MINDFUL MARKETS Producer-Consumer Partnerships towards a New Economy
Editor Wallapa van Willenswaard Contributions
Dasho Karma Ura (Bhutan), Koichi Kato (Japan), Zainal Arifin Fuad (Indonesia), Chen Li (China) and others.
Introduction and Interviews
Aree Chaisatien, Nanthiya Tangwisuthijit, Pennapa Hongthong, Sukhumaporn Laiyok, Hans van Willenswaard (Thailand)
Garden of Fruition
MINDFUL MARKETS. Producer-Consumer Partnerships towards a New Economy. Š2015 by Garden of Fruition publishers All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, other than for educational and activist purposes. National Library of Thailand Cataloging in Publication Data Mindful Mrakets: Producer-Consumer Partnerships towards a New Economy.-- Bangkok : Suan Nguen Mee Ma, 2015. 216 p. 1. Organic farming. 2. Food--Marketing. I. Wallapa van Willenswaard, ed. II. Title. 664.0685 ISBN 978-616-7368-66-5
Suan Nguen Mee Ma social enterprise Garden of Fruition Publishing house * Green shop, books, handicrafts, coffee * Green Market Network 77,79 Fuang Nakorn Road Opposite Wat Rajabopit Bangkok 10200 Thailand www.suan-spirit.com www.thaigreenmarket.com Secretariat School for Wellbeing Studies and Research Towards Organic Asia (TOA) programme www.schoolforwellbeing.org Tel. +66-(0)2-622 0955 Fax. +66-(0)2-622 3228 Books can be ordered from publishers@suan-spirit.com ISBN: 9 78616736 8665 Photo: Sirichok Lertyaso Book cover & Layout: Chakit Suppakutta Printed in Thailand by Parbpim Limited Partnership Tel +66-(0)2-879 9154
MINDFUL MARKETS Producer-Consumer Partnerships towards a New Economy
Editor Wallapa van Willenswaard Contributions
Dasho Karma Ura (Bhutan), Koichi Kato (Japan), Zainal Arifin Fuad (Indonesia), Chen Li (China) and others.
Introduction and Interviews
Aree Chaisatien, Nanthiya Tangwisuthijit, Pennapa Hongthong, Sukhumaporn Laiyok, Hans van Willenswaard (Thailand)
Garden of Fruition
Garden of Fruition คณะกรรมการบริษัทสวนเงินมีมา ๑. นายสุลักษณ์ ศิวรักษ์ ๒. นายปรีดา เตียสุวรรณ์ ๓. นายประวิทย์ เยี่ยมแสนสุข ๔. นายสัจจา รัตนโฉมศรี ๕. นายอนันต์ วิริยะพินิจ ๖. นายฮันส์ แวนวิลเลียนส์วาร์ด ๗. นางวัลลภา แวนวิลเลียนส์วาร์ด
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๑๑. นายปรีดา เรืองวิชาธร ๑๒. นายศิโรช อังสุวัฒนะ ๑๓. นายเลิศ ตันติสุกฤต ๑๔. นางสาววรรณา ประยุกต์วงศ์ ๑๕. นางสาวปารีณา ประยุกต์วงศ์ ๑๖. บริษัท แพรนด้า โฮลดิ้ง จำ�กัด ๑๗. นายกษิดิศ อื้อเชี่ยวชาญกิจ ๑๘. นายวัลลภ พิชญ์พงศ์ศา ๑๙. นางดารณี เรียนศรีวิไล ๒๐. นางสุวรรณา หลั่งน้ำ�สังข์ ๒๑. นายวีระเดช สมบูรณ์เวชชการ
Garden of Fruition publishers is the English name for Suan Nguen Mee Ma, a social enterprise registered as a company in Thailand since 2001. The Thai company is governed by a shareholders community comprising NGO’s under the legal umbrella of the SathirakosesNagapadipa Foundation (SNF), business friends and the management (see Thai names above). SNF was founded by Thai social critic and Buddhist scholar Sulak Sivaraksa in 1968. This is the first book of Garden of Fruition publishers in English and once more books in this series will be published an Advisory Committee will be formed to guide this branch of our activities. Garden of Fruition publishers works closely together with the School for Wellbeing Studies and Research, an independent think “pond” and action-research platform it founded and coordinates. Suggestions and new ideas are most welcome. Please contact Wallapa wallapa.van@gmail.com and Hans van Willenswaard hans@schoolforwellbeing.org .
