ABSTRACT
Kingsolver's quote demonstrates the profoundly dichotomous operating principles that underlie nature, versus those that underlie capitalism. In contrast, capitalism is a linear system: energy, raw materials, labor, and water are fed at end; commodities spew out at the other, along with gigantic quantities of waste, generated at every point along line. The ultimate purpose of the production system, as Commoner noted, was simply to produce more, faster. Indeed, despite the claims of industrialized agriculture, 70 percent of all food grown in the world comes from small farms using traditional and low-tech integrated methods of food production. Climate change, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, is creating extended droughts and increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as torrential downpours that threaten to undermine agriculture and, thereby, one's ability to feed themselves. People need a world based on cooperation, real democracy, and producing the things need in harmony with each other and the natural world.
