THE DEALERS | OUR FUTURE IN FOOD
As 2020 drew to a close and the festivities commenced I was reminded through social networks, web advertisements, and awards ceremonies of the role which is played by a select few in deciding what we consume. This is not something that I look past on a daily basis rather something that becomes amplified in times when consumers tend to open their bank accounts to indulge, celebrating victories and drowning defeats of the past year in “luxury”.
It seems almost impossible to not recognize that what is happening is no different than a dealer on the corner pushing a bag to a naïve youngster looking to explore the edges of reality or, in some cases, escape reality. Of course in time the youth becomes an adult, with new found consciousness the err in his/her ways is apparent, and it becomes their decision whether or not to move forward down the path of self indulgence or right their sails finding a life of sustainability. The difficulty lies in the fact that once you have wandered the dark and lonely road long enough it becomes comfortable, almost welcoming, the fix becomes no different than the feeling of arriving home to your robe and a warm bath after a hard days work, which is exactly what they (DEALERS) are looking for.
So who is to blame in this wild charade? After all, humans have free choice, they make their own decisions, don’t they?
Our food system, by design, is not made for the masses to comprehend and surely not for them to choose. The dealers who create the “rules and regulations” that control what hits the market place are happy to keep the wool pulled over our eyes and continue to feed us what ever turns the most profit regardless of its long term affects, sometimes without even knowing what the long term affects may be. Scientists work tirelessly to find new ways to trigger emotion through consumption so that the “cash crops” can continue to create year end bonuses for the elite. Farmers are pushed to the limits to keep the cycle moving forward, producing more per acre than the year before to meet quotas for middleman who will see far more prosperity than they themselves will. Land is run barren and attempts to amend soil with synthetic inputs eventually prove useless.
Their are many shape shifting tactics employed by these dealers to keep the consumer fixed to their objective while profits roll in. Pyramids designed to tune you in to the ideal balance of specific inputs your body “needs” to function, research documents which discover new information about bodily responses to individual ingredients exposing negative affects or enlightening us to new benefits, even full scale warfare against specific elements designed to scare us from consuming them. The almost comical aspect of this game is peeling through history looking at the shifts in “science” and how toxic something can become when its not ideal for the bottom line. Forevermore the wheels keep spinning in the direction of profits over people and evolution becomes less organic with each passing year to keep the dream alive.
As the system continues to push against a levy that is sure to break the signs become apparent that we are in need of change. The archaic idealism that science will show us a better way to coexist with the natural world while we continue to decimate its resources can no longer be trusted. We have reached a tipping point due to a herd mentality pushed upon us from the first days of our consciousness, follow the steps of those who have been here before you and disregard your freedom to challenge perspective.
The solution to this problem will not arise by asking the figure heads to change, rather by a mass consciousness realizing that we do not need graphs or charts to tell us what will sustain us rather we must tune in to our bodies, nature, our community, and those who live in symbiosis with our planet to unlock the keys to our future in food. We must realize that a shiny package paired with nutritional facts we cannot understand is an alien concept we have been molded to accept. We must ask ourselves what value is there in consuming products which take more energy to create than they provide and is it necessary to our survival that international trade stay alive?
Our fear has allowed mongers to continue trading commodities like real estate cards on a monopoly board, most of which end up being subsidized to justify their production, or in laymen terms paid for by tax payer dollars to be once again paid for by the same tax payer in a cereal box, cut of meat, or bread bag on a shelf all in the name of healthy global trade. Once we take a step back and see this perspective we can begin to dismantle the system, exposing its weakness by turning to our local providers for our daily sustenance in place of those with advertising dollars sufficient to drown out competition, building a soap box for the men and woman who know the solution. This shift may take decades but if we start challenging the system with our choice instead of our votes we can slowly begin to separate the words factory and farm leaving the latter in the hands of those who work the fields instead of those who sit in office chairs wielding pens not shovels.
In the same vein it becomes the responsibility of those inside the intricate web of food distribution to stand up and ask the necessary questions to ensure what they are delivering is sustenance not poison. Each through point should be held responsible for his or her role in the filtering down of lies for profit that is ever so present in our current system, employing a system of checks and balances that will create a face for each product and those who produce it. Those at the tip of the spear, the ones who place products on plates or in grocery bags should be held the most accountable in the chain as they have a firm understanding (or should) of everything they are pushing for consumption through the time they spend procuring said products.
The cards seem to be stacked against success but the good thing is nature is exceptional at evolution as well as healing its wounds. She does not need a guru or a salesman rather an open ear to listen to her voice and a willingness to follow her guidance. We can learn everything we need by opening our minds to the fact that we are not the creators of nature but that we were created by nature. When we open the door to this new way of living we will see that every human can be sustained by the soil without a dealer pushing a hot new version of something mother earth created centuries ago to keep us sustained as we coexist in harmony with all of her beings.
