Re: [ecovillageuk] Russias small-scale organic agriculture model may hold the key to feeding the world
Simon Fairlie
chapter7 at tlio.org.uk
Wed Jul 16 00:04:59 BST 2014
The same holds for milk production in the former socialist countries,
thanks to resistance to collectivization programmes;
> But while the smallholder’s cow has almost disappeared in Britain,
> she remains the main provider of milk in many parts of the world.
> She has flourished in former socialist countries, despite their
> centralised ideology. Lynne Viola has written a fascinating study
> of the bab’i bunty riots against collectivisation, carried out by
> women because they were less likely to get carted off to Siberia
> than the menfolk.27 These protests often revolved around the
> collectivisation of cows which were the economic mainstay for many
> peasant women and a main source of nourishment for their children.
> “My wife does not want to socialise our cow so I cannot do this”
> one peasant said, explaining to a party activist why he would not
> join the collective farm. Viola continues:
> “In later years, Stalin even admitted how important an issue the
> loss of a cow had been in provoking women’s opposition to the
> collective farm when he said: ‘In the not too distant past, Soviet
> power had a little misunderstanding with the collective farm women.
> The issue was cows.’”
> Viola goes on to assess the effectiveness of this milkmaid’s revolt:
> “The Party admitted that the ‘retreat’ of 1930 came about as a
> response to peasant unrest, and Stalin even made a note of the
> opposition of peasant women to the attempt to socialise domestic
> livestock when, in 1933, he promised a cow for every collective
> farm household. This was clearly not a retreat from
> collectivisation, but it was a retreat — and a retreat that proved
> permanent . . . The state was forced to settle for a programme
> minimum, in which the peasantry was allowed to maintain a private
> plot, domestic livestock and limited direct access to the market.”
> Stalin’s “retreat” has had more long term effect than his
> collectivisation, since it is well known that Russia today produces
> a phenomenal amount of its food from smallholdings. The US
> Department of Agriculture reports that in 2011, 49.7 percent of
> milk in Russia was produced by private households. In the Ukraine
> the figure rose from 26 per cent in 1990 to 81 per cent in 2006. In
> 1990, large dairy farms in the Ukraine had higher yielding cows
> than household producers, but by 2006 the position had reversed.28
> Much the same pattern seems to have been prevalent in Poland, prior
> to its entry into the EU in 2004. In that year, when the UK had an
> average herd size of nearly 90 cows, the average sized herd in
> Poland was just 3.2. The prevalent view of EU economists is that
> such tiny herds must be inefficient, but they aren’t any bar to
> productivity, since in 2004 Poland was the fourth largest milk
> producer in Europe, and was providing one and a half times as much
> milk for each of its citizens as Britain, — and probably
> distributing it more efficiently to those of its inhabitants that
> lived in the countryside.29
>
Excerpt from "Dairy Miles", The Land Issue 13 page 53
Simon Fairlie
Monkton Wyld Court
Charmouth
Bridport
Dorset
DT6 6DQ
01297 561359
chapter7 at tlio.org.uk
http://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/
http://www.thescytheshop.co.uk/
On 15 Jul 2014, at 23:23, Tony Gosling tony at cultureshop.org.uk
[ecovillageuk] wrote:
>
>
> Russia’s small-scale organic agriculture model may hold the key to
> feeding the world
>
> http://www.hangthebankers.com/russias-small-scale-organic-
> agriculture-model-may-hold-the-key-to-feeding-the-world/
>
> Imagine living in a country where having the freedom to cultivate
> your own land, tax-free and without government interference, is not
> only common but also encouraged for the purpose of promoting
> individual sovereignty and strong, healthy communities.
>
> Now imagine that in this same country, nearly all of your neighbors
> also cultivate their own land as part of a vast network of
> decentralized, self-sustaining, independent “eco-villages” that
> produce more than enough food to feed the entire country.
>
> You might be thinking this sounds like some kind of utopian
> interpretation of historical America, but the country actually
> being described here is modern-day Russia.
>
> It turns out that Russia’s current agricultural model is one that
> thrives as a result of the millions of small-scale, family-owned
> and -operated, organically-cultivated farms that together produce
> the vast majority of the food consumed throughout the country.
>

>
> Do Russians have more food freedom & independence than Americans?
>
> A far cry from the unsustainable, chemical-dependent,
> industrialized agriculture system that dominates the American
> landscape today, Russia’s agricultural system, which is not
> technically a system at all, is run by the people and for the
> people. Thanks to government policies there that actually encourage
> autonomous family farming, rather than cater to the greed of
> chemical and biotechnology companies like they do here in the
> states, the vast majority of Russians are able and willing to grow
> their own food on privately-owned family plots known as “dachas.”
>
> According to The Bovine, Russia’s Private Garden Plot Act, which
> was signed into law back in 2003, entitles every Russian citizen to
> a private plot of land, free of charge, ranging in size from 2.2
> acres to 6.8 acres. Each plot can be used for growing food, or for
> simply vacationing or relaxing, and the government has agreed not
> to tax this land. And the result of this effort has been
> phenomenal, as Russian families collectively grow practically all
> the food they need.
>
> “Essentially, what Russian gardeners do is demonstrate that
> gardeners can feed the world and you do not need any GMOs,
> industrial farms, or any other technological gimmicks to guarantee
> everybody’s got enough food to eat,” writes Leonid Sharashkin,
> editor of the English version of the The Ringing Cedars series, a
> book collection that explains the history behind this effort to
> reconnect people with the earth and nature. ( http://
> www.ringingcedars.com/)
>
> Most food in Russia comes from backyard gardens
>
> Back in 1999, it was estimated that 35 million small family plots
> throughout Russia, operated by 105 million people, or 71 percent of
> the Russian population, were producing about 50 percent of the
> nation’s milk supply, 60 percent of its meat supply, 87 percent of
> its berry and fruit supply, 77 percent of its vegetable supply, and
> an astounding 92 percent of its potato supply. The average Russian
> citizen, in other words, is fully empowered under this model to
> grow his own food, and meet the needs of his family and local
> community.
>
> “Bear in mind that Russia only has 110 days of growing season per
> year so in the U.S., for example, gardeners’ output could be
> substantially greater. Today; however, the area taken up by lawns
> in the U.S. is two times greater than that of Russia’s gardens
> and it produces nothing but a multi-billion-dollar lawn care
> industry.”
>
> The backyard gardening model is so effective throughout Russia that
> total output represents more than 50 percent of the nation’s
> entire agricultural output. Based on 2004 figures, the collective
> value of all the backyard produce grown in Russia is $14 billion,
> or 2.3 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) – and
> this number only continues to increase as more and more Russians
> join the eco-village movement.
>
> Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/
> 037366_Russia_home_gardens_food_production.html
>
> and
> http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?p=167595#167595
>
>
>
>
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