CONTENTS Publishers’ Notes Part One MINDFUL MARKETS and the Future of Food and Farming. 11 An introduction Chapter1 What Kind of Markets Do We Want? - Hans van Willenswaard 13 1.1. Free Market vs. Food Sovereignty 1.2. ‘Organic’ and Its New Meaning 1.3. Sustainable Development and Consumption: A New Global Lifestyle 1.4. Mindful Markets: Towards ‘Organic Food for All’
Part Two The MINDFUL MARKETS Forum 37 Chapter 2 Opening the Stage of the Mindful Markets Asia Forum 39
– Wallapa van Willenswaard Chapter 3 Food, Farming and Happiness. Mindful Markets Forum 45 Keynote Presentations 3.1. Food and Farming Beyond GDP – Introduction 45 3.2. Mindfulness and Market – Dasho Karma Ura 49 3.3. Consumers who Produce, Seikatsu Consumers 61 Cooperative – Koichi Kato 3.2. Producer Power: La Via Campesina, Small-scale Farmers 71 Movement – Zainal Arifin Fuad
Part Three Case Studies, Stories, People 84 CSA, Young Farmers and Consumer Education 84 Chapter 4 China: Sharing the Harvest. A Group of Counterculture’ 91
Young Urban Chinese – Chen Li and Wu Zhou; Interview: Aree Chaisatien Chapter 5 Myanmar: Tamarind Valley Farm. ‘Small is Beautiful’ – Maran Naw Aung; Interview: Sukhumaporn Laiyok
109
Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Thailand: Kalayanamitra Group. True Friends on the Path to 117 Organic Farming – Adisak Kampen; Interview: Pennapa Hongthong Laos: PADETC - Education for Right Livelihood 129 – Chanthalangsy Sisouvanh. Interview: Sukhumaporn Laiyok
Cooperatives, Social Movements and NGO’s Chapter 8 Japan: “Consumers Who Produce”. Seikatsu Consumers’ Cooperative – Koichi Kato and Ryoko Shimizu. Interview: Aree Chaisatien Chapter 9 Indonesia: Want Safe Food? First Save our Farmers : La Via Campesina – Zainal Arifin Fuad. Interview: Nanthiya Tangwisutjit Chapter 10 Cambodia: Agricultural Innovation Makes a Difference to Farmers’ Lives. CEDAC – Keam Makarady. Interview: Sukhumaporn Laiyok
137 139
Social Entrepreneurs, Community Enterprises, Social Media Chapter 11 Thailand: Organic Farming and Self-reliance: Baan San Fun Orphanage – Sodsai Pomkiree. Interview: Pennapa Hongthong Chapter 12 Bhutan: Entrepreneur in GNH Society, Happy Green Cooperative – Sangay Rinchen. Interview: Nanthiya Tangwisutjit Chapter 13 Thailand: Community Enterprise by Fisher Folks. The Fish Catcher Shop – Jirasak Meerith and Saowaluk Pathumthong. Interview: Pennapa Hongthong Chapter 14 Laos: Pioneer of Quality Green Products, Xao Ban Shop. Nongnut Foppes - Ayamuang. Interview: Sukumaporn Laiyok Chapter 15 Sri Lanka: Affordable and Trendy Organic Produce: Good Markets – Achala Samaradiwakara. Interview: Aree Chaisatien Gratitude
169 171
149 157
177 185 193 203 212
Publishers’ Notes The purpose of MINDFUL MARKETS. Producer-consumer partnerships towards a New Economy is to empower the emerging consumers’ movement in Asia in support of its small-scale farmers. The book is edited by Wallapa van Willenswaard, Managing Director of Suan Nguen Mee Ma social enetrprise, who convened the MINDFUL MARKETS Forum in Bangkok, 22 – 24 August 2014. Earlier she initiated the Green Market Network in Thailand. The major resource persons of the forum were interviewed by a team of journalists who work with the English spoken media in Thailand. The book is published in a Thai version and this English version. We will publish books in English language under the name “Garden of Fruition”, a free translation of Suan Nguen Mee Ma. The book has three parts: Part One provides an introduction, written by Hans van Willenswaard, based on the experiences of our work with the Green Market Network in Thailand and the international Towards Organic Asia (TOA) project, trying to catch the insights underpinning the shift of mindset needed to become activist consumers co-creating mindful markets. This is expressed in the vision statement “organic food for all”. Part Two gives an overview of three important sources of inspiration for our vision, introduced by the editor of the book Wallapa van Willenswaard who opened the MINDFUL MARKETS forum. Dasho Karma Ura (Bhutan) explains in depth how we can understand the correlation between “mindfulness and market”. Koichi Kato tells the story of the remarkable growth of the Seikatsu Consumers Cooperative (Japan), a food alliance and leading social enterprise in Asia. And the voice of the small-scale farmers’ is skillfully communicated by Zainal Arifin Fuad (Indonesia) as representative of La Via Campesina. Part Three ‘Case Studies, Stories, People’ is the part with interviews of persons who are, whether their projects are small or big, role models in the MINDFULL MARKETS movement. MINDFUL MARKETS. Producer-consumer partnerships towards a New Economy is being launched during the second MINDFUL MARKETS Forum, 31 August – 2 September 2015, also held at Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) in Bangkok. Garden of Fruition publishers will continue supporting the movement by means of publications with the purpose to reach out to a growing number of interested persons, families, organizations and to create opportunities to get engaged.
