Population, economic growth and ecological damage - a peek under the hood

[tama]

17. Russia is interesting

There is strong highly authoritarian and technocratic tradition - both Czarist and Communist party hierarchies, which have collapsed multiple times in recent history. As well as the anarcho-spiritual traditions of Tolstoi, Kropotkin etc., and the "datchniks" who are not much effected by the continuous collapses of the state hierarchy:

In the workshop I learned that Dr. Leo wrote his doctoral dissertation on the spiritual, cultural, and economic significance of the Russian dacha gardening movement. (A dacha is a small cottage in the country.) I believe his work at the University of Missouri at Columbia has an urgent relevance to the US as debates rage over the ability of people to evolve sustainable “foodsheds.” Agribusiness interests propose that broad-scale industrial agriculture is the only model that can provide reliable, inexpensive food and that the toxicity of inputs, soil depletion and energy inefficiency of the system is acceptable due to a lack of alternatives. Thus far, this view has been backed solidly by the USDA to the tune of billions in agricultural subsidies that underpin this model — financing the destruction of America's soil and food quality, and rewarding industrial agribusiness as the model to succeed.

But millions of home gardeners in Russia disprove all these ideas and offer a model in which people regain central control of their food system in a very direct way, by growing the majority of their food themselves. In a country with corporate farms using 83 percent of the agricultural land, some 35 million families produce more than 50 percent of the country’s food, growing on small plots which are typically some 25 x 35 yards in size. While these plots are not the best agricultural land, they are tended by people who care about the quality of produce, who improve the quality of their soils, and who eat and share what they grow. These dachnik gardeners, as they are called, collectively produce 92 percent of the potatoes grown in Russia, 77 percent of the vegetables, 87 percent of the berries and fruit, 60 percent of the meat, and 49 percent of the milk.

http://www.ecovillagenews.org/wiki/index.php/From_Russia_with_Love

It seems quite obvious that the part of the Russian population that suffers from hope shortages is the part that is most dependent from the state hierarchy - or those most hurt by the state hierarchy.

Next stage from dachnik gardeners is the Anastasia ecovillage-movement, which is very strong in Russia and has also some support from the Establishment: http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20080211.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EjdRxCmPJsk

You are also familiar with Dmitry Orlov, who just wrote about Kropotkin: http://cluborlov.blogspot.fi/2012/10/in-praise-of-anarchy-part-i.html