Extinction Rebellion, David Blunkett and Me
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
I briefly mentioned the Extinction Rebellion climate change protest in my last post. In this one I want to describe what some of my misgivings about it were and how I’ve now laid them aside and embraced the movement, thanks to a few dark nights of the soul and a little helping hand over the line from former British Home Secretary, David Blunkett.
The International Day of Peasant’s Struggle – Some Notes from the Farm
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
A happy International Day of Peasant’s Struggle to you. Talking of which, I’m still struggling away trying to write my book about peasants while the rest of the farm crew are up in London protesting about government inaction on climate change, which means I’m having to do a bit of proper work as well for a change.
Destiny Delayed
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
So when combined with probable future food and energy crisis, there’s a chance that we may yet wrest the phoenix of an outward-looking small farm future from the ashes of Brexit. But the stakes are high, and the obstacles many.
Some Theses on Property, Immigration, Society and Culture
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
There’ll be lots of people ‘defending their culture’, lots of sacrifices by the many for the ‘good of the nation’ whose benefits will curiously accrue mainly to the few, lots more death and misery in the borderlands, lots more political polarization and lots more gated communities at various geographic levels that may become as oppressive to the people within them as without.
China’s Urban Villages – an Interview with David Bandurski
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
There’s a standard historical narrative of economic development with which we’re familiar in the west, essentially of peasant farmers quitting agriculture for industrial wage labour in the city and thereby building all-round prosperity.
Of Cages and Hedges
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
The lessons of China’s tumultuous history demand attention from those of us who advocate for more localized, land-based economies as part of the solution to global problems.
Population Wrapped Up: A Response to Jane O’Sullivan
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
I’d like to have devoted more time to this issue, and perhaps to have reflected further on population issues more generally but with this fairly brief response only to a few of Dr O’Sullivan’s specific points I propose to wrap things up on the population front from the Small Farm Future end.
Beyond Borders
By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future
International migration, then, is controversial every which way you choose to look at it. So let me take a deep breath and try to define a pragmatism of my own around the issue