MINDFUL MARKETS 7
10 MINDFUL MARKETS
Part One MINDFUL MARKETS and the Future of Food and Farming. An introduction
MINDFUL MARKETS 11
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The organic movement is rooted in the realities of fertile soil and biodiversity, and the daily hard work of farmers’ families and communities. The critical awareness and emerging commitment of mindful consumers to share responsibility towards “organic food for all� manifests an immensely important impulse. It shapes global transformation towards a truly sustainable world.
12 MINDFUL MARKETS
Chapter 1
What kind of markets do we want? Hans van Willenswaard 1
Free Market vs. Food Sovereignty
Most people believe that the free market mechanism mediates efficiently between supply and demand. They think there are good reasons to trust the “invisible hand” of the free market: negotiations between producers and clients result in the price clients are willing to pay to suppliers, and their mutual needs will be satisfied in a fair way. Abundant supplies bring down the price and high demand fires up the price. This is the kind of “fairness”, “justice” or “balance” that people believe results from the working of traditional markets as we know them from our village or our urban neighborhood. People are free to sell or to buy goods and services, free to negotiate the price and there is a kind of natural equilibrium in a meaningful social context. This is the market where we love to go early in the morning to meet our trusted vendors who often are the farmers themselves, our neighbours and our friends. Confidence in the fairness of the free market is not just a mindset 1
Hans van Willenswaard, School for Wellbeing Studies and Research, lives and works in Thailand. Co-founder of Suan Nguen Mee Ma social enterprise in 2001. He graduated as a ‘cultural worker’ in the Netherlands and later studied Rural Development at Emerson College, U.K.. His experiences cover the area of organic agriculture, youth empowerment and development studies. He co-initiated the Towards Organic Asia programme (TOA). He is now writing a book on the Wellbeing Society.
What Kind of Markets Do We Want 13
of individual people based on direct experiences with local markets. Expectations in a modern context have grown into a gigantic system, a global “free market”. And that is why it has become problematic. The “free market system” has replaced nearly all traditional markets and is orchestrated by big corporations with government support. Those who have interests in how the system works may like us to keep believing that the “free market” system is indeed the most efficient and most balanced way to align supply of goods and services with demand. The market, they promote, is the best way to meet the needs of consumers and the correct way to guide producers in what to produce, and when. The recent mass movement of people have started to raise questions on how the so called “free” market mechanism really works, especially in the context of an extremely urbanized, industrialized and commercialized world. The majority of people from economically powerful countries now live in cities and rural citizens have become a minority, if not in number, certainly in power. What are the implications of this urban-industrial approach to the economy for our societies? For our quality of life, our environment and in particular, for our daily food?
The Free Market Mechanism and Cheap Food So what are the questions that modern mindful consumers have started raising about the so called free market system? Here are some questions – and there are more: Where does my food actually come from? How has it been grown? Who grew my food? Did these farmers grow my food because he and she want to bring me and my family health, and nutrition for my soul? Do the persons who grow my food enjoy a healthy and meaningful life themselves? Can they maintain their livelihood with dignity and joy? Or are they growing whatever gives them enough income to pay off their debts, bound to a
14 MINDFUL MARKETS
contract they agreed under pressure of a big company? Do they grow to meet anonymous market demands for survival? Do farmers still have time to co-create healthy landscapes? Who is doing the real work, the farm owner or the immigrant worker? Who owns the land where my food is being grown? How is it possible that within the food system maintained by big corporations, food can be sold so cheaply compared with organic or naturally grown food? In the so-called free market system the big players can easily compete on price with smaller players. The first way to compete is: hide “externalities”, like the costs of environmental degradation and public health services incurred as a result of the industrial approach to agriculture. Environmental damage is hidden in two ways: it is kept out of sight like industrial waste and water pollution, and it shifts the consequences of damage to the future, such as loss of soil fertility . As long as you apply chemical fertilizer the exhaustion of the soil is not immediately apparent, even though you obviously have to apply a bit more every year. It is future generations who will face the consequences. And that is acceptable according to economic theory based on maximizing self-interest! Another way to manipulate the price is: use hidden government subsidies, for example on oil and diesel – essential for both the fertilizer industry and for logistics – so that the taxpayer covers the expenses. Focus on quantity, produce more weight, and don’t care about quality. The burden of public health care due to unhealthy food is not included in the price. Neither are the costs of health care for those who risk their lives by working with hazardous chemicals. If farmers or land laborers die, that does not show up in the price. Exploit people by paying industrial and land workers low salaries. Obstruct farmers and labor unions in order to maintain low wages and dangerous working conditions. Feed farmers What Kind of Markets Do We Want 15
with misinformation about the benefits of chemical agriculture. Keep control on the research agenda to prevent damaging information reaching the policy makers. Invest in production means with virtual money. Virtual money from the financial markets can easily overrule small-scale farmers who always face a shortage of real cash and capital. Build market monopolies so that farmers can only sell their products to you. Control seeds and chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides needed for these seeds. Control the whole supply chain so that a minimum of “outsiders” (that is how farmers are labelled) benefit in order to maximize profit for the small group of urban corporate owners. Isolate the rural population from their own natural resources and ancient properties. Make farmers contract-workers or force them to sell their land under pressure of debt and let them migrate to the cities. Replace them by money-driven farm managers bossing foreign migrant workers who can be easily exploited. Mindful consumers are increasingly awakened and aware of the implicit rules of industrial food systems and their impact on our personal and collective wellbeing. Mindful consumers don’t want to just be “factors” in a system driven by an inescapable economic logic, upheld by an illusion of glamour blasted upon us by the corporate-owned media. Pioneering consumer groups have been practicing independent thinking for much longer. But in the second decade of the 21st century critical consumer awareness has started showing a break through. The first breakthrough came with the UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Here the concept of “sustainable development” was adopted by a diversity of stakeholders for the first time in history and at a global level.
