In late February 2016, we learned from F. William Engdahl that Russia has banned US GMO imports.
Russia Bans US GMO Imports
A recent issue of the Atlantic focused on Russia’s new policy of giving away free land.
Russia’s Land Giveaway
And just yesterday we learned from RT that Russia has just had its first three applications for that free land.
Russia Gives Away First Free Land in Far East
Admittedly, this free land is harsh and unforgiving. However, who knows what hardy pioneer souls can do with it. Reminds me of the Homestead Act, which settled the American west (and further displaced or genocided Native Americans). Huge difference between Russia and U.S.: here there is hardly any more land available, unless you privatize national parks, which no sane citizen would want to do . . . we hope.
(BTW: I’m about to order naturalist Terry Tempest Williams new book, The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks. )
However, imagine a visionary set of public policies that encouraged huge farmers in America to break up their gigantic acreages into small parcels for permaculturists and other organic small farmers to own and to work. (Yes yes: There’s a vertiable army of young permaculturists in the U.S. who long to get their hands in the soil, to do real work for the common good.) Imagine the immense increase in productivity and health — of land, people, and overall well-being!
Indeed,
Russia’s Small-Scale Organic Agriculture Model May Hold Key to Feeding the World
Russia already knows this, knows how, and has proved it with its “dacha” system:
Russia’s Family Gardens Produce 40% of Russia’s Food
Contrast that, say with Indiana, one of “our” GMO-corn-and-soybean states: even in Bloomington, with its gigantic farmer’s market and lots of locavore food, only 2% of our food is grown “hyperlocally” (i.e., actually grown here, in or very near Bloomington). For more on this, both statistics and far-seeing ideas for the future, see permaculturist Peter Banes, his comprehensive “food” section for the Bloomington City Council’s Peak Oil Task Force Report.
Okay, time to notice the larger, truly ghastly, contrast:
And time for Americans to realize that Vladimir Putin is a visionary futurist of the first order.
Putin’s Pragmatic Agricultural Policy: The Value of “Stomach Diplomacy”
Would that we “exceptionalists” would swallow our damn pride and follow in his footsteps.
http://naturalsociety.com/russians-prove-small-scale-organic-can-feed-world/
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/324761-russia-putin-parliamentary-address-turkey/
