“Ecocide” was the term coined to recognize environmental destruction as an act of war. Britain’s Jojo Mehta made headlines in alternative news recently after her speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, where she stated that ecocide needs to become a punishable offense and included farming and fishing.
Wait…that’s nuts.
This sounded too crazy. Maybe she was speaking off-the-cuff and exaggerated. So, I went to the Stop Ecocide website, and sure enough, they include a variety of farming and fishing practices in their definition of ecocide.
The American Professor Arthur W. Galston, who identified the defoliant effects of a chemical that later developed into Agent Orange first used the term “ecocide” in 1970 to describe what the US was doing in Vietnam. He called for the banning of ecocide, though he was calling for this in the context of war destruction.
Vietnam was the first state to codify ecocide in its domestic law in 1990, and given their history with napalm, this is understandable. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Russia and many former Soviet states codified ecocide in their domestic laws, too. Like Vietnam, however, the Soviet Union had a history of true environmental catastrophes. Kazakhstan has seen the poisoning and destruction of the Aral Sea, as well as many nuclear detonation tests. Uzbekistan is home to the infamous “black goo” base, where the Soviets dumped chemical weapons and radioactive wastes. These countries view ecocide in a totally different context than Westerners unhappy with certain farming practices.
Stop Ecocide was founded in 2017 by Scottish lawyer Polly Higgins and British environmental activist Jojo Mehta. These women have backgrounds in law and activism. They have no industrial background and know nothing about actual production. I wish we could write Stop Ecocide off as a ridiculous publicity stunt, but it’s no laughing matter. The designation of farming and fishing as ecocide, and then the criminalization of ecocide, is just one of many efforts designed to prevent average citizens from producing or procuring food.
The WEF is leading the charge against self-reliance.
The WEF has been coming up with various schemes to alter the lifestyles of average citizens for years in the name of saving the environment, whether these average citizens are willing or not. At this year’s summit, leaders urged international cooperation on climate change “even if it’s unpopular.”
We’ve talked about some of these efforts before. The globalist crowd has spent years demonizing meat-eating and promoting synthetic foods made from insects or cell cultures.
There are threats against the ownership of farmland.
We’ve also discussed how property values are being manipulated in favor of investors, not those who actually farm. This takes ownership of control out of the hands of the people who want to live and work on the land and puts it in the hands of people who are not necessarily interested in producing food.
Some press attention has been paid to the amount of farmland being bought up by foreign investors. In particular, Chinese holdings have increased fivefold in the past ten years, which has caused some concern. In general, however, the government does such a poor job of tracking foreign investment purchases that Americans don’t actually have a very clear picture of who owns what.
Americans did get lucky recently in that we narrowly avoided the New York Stock Exchange taking control of federal lands. On January 17, the NYSE withdrew its proposal to establish and list Natural Asset Companies (NAC). These would have pooled money from investors around the world to buy controlling rights to public and private land throughout the US. Naturally this would all be done in the name of sustainability.
However, it would have thrown a huge wrench into a variety of economic activities. For example, let’s look at the potential effect on livestock grazing, keeping in mind that limited grazing is actually beneficial for the land.
The federal government owns much of the land in the Western states, but ranchers have been able to graze animals on it for decades. If that land use were taken away due to the belief that grazing is “unsustainable,” ranchers would have to confine their animals and bring in food. Many of them would probably go out of business due to increased costs. Of course, this would be no problem with the folks at Davos who want us all eating bugs, but it would ruin the livelihoods of many ranching families and raise the cost of food for average Americans.
Quantifying the value behind nature, and then turning those values into tradable assets, would have necessitated a variety of legal loopholes, and so the NYSE withdrew the proposal. This was a win for average Americans, but it should serve as a warning for what the investor class, both here and abroad, wants to do with our federal land.
What happens now in relation to “ecocide” could determine whether we eat in five years.
Unfortunately, what goes on in ag-land is easy for the majority of the voting public to ignore because it involves relatively small numbers of people. However, rural issues demand attention. Whether people choose to pay attention to the food supply now may very well determine the accessibility of food in five years.
Many places already have supply chain problems, including school districts. I see no good reason to place sweeping restrictions on food production.
Do I think farming could be improved? Sure. Some solutions may even involve high technology. But farmers and ranchers need to adopt these practices as they make sense financially; top-down, widespread restrictions of the kind that the Stop Ecocide crowd wants to implement will do nothing but further restrict food production and drive knowledgeable people out of the industry.
I believe that that’s the goal. I don’t know if it’s stupidity in thinking the whole world can magically switch to eating ultra-processed laboratory food or malice in hoping half of us die off. But it is clear to me that these people want to end landownership and independent food production as we know it.
If this sounds hyperbolic it shouldn’t. Look at the farmers’ protests. They’re still continuing in France and Germany.
Jordan Peterson conducted an interview with Eva Vlaardingerbroek, the Dutch activist who has spent the last couple of years widely documenting European farmers’ protests. Dr. Peterson has 8 million subscribers on YouTube, and his videos regularly reach close to a million views within the first day or so. His interview with Eva garnered barely 50,000. Scrolling through the Twitter comments, many of his premium subscribers say that the video never popped up in their feeds. The only explanation for this is that YouTube is intentionally burying the story.