16 MINDFUL MARKETS
Breakthrough of Mindful Market Awareness. Mainstream logic of the free market system says that all actors are driven by self-interest. What is wrong with that? More and more we start seeing the implications of this “self-interest paradigm”. Growing inequality, environmental degradation, climate change, democracies under pressure of authoritarian and corrupt regimes, violent conflict, breakdown of values and a growing struggle for many of us to maintain a healthy and meaningful life. Sustainable development places the interests of future generations at the center of our development goals. In other words, inter-generational responsibility. Today we don’t want to be human “factors” anymore that mindlessly follow “economic laws”. We don’t want to be economic animals driven by self-interest on the mainstream market treadmill. What we aspire to is to live according to the universal laws of sustainable development, the laws of long term vision, the laws of love, the laws of beauty, the laws of solidarity. Especially when it concerns our food. That is real freedom. We don’t want to be manipulated into believing that consumerism is efficient, fair and just. We want to be human beings who work together with other human beings and create a bright future for new generations. Because we have common interests first! We want to mindfully design the rules and values of our markets by ourselves. We don’t want to blindly follow an anonymous “Invisible Hand” upheld by advertisement campaigns designed for big powerful corporations. One of the rules of the so-called free - but in fact un-free - market economy is that the best quality is for those who pay most. If you have no purchasing power, you are excluded from the market. One way to make markets efficient in mainstream business strategies is to exclude people who don not have enough money. With empty pockets, there is
What Kind of Markets Do We Want 17
no need to go shopping. It is not efficient from a point of view driven by profit-making, to spend energy on fulfilling needs that are not backed-up by purchasing power. Supply is only for those who can pay. But is not quality food a human right2? If the market divides people between haves and have-nots, where is justice? Is not common concern for food quality or “organic food for all” a fundamental step towards a culture of dignity and care? “Organic food for all” should be at the heart of transformation of our societies towards genuine sustainability. On the other hand, history has learned that eliminating free markets by replacing them with state control over production and distribution never worked either. So how can we shape together MINDFUL MARKETS? That is, markets which are inclusive and compassionate, based on full awareness of whole food systems, driven by the principle of “organic food for all”. “Organic food for all” requires in the first place healthy food self-reliance for farmers, farmers’ families and rural communities, based on long term trusteeship and care for the land and landscapes. One of the major conditions for this care for soil fertility and biodiversity is security regaring land ownership. According to Rajagopal P.V.3 in Journey to the other India – a book about courage, non-violence and success – it is not just the soil 2
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976). Since 2000 there is a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Right to Food Guidelines were adopted in 2004 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). However, according to FIAN (Food First Information and Action Network), the right to adequate food is not being supported sufficiently. 3 Rajagopal P.V., founder of Ekta Parashad, delivered the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial lecture on sustainable development at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 20 December 2014. He organized marches involving thousands of small-scale and landless farmers which convinced government to reform land policies. His lecture inaugurated the International Year of Soils in Thailand from an alternative perspective.
18 MINDFUL MARKETS
which is important, but “it takes many years of relationship with the soil that makes someone a good farmer. Only this long term relationship results in lasting soil fertility. Fertile soils are the hope for happy lives of future generations.”
