== PROUT'S STAND ON PRESENT FOOD CRISIS ==
Namaskar,
A global food crisis is now hitting our humanity. In some places, food
prices have skyrocketed and in other places food is just not available
at all. We've all read about it, if not experienced it ourselves.
So what has happened?
Did all the food suddenly disappear from the face of the earth? Did the
population of our planet double or triple in the last six months?
Certainly not. And only naive persons would point to such ridiculous
factors as being the cause of the problem.
The question is: Why is what was not a problem a few short months ago,
suddenly a major issue-- nay a critical food crisis?
In Baba's Prout teachings, He has clearly identified the cause(s) and
given the solution(s). Here following is a brief review of Baba
Proutistic analysis of the current food crisis.
HISTORY TELLS ALL: Part 1
While the unfolding of the global food epidemic may seem like something
totally new, actually it is a near mirror image of tragedies of the past
wherein big enterprises used manipulative antics to exploit & starve the
common people.
Let us take a look...
Baba says, "The British East India Company used to collect raw materials
by looting and intimidating the local people." (PNS-19)
So just as years ago, the British East India Company pummeled the
Bengali public by strong-arm business tactics, similarly in today's
market the capitalist powers have 'twisted the arm' of the common people
and forced local inhabitants in all regions to live according to the
dictates and desires of the corporate regime.
In areas of Mexico, Peru, Thailand and all over where local people would
grow their own food, such growers & local merchants were bullied into
becoming factory hands for those corporate behemoths. In a phrase, local
people were pressured & allured into giving up their own way of living
and instead tricked into becoming tools of the corporate enterprise.
This has set the stage for today's food calamity.
HISTORY TELLS ALL: Part 2
Now let us take another look back at the history...
Baba says, "It [British East India Company] contracted a pledge from
those who worked in cottage industries that they would buy raw materials
only from the company, and sell finished products only to the company.
The company used to sell raw materials at high rates, and buy finished
products at twenty-five percent below their actual market price." (PNS-19)
Here Baba shows how the British East India Company imposed their unfair
& exploitative business practices on the local merchants and common
citizens. In a phrase, the British totally railroaded and manipulated
the market of Bengal in their favour.
Similarly today, consumers and workers all over the globe are forced to
live by the mandates of today's corporate powers. Local businesses are
totally devoured and swallowed whole, and local people are dragged into
the clutches of the corporate business market.
Whether it be bananas, grains, rice, or any other food need-- or even
non-essential items like internet connections and etc-- the common
people have become slaves to the global capitalist framework. Because
local food production in places like Africa, China, Bangladesh, and
Chile has stopped or been seriously curtailed, and because those former
food growers are now factory workers for the global economic giants--
producing goods that will be exported-- the local people's essential
food needs can now only be gotten by those very corporate giants. What
food local people used to produce themselves, they now have to purchase
at a high rate from corporate suppliers.
So what the British East India Company did in Bengal in the past, the
corporate monsters are replicating today all over the globe.
HISTORY TELLS ALL: Part 3
Let us continue to take a look back...
Baba says, "The manufacturers [of Bengal] who refused to agree to the
terms of the company were handcuffed and publicly flogged, and the
thumbs of many weavers who resisted the demands of the company were
chopped off to destroy their capacity to weave fine cloth. Because of
this kind of oppression, the weavers of Bengal could not compete with
the weaving industry which was being developed in Manchester [England]."
(PNS-19)
To further capture the market, the British East India Company 'made an
example' out of those locals would would not comply and they literally
tortured and maimed any and all who rebelled against their exploitative
tactics in order to establish the company's dominance.
Likewise in today's world, the food growers and small farmers in local
areas who try to 'buck the system' are totally maligned, marginalised,
and mangled by the corporate powers. From Brazil to Malaysia to El
Salvador, local merchants are forced to accept the corporate dominance
in their region. And what is that dominance? Give up your independent
way of living; work night and day producing for the capitalist
enterprise; export those products overseas so capitalists can sell those
things for a high price; and become a consumer of essential goods (rice,
lentils, & other food stuffs) from global market.
Of if those local growers opt to remain as farmers, then the corporate
factory farms will temporarily under-cut them in price, thereby
squeezing those local growers into bankruptcy.
By this way, corporate agricultural powers grab the entire globe within
their snatch. Through imposition and force, they create their own global
market. And then they can pull the strings of their own puppet show and
manipulate the food supply and cost as much according to their own
corporate, greedy desires.
HISTORY TELLS ALL: Part 4
Now let us take one last look back to see the final picture...
Here then is the final result of what happened years ago under the
auspices of the British East India Company.
Baba says, "Within ten years after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, most
of the important industries in Bengal such as silk, cotton, sugar, salt,
colour dyes, machine parts and shipbuilding had been systematically
destroyed. The manufacturers and skilled labourers who had been employed
in various industries for generations were uprooted from their natural
source of livelihood...The inevitable result was the catastrophic famine
of 1770. Thus, Bengal was converted into a supplier of raw materials and
a market for British products. This type of economic exploitation is
called 'colonial exploitation'." (PNS-19)
Thus, left totally bedraggled and defeated and out of their natural way
of living, a terrible famine spread across the whole of Bengal-- all due
to the ruthless economic exploitation of the British.
And in today's global economy, the corporate giants of the west-- and of
America in particular-- have created the same outcome, with the worst
still to unfold.
