On May 21 Julian Crib delivered his presentation on food security at the Canberra Grammar School. Cribb’s book The Coming Famine pulls together ute loads of unsettling information about the state of the earth connected to our food supply, (water, soil, protein use and supply, population, etc.). I saw the presentation at one of the ANU events some months ago and so was familiar with his case. Many people in this field leave you feeling like it is time to commit Seppuku. Julian however, has a second half of his presentation that is all techno boosting of the glories of algae farming, urban water management and synthesised foods of various levels of delectability.
The audience questions indicated we had organic farmers and various environmental enthusiasts in the room. Shane Rattenbury (the Green member of the local assembly) was one of the introduction speakers. Second time around it struck me that there needed to be a third strand added to Cribb’s presentation and that was dealing with the political and social realities. He did imply that the internet was going to bring together human ingenuity in unequalled energy and innovative power but the event left me a bit puzzled.
He has a vision of communities with altruism and far sighted engagement with problems but that is the bit I do not see. I see the problems pretty starkly. Apart from a life-long interest in these issues, now teaching high school history and geography I have to be enmeshed in these issues most days of the week. I am aware enough of the current rapid developments in the sciences and technologies to have confidence in the theoretical possibilities of solving the problems. Looking at societies and our political frameworks I lack the confidence of Julian Cribb.
The event was sponsored by Fusion and SEE-Change Inc. Their sites are below along with one for Julian Cribb.
Julian Cribb
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/jca.html
SEE-change
http://www.see-change.org.au/
Fusion
http://www.fusion.org.au/
Our hungry future
www.ourhungryfuture.org