Networks of Networks “Food sovereignty” of rural communities is not based on selfinterest. Food sovereignty strengthens the (traditional) spirit of responsibility for quality food supply to the wider community. In the framework of MINDFUL MARKETS this sense of mutual service, solidarity and the capacity to extend the spirit of “food sovereignty” to “food security for all”, drives the shaping of new, innovative, quality food systems. Security is not in the accumulated capital of big corporations but in true community spirit. Food security by not only guaranteeing quantity but quality food, doesn’t stop at the high end market but reaches out to rural and urban consumers of all walks of life. “Organic food for all” requires the personalization of anonymous consumers. This not only requires networks among rural communities to obtain diversity of food for their own consumption and community resilience; it is our enormous common challenge to build a web of “networks of networks” shared between farmers and citizens in towns and cities. Network marketing driven by a deep sense of quality, solidarity and care for the future of new generations. Solidarity can be understood as the joy of inevitably working together beyond inequality.
What Kind of Markets Do We Want 19
“Organic” and its New Meaning There is a debate about language here. In Thai we use insee like the English “organic”. But in other languages the same notion is called biological or ecological. Other terms are used to emphasize that we should comply with the ultimate benchmark of sustainability: not all organic agriculture is sustainable. Permaculture is organic but exempts certain practices like digging the soil. A term gaining in meaning and popularity is agro-ecology which emphasizes care for the environment beyond the farm level, and including social justice. Products of agro-ecology practices are not necessarily fully organic. “Fair trade” is not always organic but it guarantees social justice. In the framework of building MINDFUL MARKETS we perceive the diversity of concepts not primarily as a problem but as a positive characteristic of the movement. Cultural diversity is as important as biological diversity. We all have good arguments why we chose for a certain approach, and the most important is that there is a free choice for practitioners. However, this diversity can also be a weakness when we have to communicate our intentions to consumers, policy makers and the media. It can be pretty confusing for people who are new to our mindfulness, or who are skeptical to see so many labels and brands. It is difficult to get the message across when there is no coherence in the various images and claims. The notion with the longest history probably is “organic”. But unfortunately organic has gained the connotation of being exclusively “certified organic”, serving in the first place a “high end” market, and being penetrated by “Big Food”. There are reasons why organic agriculture developed in this direction. The major reason is consumer protection. Consumers have the right to be guaranteed that when a product is called organic it is healthy, based on social fairness, respect for ecology and is economically sound. These claims need quality control.
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Yet, many people feel that organic agriculture has been hijacked by “business as usual”. Many NGO’s reaction is that we should not accept this, or abandon “organic” and move to another term which is more pure. We feel that is not the best strategy: we have to re-claim “organic”. Organic is a “commons”. It should not be owned by certifiers, organic food chains or governments who increasingly proclaim that they have the exclusive right to determine what is organic and what not. Organic is owned by all of us. It is a big basket for the full diversity of practices: agroecology, permaculture, natural agriculture etc. By stating that MINDFUL MARKETS stand for “organic food for all” we re-claim organic and join all the practitioners, pioneers and visionaries who uphold organic agriculture as the heart of global transformation towards a genuine sustainable future.
The Organic Movement vs. the Green Revolution Organic agriculture practices originate from traditional agriculture. However, modern scientific understandings of biological processes, appropriate technology, and managerial vision are added. When there is no access to chemical input (as is still the case in remote parts of Bhutan, for example) and neither to the contemporary approaches of organic agriculture and innovations, it is common to speak of “organic by default”. But in recognition of traditional and local wisdom it is better to embrace traditional agriculture positively as a natural and indispensable part of the organic “family”. This does not imply that organic agriculture is backward as it requires contemporary intelligence, cultural integrity and full creativity. Farming is a profession that can be fulfilling even to the most educated persons. It is exactly the combination of tradition and ancient wisdom with new, holistic science as well as social entrepreneurship which makes it into a unique life challenge. Young organic farmers show us the way and they are increasingly interconnected by means of communication technology and innovative social media. What Kind of Markets Do We Want 21
The Green Revolution The Green Revolution took off in various stages after World War II with broad international support. The chemical (war) industry could easily produce artificial nutrients for plants, a shortcut for breaking up the natural cycle in which the soil needs to be fed to maintain and produce sustainable fertility. Chemicals to kill insect life were abundant and only one step away from what had been prepared (and used) for chemical warfare. Animal rearing was industrialized in line with the car industry. The genome was uncovered opening opportunities for genetic manipulation of living organisms. Liberal philosophy hardened under the pressure of competition with equally oppressive collectivism, to such extent that it created a “neo-liberalism� devoid of humanism. Market efficiency and return on investment required economies of scale including restructuring of human-scale rural societies into industrial production fields. This development nurtured a political and legal system that, until today, one-sidedly protects individual and corporate self-interest, private ownership (often derived from public concessions) and intellectual property in the hands of corporations. Market fundamentalism conquered the remaining small margins of freedom of our common reality, such as the last virgin prairies which were occupied by violent immigrants. Even the most sacred areas of our forests, rivers and mountains are now broken down into commercially calculable units under public (dominated by states) or private (corporate) property regimes. The Green Revolution coincided with population growth in the 20st century comparable to the British Agricultural Revolution which created the new labour force for the 100-year Industrial Revolution 1750 – 1850. The enormous growth of mass-population of the 20st century provided the labour force underpinning extreme inequality at the beginning of the 21st century, symbolized by persistent malnourishment among the rural
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poor in contrast with obsessive obesity among urbanized and industrialized countries. However, in history the human spirit always bounces back and anticipates a future where the mistakes of the past can be overcome.
