that socialists have established for the employer/employee relationship.

Arguably, the small self-employed operators are victims of classical Marxist "false consciousness" syndrome.  They think they are capitalists/independent and even small employers, when in reality they are more under the thumb of agribusiness than direct employees are.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 04:23:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Finland (none / 1)
The situation is a little different in Finland, where, for geological reasons (and the Forest program), small to midsize farms are the norm, as are agricultural cooperatives such as Raisio. But Raisio is now publicly quoted and no longer run as a classic cooperative.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 04:30:20 PM EST
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Re: Finland (none / 0)
The same has happened to Irish agricultural cooperatives

notes from no w here
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 04:33:37 PM EST
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Re: I'm getting old (4.00 / 3)
If the trend in service industries with circumventing employee protections by technically having one-person franchises I can see the basis for a new identity.

One-person franchises in all corporations, unite!

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 04:49:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: I'm getting old (none / 1)
The whole business of subcontracting work to nominally independent self-employeed contractors is all about avoiding the legal and other obligations that socialists have established for the employer/employee relationship.

Arguably, the small self-employed operators are victims of classical Marxist "false consciousness" syndrome.  They think they are capitalists/independent and even small employers, when in reality they are more under the thumb of agribusiness than direct employees are.

These are important points, and I find it hard to fathom how socialist parties have failed to grasp them.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Jun 24th, 2009 at 05:58:03 PM EST
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Re: I'm getting old (4.00 / 2)
A swedish kind of death:
To merge these an overriding identity and narrative needs to form.

it's forming here and now on this thread!

climate change will continue to force the unwilling to acknowledge the price of externalities, be it through insurance risk, or resource shortage.

once that veil of ignorance is riven, then the union of workers, industrial and agricultural could better occur.

so rive it we will! (with a lot of help from Gaia).

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Jun 25th, 2009 at 07:38:34 AM EST
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Re: I'm getting old (none / 1)
At least in France, it seems the Greens are engaging some of the small farmers.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 07:10:41 PM EST
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Re: I'm getting old (none / 0)
As long as this isn't a case of city people telling country people how to manage their the land this could be a very productive dialogue for both sides.

notes from no w here
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Tue Jun 23rd, 2009 at 07:36:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

A Sustainable Food Industry for Europe (Now with poll!) | 37 comments (37 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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