Emily Anstett 11/18: The Tender Carnivore: Ten Thousand Years of Crisis Reflection

  Paul Shepherd connects the start of the environmental crisis, not to the industrial revolution, but to the development of the “food-producing revolution,” or when people began to settle and practice agriculture.  This is the root cause of our current crisis.  Shepherd attributes this to the methods used to farm and domesticate animals, specifically the “acquisitive proprietorship and territorial aggrandizement,” (Shepherd, P., 4).  Agriculture as a practice, in many instances, has come to mean man’s power over land.  While there are ways of interacting with the environment that allows for reciprocity and mutual benefit,  agriculture has perpetuated a culture of domination.  Agriculture can be linked to the mindset that many humans have of being exceptional.  The notion that humans can “control” nature for their own ends has gotten us into our current predicament.  In reality, the crisis we are enduring illustrates that despite the great efforts of many humans, we cannot control nature.  The fact that we have attempted to control genetic diversity, yields, and aesthetics is having detrimental effects.  We can no longer control what “nature” is throwing at us.  Specifically, humans cannot continue to live the way that we live with hyperconsumption and producing significant amounts of waste and not feel the effects.  As Evan Eisenberg described in The Ecology of Eden, we need nature much more than nature needs us.  I think that becoming aware of this could help shift the mindset of a lot of people.  We cannot expect to both benefit from and entirely control nature.  Therefore, as we discussed in class we must be open to a relationship founded on reciprocity with nature, not a hierarchy.