An Organic Counter-revolution After groups of people in southern Japan became aware in 1956 of the causes of the Minamata disease4 which deformed numbers of newborn children, out of interest in safe food for their children, mothers united to form the Teikei movement. They started to realize how deeply hazardous chemicals had penetrated the environment and agricultural practices in Japan, so they linked up with individual farmers who were willing to abandon using chemicals. They shaped a closed circuit between the farmers and the consumers that guaranteed uncontaminated food. More or less at the same time likeminded experiments were undertaken in the USA and Europe and the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement was pioneered. Later collective buying initiatives including the Seikatsu Club Cooperative in Japan were developed which now involves more than 300,000 members and, remarkably, still kept its activist character. In France the organization Nature et Progrès, after many years of informal contacts among movements all over the world, convened the first gathering of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) in Versailles in 1972. Apart from the bio-dynamic 4
Mercury poisoning caused by the Chisso Corporation chemical factory. It is a neurological syndrome and symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision, and damage to hearing and speech. In severe cases, insanity, paralysis, coma, and death follow within weeks. It can also affect fetuses in the womb.
What Kind of Markets Do We Want 23
movements5 in Germany and Sweden, and the Rodale Institute in the USA, a prominent partner organization was the Soil Association in the UK. The President of the Soil Association was E.F. Schumacher who wrote his groundbreaking book Small is Beautiful. Economics as if People Mattered in 1974. Schumacher saw the organic agriculture movement as a manifestation of ‘Buddhist Economics’. Earlier he found the inspiration for his book – and his strong support for the organic movement as an economic impulse – in Burma during the years that he was assigned as a UN consultant by Prime Minister U Nu before the military dictatorship. Schumacher perceived the beauty of the country in the human-scale economy. In conjunction with the 1992 UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro where sustainability was adopted as the leading principle for development, the organic movement took a sudden turn towards its present economic “success story”6. However, the remarkable growth of the organic agriculture sector unfolded in line with the major conclusion of the UNRISD Report Is There a New Economy in the Making?: scaling up nearly always leads to adjustment to mainstream economic principles. From this point of view it is understandable that simultaneously with the start of the booming period of the organic movement La Via Campesina, the global peasants’ movement, emerged, also in 1992. La Via Campesina stands for the voice of the small-scale farmers. They often are excluded from 5
Bio-dynamic agriculture was inaugurated by Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925) in Poland in 1924 and spread gradually in Europe. Its products are traded under the Demeter brand. At present bio-dynamics are practiced all over the world; in Asia in particular in India. 6 Organic agriculture, though still less than 1 % globally, expanded to 43,3 hectares in 2013 (11 million hectares in 1999) and its global trade volume grew from 15.2 billion US dollar in 1999 to 72 billion US dollars. Source: The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2015. FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) and IFOAM – Organics International www.organic-world.net/yearbook-2015.
