Little did we know how a virus born in China might wreak havoc, lock down cities and even countries, suspend travel altogether, deplete shelves in supermarkets, empty the churches and meeting halls, close the schools, prevent people from hugging or shaking hands, and more.
For a necessary trip to Robinsons last week, I parked so easily close to the entrance (so many empty slots). My temperature was taken, hand sanitizer was sprayed on my hands. For the first time, I wore a mask. The restaurant where we ate was empty, not like the bustling place it was for as long as I can remember. Walking upstairs I saw the movie house cordoned off, while the two beauty salons were closed. The latest news said the entire mall was closing, except for the supermarket.
There was enough food in the supermarket but were there enough people to buy them? No rubbing alcohol available, of course. Last Sunday, I meant to go to the Valencia farmers market. I was told it was officially closed. So where are the farmers going to sell their produce?
And most important of all, does Negros Island produce most of the food that it needs to feed the people locally? How dependent are we on the transport of goods, and most importantly, of food products to reach us on time?
Crisis situations like this have not been experienced in my lifetime, in this global a scale, and quite so unexpectedly. The coronavirus disease itself is not the only threat, but it has taken world stage.
Environment advocate Ben Malayang III writes about the catastrophes we face. I encourage you to read his articles in a series in the column My Take in this newspaper.
A friend, Mike Alano, called me last week. He is looking for seeds to buy to give to the more than 100 craftsmen who create souvenir items for his store Subida Souvenirs. At the height of tourism, Subida’s products are in demand both at the store and online. The virus has shaken all that in so short a time. The farmers-turned-craftsmen are losing their income. To get food, we must grow food. Where to get seeds?
Imagine the scenario now with GMO seeds. What if transportation fails altogether?
Cuba, at the height of the oil embargo and trade blockade by the United States, suffered as an oil-dependent country. A report by Oxfam, an international development and relief agency, writes, “In the cities, buses stopped running, generators stopped producing electricity, factories became silent. Blackouts were as long as 16 hours a day. Without a substitute for fossil fuel-based large scale farming, agricultural production dropped drastically. Cubans started to grow local organic produce out of necessity, developed bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers. They also incorporated more fruits and vegetables into their diet. Since they couldn’t fuel their aging cars, they walked, biked, rode buses, and carpooled. Cuba developed large-scale wind and solar energy systems, and focused on reducing energy consumption. Cuba before was into plantation agriculture, exporting, among other things, sugar cane. The system did not fulfill people’s basic needs. Today, an estimated 50 percent of Havana’s vegetables come from inside the city, while in other Cuban towns and cities, urban gardens produce from 80 to 100 percent of what they need. (Resilience.org)
Peak Oil may not be our experience for now, but loss of income by farmers-turned-craftsmen and losing the market will unleash a chain of events that can lead to food scarcity or even worse. (Peak Oil is the hypothetical point in time when the maximum rate of extraction of cheap crude oil is reached, after which it will decline depending on economics and how governments respond to global warming.)
There are many other scenarios about loss of income. It has grim consequences unless…yes, unless we turn the situation around by starting to plant food again in our gardens or in clay pots in the balcony. We open up unused land for community food gardens. We plant with open pollinated seeds that can be used from crop to crop. We start saving seeds for exchange. In short, we opt for life.
When faced with a radical crisis, when the old way of being in the world, of interacting with each other, and with the realm of nature doesn’t work anymore, when survival is threatened by seemingly-insurmountable problems, an individual human — or species — will die or become extinct or rise above his limitations with an evolutionary leap. This is the state of humanity now, and this is the challenge. — Eckhart Tolle
Next week Part 2: Transition Town movement
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