Thanks to Elon, Twitter isn’t, and you can still see footage from the massive protests being staged throughout Europe. You can watch Jordan and Eva’s 100+ minute-long interview here. One of the big reasons for burying the interview may be at about minute 23, when Eva talks about interviewing the average commuters stuck in traffic behind the truckers and farmers. She told Jordan that nine out of ten said that they were fine with being stuck. They supported the farmers.
This is why producing food is so important.
Understanding where your food comes from, and hopefully learning to produce at least some yourself, has never been more important. I’ve come across young at-home moms who joke about their “lame” suburban homesteads. They’re not lame! Can you produce 100% of your caloric needs on a suburban lot? Probably not. That doesn’t mean suburban gardens are not worthwhile.
Learning to produce at least some of your own food will supplement your household income in times of tight finances. During inflationary periods, food represents a commodity whose value to your family will remain stable. (You can get ahold of ALL of our food production content in physical format with this paperback book.)
There is a widespread belief that what happens to farmers doesn’t matter because “anyone” can farm. However, producing food involves a lot more than tossing seeds in the ground. If you and your family take time now to find out what will grow in your area, you will gain skills and confidence that no one can take away.
The restrictions that the Stop Ecocide movement and the WEF want to place on conventional farmers are not about saving the environment.
They are about control.
They want to break the ability of the average person to sustain his own family.
Most of us don’t have giant farm machinery with which to make political statements. But we can protest in our own small way. Learning about what it takes to produce your own food and putting that knowledge into practice to the best of your ability can be part of that.
What are your thoughts about food production being called ecocide?
Do you think farming, fishing, and hunting could become classified as the “crime” of ecocide? How concerned are you about this possibility? Do you produce food at all? Do you think it could become illegal in the future?
Let’s talk about this troubling trend in the comments.
About Marie Hawthorne
A lover of novels and cultivator of superb apple pie recipes, Marie spends her free time writing about the world around her.
The WEF, WHO, UN, and other global elites who think they are better than us, have declared GENOCIDE on the human race. I would like to see all of them gathered in one place, then see that place wiped clean from the face of the earth.
Sadly the people pushing these agendas think they will be immune to its impacts. That is why they persist. A cursory glance at history would inform them otherwise. But human nature always leads us down the same paths over and over again. And the same people who helped create the mess are the first ones to get discarded in history as useful tools. I’ll keep gardening and hunting.
Je länger wir den Eliten die politische, finanzielle und wirtschaftliche Macht erhalten, je eher sind wir in der Sklaverei. Die Völker mögen zur Besinnung kommen. Sie können diese Prozesse alle selbst in die Hand nehmen.
If they truly cared about the environment — as well as where next year’s meals are coming from — they’d be all in for regenerative farming. Which includes composting and caring for the land. But they’re not. All these people act like humans aren’t really part of Earth’s ecology, but then again, the war on “carbon” says the same thing. This is just them demanding that everyone else sign on for bread lines and starvation. Just remember why so many people starved to death during the Irish potato famine. The Irish were not allowed to hunt or fish after the blight destroyed their crop.
There was enough food in Ireland, but the British exported it.
Agree, caring for the land should be incorporated. Focus should be on balancing our needs and that of the land. Also keeping a broad genetic source for produce is so very important but easily overlooked. Al fits beautyfully within Celtic tradition. Celts have been the most repressed and subdued native people of Europe imo. Must have had to do with their focus on independance, community and freedom. Sounds familiair, eh? Greetings from the Netherlands all
Seems to be another case of “ Do as we say, not as what we do “. When are people going to wake up. Oh yeah, forgot, they told you to keep sleeping, and everything will be ok!
The WEF is pure evil and the Davos crowd needs to be stopped and told hell no. However, at the ecocide website it referred to overfishing and industrial meat production as being problems, which I think they are. I also think it’s questionable as to how sustainable the current industrialized food complex really is. That is before we consider the chemicals and hormones used to increase production. We’ve gotten used to having things like fresh out of season produce shipped from the other side of the planet, which is expensive and a fragile supply model. I doubt that my grandparents generation would have this degree of luxury. It would be much better to source as much locally as possible. It would be ideal for more people to try raising more of their own food, but I realize this is not feasible everywhere, but don’t underestimate the value of a container garden even if you live in an apartment.
Interesting that Vietnam would take the lead in condemning ecocide. What experience do they have? Other than getting bombed with Agent Orange by the US Air Force, of course…
I would think the combination of getting bombed, using extensive rice farming, and antipathy toward Western values would be enough experience. (Although, having forests defoliated by an enemy, combined with the original definition, might be sufficient.)