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the success story. The critical assessment of the organic movement from this point of view resulted around the Rio+20 conference in 2012, 20 years later, in at least 4 innovative streams in the organic world:
•
In 2004 the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) approach, through a joint IFOAM-MAELA7 meeting in Torres, Brazil, revitalized the original Nature et Progrès impulse of 1972 in which quality development is in the joint hands of producers and consumers. By building direct networks of trust, more or less in contrast with third party certification8. Recently IFOAM launched the Organic 3.0 concept9. • In this line URGENCI was born: the global network of Teikei and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives. • Following the launching of the Earth Charter in The Hague in 2000, the Rights of Mother Earth were proclaimed in Bolivia in 2010. Various Latin American countries included these rights in their constitutions. Inclusion of Nature can be considered as a historic challenge towards the ultimate completion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Without this dimension the rights will not be ‘universal’. • The first democratic elections in Bhutan were held in 2008 which resulted in the adoption of the first Constitution which includes Gross National Happiness. Consequently Bhutan launched its 100% organic country policy. The policy was presented to the international community at the Rio+20 gathering in 2012 and later 7 MAELA is the Latin American Agroecology Movement. 8 The global IFOAM PGS Committee met in Bangkok, August 2013, at the invitation of the Towards Organic Asia (TOA) programme. 9 http://www.ifoam.bio/en/organic-30-building-culture-innovation
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by means of the Thimphu Declaration, January 201410. Sustainable Development and Consumption : A new Global Lifestyle Urban consumers are more and more starting to associate with farmers families. When they visit a farm it opens their eyes to rural life. Even if they originated from a small hometown, they have often been alienated from agriculture as the most fundamental source of right livelihood for all. Actually, most of us wanted to escape from groundwork in the hot sun and considered those who stayed in the village as the losers. Rural parents often make every effort to pay for education to help their children escape from rural hardship. Modern consumers who go on farm visits see with their own eyes (again) that it is hard work to grow food. And it is even more demanding if you do it against conventional practices, for your own health and that of the consumer; and for the environment. For future generations. But consumers’ interest in farmers’ lives and growing solidarity bring back the experience of being recognized. With organic agriculture life becomes dignified, healthy and fulfilling again. Modern consumers are more and more willing to pay a better price to reward the farmers for their efforts to grow healthy food. They are keen to buy their food from persons they know and whom they trust. So, not from the anonymous supermarket, but: “let us pool together” and arrange our own distribution. That requires even more effort and more expenses. If you do accept after all for your convenience to buy from the organic corner at the supermarket, you also pay more. But it hardly benefits the farmers. You are willing to pay more and big companies know that too. They calculate how they can earn from you by integrating organic in their “business as usual”. The effort is not only in changing purchasing habits. For your children your family and yourself, you insist to do home cooking with the 10
http://www.ifoam.bio/sites/default/files/thimphu_declaration.pdf
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ingredients you bought from your trusted producer or distributer. Compared with eating in the street, or frozen food from the microwave, it is again more hassle. And in the same time your friends and colleagues look at you and let you know that “they cannot afford such expensive food and to spend so much time on cooking”. People look at you as a member of an elite who can unfairly invest on expensive food and cooking. The mindful consumer starts feeling that there must be something fundamentally wrong with the free market mechanism if, when you want to be responsible and sustainable, say organic, you become isolated as an elite group. You have to pay more for your careful lifestyle than people who live without responsibility. How can the mainstream market system be “free” if it isolates those who stand for a responsible lifestyle in a luxury box? How come that sustainability, caring for future generations, is made a luxury?
Social and Solidarity Economy The Social and Solidarity Economy, according to a study titled Is There a New Economy in the Making11, consists of a variety of more or less alternative approaches to economics and new concepts of economic performance. They include cooperatives, mutual benefit societies providing health and social protection, fair trade, social enterprises, credit unions, ethical banking, community currencies. Not yet included in this study is the ever growing sector of organic production, trade and consumption12. This is no longer limited to ‘third-party’ certified 11
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Occasional Paper 10, Peter Utting, Nadine van Dijk and Marie-Adélaïde Matheï, Social and Solidarity Economy. Is There a New Economy in the Making? Geneva, August 2014. 12 According to FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) 1.9 million certified organic farmers in 164 countries on 37.5 million hectares and a global market for
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organic but also extends to trade where quality development and control is shaped according to Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). All together there is enormous emancipatory and empowerment potential in these streams with simultaneous economic, social and environmental benefits. However, there are clear constraints as well. In many situations cooperatives are not essentially different from mainstream business. And organic agriculture is often structured along mainstream business lines with priority to serving elite markets.
How can Alternative and Mainstream Businesses Work Together? Some conclusions based on exchanges during the MINDFUL MARKETS Forum in Bangkok, August 2014, and the UNRISD Report can be formulated as: Once alternative initiatives reach the point of “economies of scale” (beyond family, community or face-to-face membership), they have to compete with mainstream corporations and tend to adjust to mainstream business strategies, that is: they tend to lose the characteristics of genuine partners in the social and solidarity economy. So there is an enormous challenge to build and scale up producerconsumer “networks of networks” in such a way that the characteristics of independent small-scale farmers’ and consumers’ initiatives are not diluted, but keep their unique ethical and activist spirit; while they are at the same time economically feasible and effective. In addition to building and scaling up “networks of networks” of MINDFUL MARKETS initiatives, advocacy to transform the mainstream commercial structures and the global economic system is a pre-condition for progress of the MINDFUL MARKETS movement. This also implies organic food of 63.8 billion US dollars is what the organic movement achieved up to the year 2012.
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making hidden externalities transparent and exercise pressure to include full costs (environmental, social, health care) in the price of mainstream food. One of the biggest challenges in this perspective is how to shift priority to those who need organic food in the first place (children, patients, those who serve social purposes), or in other words, how to enable access to MINDFUL MARKETS for persons with low or no purchasing power. Re-distribution of wealth should be invested in the strengthening of the purchasing power of low-income groups to acquire healthy food. This is not primarily a matter of compassion or philanthropy. It is common interest. Inclusion of these groups in systems of organic food sharing will have enormous social, health, cultural13, environmental and ultimately economic benefits. This envisioning of expected benefits will have to be made visible in convincing scenario-building supported by scientific evidence.
