Agroecology and biodiversity: the kind of farming we need to secure our food supply is also wildlife friendly

摘要

Our world is dominated by a clearly definable oligarchy: of big governments, like Britain's; big industry and big finance, which mainly means the transnational corporates and the global banks; and - regrettably - an increasingly compliant army of intellectuals and experts, notably scientists and economists but with other kinds of thinkers and communicators too. Their job is to provide the governments, corporates and financiers with the technologies and the theories that increase their power and wealth, and to make their ambitions seem morally and politically acceptable (as in the notion of 'trickle down', which tells us that we all somehow benefit from the extreme wealth of the minority). Many of the supporting intellectuals and experts work for commercial companies, which at least is transparent. Many others are in academe and claim 'independence', yet depend nonetheless on corporate support, so that academe itself, more and more, becomes the helpmeet of the commercial-government complex. Mercifully, there are still plenty of intellectuals and experts who do not support the status quo and say so, but they for the most part are sidelined and find it hard to make a living. The rest of us go along with the act - perhaps protesting inwardly but sipping our Starbucks' cappuccinos nonetheless. Most of us, after all, as a woman on a Channel 4 vox pop said recently, just want to get on with our lives.