I’ve been driving and driving again, through hundreds and hundreds of acres of farmland. Land whose life has been killed by men with big ploughs so that they could force her to bear their own fruits. It started this way, and then they fenced out and killed the animals, and now everything is dying. Even the people, even the plants they have been forcing her to grow. No one stopped them. I didn’t stop them. I wasn’t here, and even now I’m just passing through. Even when people do try to stop them, there are such huge battles over such small pieces of land (as if there is such a thing as a piece of land) while the destruction continues all around it.
The dirt screams here.
Do you know the Judaeo-Christian story of Lillith? There are stories of her that predate monotheism, of course, but when the monotheistic patrilinealists made their bid for domination they had to incorporate some of the old Gods and Goddesses and Hoidays. Anyways. Lilliths story goes something like this.
Once upon a time Yahweh made man and woman, Adam and Lillith, from the dirt. He breathed live into them and they lived in the Garden of Eden, and everything was perfect and beautiful. Then one day Adam wanted Lillith to lay on the bottom. Lillith didn’t want to be on the bottom, so Adam tried sneaking up on her when she was sleeping and holding her down, but, being made out of the same dirt and the same breath of life as him, she always kicked and bit and got away. Finally Adam went to Yahweh, and he said, “God, this woman sucks. I can’t get her to lay on the bottom.”
Yahweh said, “Okay, Adam. I’ll make you a woman you can handle.” And he took one of Adams ribs and made Eve from his side, so that she would always be by his side and subservient.
Then Yahweh took Lillith up to his Big Kingdom In The Sky, and they were great lovers. Like Henry and June, yanno? Until one day Yahweh decided that it was time for Lillith to be on the bottom. Lillith was like, “oh hell no!” So Yahweh snuck up on her while she was sleeping and held her down. He was pretty strong, being a God and all, and for a minute she couldn’t get away. In that minute, trapped under God, she went deep inside herself and grew wings. Then she became an owl and flew away over the desert.
Yahweh sent three of his angels and they begged and pled with her to come back, but she refused. Finally, they told her that Yahweh would kill three of her children every day until she came back. Her face turned horrible and she said that she would kill one hundred of his children every day.
So it has been. So the children of agriculture die daily by the hundreds from cancer and diabetes and heart break and the other sins of agriculture.
And what is there to do about it but go to the river and scream and cry and listen?
These are the things I think, sometimes, driving through farmland.
(In other news, my hard drive is not XP-compatible, my laptop has been Vista-restored, and I got a buncha cool programs in the mail from a coverboy in PA)
Well, being a product of agribusiness, that’s a harsh parable to hear. But I do get the sentiment.
Oh, you are so right on with that one sister! I like the way you think. It is horrible to see such tortured earth, and sad sick hopeless people.
Before I saw your handle…I thought to myself, “There goes another holier than thou eco-feminist.” Normally ramblings like this piss me off to no end as they are usually lacking in substance. Most of your writing is lacking in real substance yet there is still this subtle pull that makes me read the next and the next. Maybe its the thought of wandering through some small town, stopping at a strip club, and getting those nice tits rubbed in my face that makes it all okay. Lol. I kinda like this little site of yours. Simple and tasteful!
Hey, don’t get me wrong, agriculture sucks. The nearly-inevitable structures of power and control (particularly social structures to keep women controlled and powerless) that go with it are at least as bad as the health effects.
But what’s the alternative? The one technology we can’t live without is the agriculture techniques of the last 10,000 years or so. Not unless you wanna reduce the world population to less than a billion. In the words of Ronald Wright, “As we climbed the ladder of ‘progress’, we kicked out the rungs underneath.”
Also, the health effects of agriculture don’t have to be that bad, just because modern industrial farming _is_ that bad.
You take a look at life expectancy of 150 years ago, factor out the childhood diseases we’ve mostly irradicated, and you see that the life expectancy 150 years ago was nearly a decade higher.
Discount premature deaths by violence/accident/etc, it’s even more dramatic.