Commie Hobbs just nominated a new AZ Game and Fish Commission head that is touted for his hard stand on conservation, to include very strict limitations on hunting and fishing. Another indoctrinated septuagenarian who spent 26 years at Gen Dynamics is a good fit for Fish and Game why? Hopefully the AZ Senate won’t confirm him considering the amount of complaints that have arisen but it’s not like they actually work for us anyways. It starts small, like this. County and State level appointed shills to limit our rights to food. Next it will be limits on how many animals you can have on your homestead. Limits on the square feet of your gardens. It’s wise to take notice now and voice our opinions before it’s too late. Germany and France are certainly leading the way for us. Tacticalcivics.com is one way.
Does the movie Soylent Green sound possible now?
That is the next srep is it not when bugs and lab meat get too expensive ????!!!!
As in, eat the excessive population?
It’s always a good day to fertilize the fields…..just sayin…..
I can’t really speak to fishing. I am allergic to fish (now… i.e. since 2003). That said, lots of research and lots of on site reporting by fishermen shows that our preference for big fish has caused fish to shrink over their generations. (Probably survival of the fittest and the new “fittest” is “small enough to slip through nets” or “small enough to be thrown back”.)
Also, if you’ve had to restock your fishing spot (or anyone had to restock your fishing spot), you have literally seen ecocide and what has to be done to offset it. Can you restock your fishing spot after SHTF? If you can’t, then you need to become a fish environmentalist and fish conservatively. Or be happy when your fishing spot goes from fish haven to mosquito heaven.
As far as other food collection goes, MODERN food production is ecocide. The simplest examples include “sugar plantation vs original environment” or “orange orchards vs original environment”. If you’ve replaced a multi-species environment with a single species along with what works for that Single species, that’s ecocide. If you’ve replaced a variety of plants that flower at different times with a variety of plants that flower at a limited number of times, that’s ecocide. (Especially, if you are relying on bees and forget that they need food too.)
In a way, farming in tunnels (but not caves) is actually ecology-promoting, as there wasn’t an ecology beforehand. Not necessarily good for the water table (excess water use plus fertilizers plus drainage), but definitely a new environment to colonize.
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What they probably mean is to change your farming and fishing behaviors to change massive depletion to slight drag. Farm-wise, this will require smaller garden plots (a raised bed is a plot, in this case) interspersed with “weeds”. Fish-wise, this will require learning what lives in and around your fishing spot, working with anyone else who is using the same spot, and reducing the group (yours and theirs) impact on the surrounding land. Essentially, become collective ecologists with a goal of maintaining or growing the collective food supply. (And, if trade is involved, don’t allow anyone to “price out” their competitors. Or you will be back where we are now.)
PS: per Vietnam, you forgot Agent Orange, a defoliant, that was used where napalm was used.
“What they probably mean is to change your farming and fishing behaviors to change massive depletion to slight drag” Sure, you can assume that this one little discussion at Davos could be more innocent than we make it out to be. BUT, combine this concept with the rest of their documented discussions and plans and that tells us that is absolutely not what they mean.
I accept that a large number of “reduce footprint” people want to reduce the populace. They won’t say that, except among themselves. But, I am also aware that their stated goals can be subverted if we take steps to be more technical in how we approach the food problem. We already do this to some extent by setting catch limits for both deer/elk and public fishing. But, we are limiting ourselves with respect to enforcement. And we tend to ignore important aspects, including how our current food-taking pressure is affected by rainfall changes, and how many people a given area can support by natural means.
(The Congo is experiencing this, because of the taking of bush meat without any consideration for whether there will be bush meat the next year or decade. In some areas, the locals have had to resort to vehicle travel to locate enough meat, whereas they used to just walk through the nearby forests and jungle.)
I am an enrolled Tribal Member. I was taught and raised to respect Mother Earth. Mother Earth has provided food for my family for many, many years, before I was born. Now the white man has claimed the land in this Country and has tried to wipe out all Native Americans. As a result, there is no respect for Mother Earth, Her Animals, Birds, Trees and Plants. Resulting in less Trees to produce oxygen, less Animals (murdered) to keep themselves strong and healthy, which in turn helps keep the Plants healthy.
Was Jojo Mehta referring to the military handbook says you can eat your own feces up to three times?
There is nothing new under the sun. What’s sad and hard to fathom is how people willingly cooperate in their own destruction just like the Eloi. Ignorance is only bliss for the ignorant.
This women is retarded, dropped on her head often as a child, total insanity on her part to ever suggest something so stupid, but what is worse that this is that they gave her a platform to spew this insanity.
We just had a bug infestation which is now taken care of. I wish I’d read this sooner. I would have sent the dead bugs to Mehta for her lunch.
One thing to do is research ornamental plants that can be eaten. Edibles that don’t LOOK edible could save your life.
They want us to eat bugs. What will they feed the bugs? How will they process the bugs? They will use energy. Where will this energy come from? The people who used to work in the power industry won’t have enough calories to work their jobs. stop raising cattle. Where will women shop for the purses and shoes they want without leather to make them? Without oil and gas products, they can’t have clothing for designer dresses or make fertilizer to grow the plants that feed the bugs to make the food that will starve the people shutting down the industry that sends us back to the stone age. ( for the want of a nail)—— I, Grampa