Thursday, April 21, 2011

Power Shift 2011, boiled down

Earlier this week starry-eyes idealists poured into the Power Shift 2011 conference and youth rally to listen to speakers like Van Jones and Bill McKibben - yes that Bill McKibben - on how to, like, save the world and stuff.




Apparently, the conference called for a push to use local food production to benefit local economics and the environment.

Well, I've tackled this issue enough times. Let's let Ezra Klein handle it for a change:

Despite the dreams of many foodies, I can't think of a major industry that went from small, decentralized production methods to large, scaled industrial production -- and then back again. Are there any examples I'm missing? Maybe so. But for now, I think of the preference for farmers markets and small producers as being mainly important in sending certain signals about production methods and branding preferences to Big Ag than in actually creating some sort of viable alternative.

Well said, Ezra.

3 comments:

  1. Let those unwashed hippies start a revolution. It didn't work for the south either guys.

    I'm not entirely convinced that any of those people should be left alone with pets.

    I have to say, I love the guy that says he hates money. As if "money" is actually a thing that could be done away with and not a trading concept.

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  2. It's like dude, if one dude started growing tomatoes and then he like, grew enough for like his whole community. Then he could like share and the other people could give him like cucumbers in return, dude.
    What a cute video filled with cute people doing cute thinking. I lolled.

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  3. "I have a green helmet and I've pulled down my pants! That makes me scream! AHHHH!"

    What?

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