The Mindful Markets Mission Towards ‘Organic Food for All’ To create alternative channels under the present circumstance is like working against the stream on all fronts. It is not an easy task. The challenges can be compared with that of converting organic farmers who have just left the conventional farming that they were so used to. They have to abandon routine and learn completely new ways. Overcome enormous constraints! The pioneers who are trying to set up new markets or new channels, with full awareness and responsibility, have to work harder than those who follow the mainstream markets. It includes pioneering together with likeminded spirits. And at the same time engaging in dialogue with the mainstream, in a multi-stakeholder interaction strategy. 13
Including spiritual health.
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Mindful Markets by Networks of Networks The aim of cooperative “networks of networks” is to provide access to organic food for all. Cooperative sharing does not mean that everybody acquires exactly the same. People have various needs and differ in how they value various kinds of food and levels of involvement. That is why we need MINDFUL MARKETS: dynamic platforms where various needs, efforts, capacities, money, responsibilities and caring abilities are mediated towards a culture of peace and prosperity. Maybe those who need healthy food most are children, patients and those who dedicate their lives to the common good. State subsidies should shift from hidden support benefitting the mainstream chemical food industry, to guaranteeing healthy food for those who need, maybe cannot afford it. Those who have (surplus) purchasing power and place value on quality food can strengthen mindful markets by joining and supporting the cooperative networks. Those who have capital, including governments, can contribute with investments needed to shape and secure these sustainable food systems. And concerned business leaders, involved in transformative management, can help with developing appropriate mindful markets models. When farmers decide to grow in an alternative way, without harmful chemicals and in a community context, they disconnect from the system upheld by big corporations. In a long term perspective these corporations may gradually (in fact they must, in order for all to survive) transform to align themselves with genuine sustainability. This won’t happen quickly and easily, given the enormous vested interests in the multiple economic factors that are so ingeniously hidden and manipulated, often without fully being aware of it14. 14
This includes lack of awareness of ruling scientific paradigms.
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Therefore developing and strengthening a pioneering “alternative” food sub-system based on mindful markets is urgently needed. This alternative sub-system starts from existing small-scale farmers’ and consumers’ initiatives. It will probably include volunteerism, may need support to enable inclusion of groups with little purchasing power, capacity development and unconventional ways to build trust, vision and determination. Designing and developing mindful markets is a participatory approach to extend small-scale producers’ and consumers’ initiatives towards multistakeholder cooperation (civil society; governments with their green procurement potential; the business sector) with the common aim to share quality food fairly and in solidarity among all citizens. The core of this mindful markets approach is the awareness that it poses a giant challenge to review the foundations of our global economic system, local situations and our own lives.
Conclusion In this context of an ever unfolding organic movement, the first Mindful Markets Asia Forum took place at Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) in Bangkok in 2014. The dynamics of the forum resulted in this book, launched in its English version during the second Mindful Markets Asia Forum, 31 August – 2 September 2015 together with 8th Green Fair. In conclusion of this chapter let us take a careful look at The PostCorporate World. Life After Capitalism, the groundbreaking book written by David C. Korten in 199915. It was this book which invoked the concept of “mindful markets”. 15
Introduction at Amazon.com. The book was translated into Thai by Suan Nguen Mee Ma publishers. It was this book that inspired us to choose for the title MINDFUL MARKETS Forum.
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“The alternative to the new global capitalism is a global system of thriving, healthy market economies that function as extensions of healthy local ecosystems to meet the livelihood, needs of people and communities. Radical as such proposals may seem, they actually reflect processes that are steadily gaining momentum around the world. The Post-Corporate World provides a vision of what’s needed and what’s possible, as well as a detailed agenda for change. (…) Korten outlines numerous specific actions to free the creative powers of individuals and societies through the realization of real democracy, the local rooting of capital through stakeholder ownership, and a restructuring of the rules of commerce to create “mindful market” economies that combine market principles with a culture that nurtures social bonding and responsibility. Like David C. Korten’s previous bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World, this provocative book is sure to stimulate national dialogue and debate and inspire a bevy of grassroots discussions and initiatives. The Post-Corporate World presents readers with a profound challenge and an empowering sense of hope.” This book introduction from 15 years ago sounds both extremely visionary and a bit hollow. By now we can see that it indeed reflected processes that are still, way into the 21st century, “steadily gaining momentum around the world”. The organic movement is rooted in the realities of fertile soil and biodiversity, and the daily hard work of farmers’ families and communities. The critical awareness and emerging commitment of mindful consumers to share responsibility towards “organic food for all” manifests an immensely important impulse. It shapes global transformation towards a truly sustainable world.
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