Local denizens all over the globe have been uprooted from their
traditional ways of living and forced to accept the global economic
structure. In that case, every day goods and foods that locals used to
produce for themselves, they now purchase from corporate giants. Plus
their entire day is spent producing goods like automobiles, sneakers, or
computer chips for a few pennies of pay and while the corporate monsters
sell those very same items in other lands for record profits-- in the
billions.
Simultaneously, those corporate farms-- which are now the sole supplier
of food to those local peoples-- create a fake or artificial scarcity so
that they can raise the prices and gain bigger profits. The result being
a false shortage of food and increased rates which nobody can afford. In
a nutshell, that is the present-day food crisis.
So exploitation works in bigger and bigger cycles: What the British East
India Company did to cause the famine in Bengal centuries ago, the
American-cum-western corporations are doing to the world today.
CAPITALISTS AND ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY
Just as a quick review, the whole strategy known as 'artificial
scarcity' is one of the main cards being played by today's corporate
agro-industry.
Baba says, "Capitalists hoard essential commodities rice, pulse, and
salt etc] and create artificial scarcity to extract the maximum profit.
As a result consumers pay inflated prices for essential commodities, and
sometimes they even find that such goods are not available at all.
Middlemen and profiteers create artificial shortages of essential
commodities knowing that people will certainly purchase them, even by
taking loans." (PNS-14)
Thus the whole thing is just one capitalist sham. There is no real
shortage of food; prices need not be that high. The whole thing is
manipulated by capitalists. It is part of their business culture in
order to maximise profits.
Tragically, such ruthless practices never bode well for the common people.
Baba says, "If hoarders create artificial shortages... [and] accumulate
essential commodities then common people will suffer tremendously." (PNS-14)
And that is what has taken the world by storm today. The food crisis is
causing poverty, riots, famine, and torment all over the globe. And
sadly enough, it will probably only get worse before it gets better.
PROUTISTIC SOLUTIONS
So then what is the way out. Here is a bulleted list of solutions which
Baba has given. In the future these can be discussed further in greater
detail.
Baba says, "This situation [food crisis] can be avoided if consumers
cooperatives purchase essential commodities directly from producers
cooperatives or agricultural cooperatives." (PNS-14)
At present, from farm to mouth, from field to stomach, our food passes
through the hands of countless middle-men, causing the price to increase
at every turn.
In contrast, Baba guides us that people should be empowered to purchase
directly from that source industry. And those source farming industries
should be organised as cooperatives-- not at corporate agencies.
This will solve a big part of the problem as the middle-man will be gone.
Baba says, If the distribution of essential commodities is done through
consumers cooperatives, middlemen and profiteers will be eliminated."
(PNS-14)
Thus in a nutshell:
- Food should be produced by local growing cooperatives. And these
should be large-scale models that are governed and staffed by local
people, not outsiders.
- There should be an appropriate portion of the population involved in a
balanced array of industries, including agriculture. There must not be
over-industrialisation, which is what we see happening in much of
today's global economy. In various discourses Baba warns against this
and provides exact percentages of how the population should be organised.
Baba says, "In order to build a sound economy thirty to forty percent of
the people in an area – neither more nor less – should depend directly
on agriculture. If the percentage is smaller, agriculture is neglected.
Conversely, if the percentage is greater, there will be a heavy strain
on agriculture." (PNS-12)
- Thus those are some of the key solutions: Cooperatives, local
agriculture, no middle-man, no over-industrialisation, etc.
And verily, Baba has devoted dozens of His Prout discourse to the
evolution revolution, and creation of a cooperative based society. He
has given all the requirements and guidelines for moving away from the
hellish capitalistic model and smoothly transitioning into a Proutistic
one.
So we need not look far to find any answers. Rather we are to propagate
Baba's ideals across the globe. That will bring relief.
BABA'S BLESSING
By Baba's grace He has identified the problems and given the solution to
today's food crisis. None should naively think that there really is no
food or that there are too many people on the planet. Neither of these
things are part of the problem. The whole problem lies in the evil and
greedy tactics of corporate capitalism. Yet by Baba's grace the end is
near, and soon the world will embrace a new way of living that will be
founded on sound-socio economic principles.
Baba says, "For the establishment of a healthy society, agricultural
cooperatives, essential commodity producers cooperatives and essential
commodity consumer cooperatives are a must...As science advances,
cooperatives will develop and manufacture a great variety of commodities
from synthetic raw materials...The day is very near when science will be
guided by spiritually oriented intellectuals. When this day comes,
science will move forward with leaps and bounds, causing the
intellectual capacity of human beings to increase immensely.
Cooperatives will greatly assist this psychic and spiritual
advancement." (PE, 'Cooperatives')
Namaskar,
Dharma
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Method to Make Ideal Human Beings
Baba says, "Some people may ask: Why does A'nanda Ma'rga run many
kindergarten schools and not many high schools, degree colleges and
universities? A kindergarten school is something basic and the mission
of making human beings is accomplished here. If one has already become a
thief or a criminal, in that case university education for such a person
is of no avail. One is to be moulded in one's childhood. If one receives
the fundamentals of education in the formative period of one's life, one
will keep oneself alright in the teeth of the greatest trials and
tribulations in life. A bamboo, when green, can be shaped or bent in any
way you like. Once it ripens, any attempt to reshape it will break it.
This is why more stress is to be laid on kindergarten schools. Such
schools are the first phase of making human beings." (PNS-18 p.37)
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