- advancing the world revolution overall.
- meeting social needs, which the CNSRNA describes as creating a common material wealth that contributes to the all-around development of society and the individuals who make it up, and overcoming oppressive divisions between mental and manual labor, town and country, different regions and nationalities, and men and women.
- and "Protecting, preserving, and enhancing the ecosystems and biodiversity of the planet for current and future generations."
In regard to food production in particular, "It will be necessary to develop agricultural systems based on principles of long-term land-use planning, comprehensive soil and water conservation, and agro-biodiversity." (See, "Some Key Principles of Socialist Sustainable Development," incorporated into the CNSRNA.)
How would all this apply to the intense environmental and health threats posed by North Carolina's industrial hog farms? To start with, large conglomerates like Smithfield Farms would be expropriated by the state and their stranglehold on agriculture and pork production broken. These means of production would then be reorganized, reoriented, and transformed in line with the economic, social, and environmental criteria laid out in the CNSRNA.
It would be possible to begin making dramatic changes quickly, but in keeping with the larger objectives of revolutionary socialist society and preserving the earth's environment, the masses of people and revolutionary society overall would have to wrestle with many different contradictions and become increasingly involved in the process of transforming the ways in which agricultural production is carried out.
To take just some of the issues that are bound to come up, and contradictions that would have to be handled correctly, on the hog farms and food production more broadly:
- During the transition to socialist society, how would the new society prevent whatever hog farms it decided to keep in operation from harming peoples' health and the environment? This could include making use of new technologies and the knowledge of farmers, environmentalists, health and food experts, and others to radically change the ways in which hog manure was collected, treated, and stored.
- While large-scale meat production creates real efficiencies for society, and provides necessary protein for many people, the current hog farms are extremely inhumane to the animals and in many ways unsafe and unhealthy. Socialist society would need to move toward different, sustainable ways to produce food, and there would have to be widespread debate and discussion, including farmers, nutritionists, environmentalists, and many more over how this could best be done in line with the overall aims of the communist revolution. (For a discussion of these issues, listen to this clip from the Q&A from the Summer 2018 speaking tour with Bob Avakian [BA] (starts at 1:00:35).)
- Given that global temperatures will be rising for some time and storms intensifying, should North Carolina's hog farms (or at least waste storage) be moved from its flood plain entirely? This may also be necessary because of the ways in which the health and environmental impacts of hog farming are hitting Black and other oppressed peoples hardest--and undermining their ability to live in historic Black communities and on land they've owned, or farmed, in some instances for decades.
- Uprooting the national oppression of Black people as part of emancipating all humanity, is a key objective of revolutionary socialist society, and is spelled out in many dimensions in the CNSRNA. How socialist society will handle natural disasters in relation to this foundational contradiction is something we'll explore more deeply in Part V of this series.
- Socialist society's goal that economic and social planning would seek "to integrate agriculture and industry, along with urban and rural activities, in new ways--and to connect people more closely with agricultural land and with nature." (CNSRNA, p. 85) How would this too impact the size, scale, and nature of pig farms--and other agricultural production--and where they would be located--or relocated?
- While striving to provide everyone with access to safe, healthy and adequate nutrition, how would the society work toward overcoming the great gulf that exists between different strata of the population, and while no longer depending on "labor and materials [including food] from other countries--much less exploitation and domination"? Also, for example, at times this would likely lead to struggle over the need to sacrifice in order to provide food assistance to countries dominated by imperialism or formerly dominated by U.S. imperialism, where millions upon millions routinely go hungry or starve to death. (pp. 87-88).
These would be vexing contradictions to be sure. And millions would have to become increasingly involved in thrashing out these issues, and taking initiative in various ways to work on these problems, including in ways that were independent of the government, within the CNSRNA's overall framework. And solving these contradictions would require the growing participation of masses of people in running the society. But just being able to consciously deal with them with the method, approach and principles brought forward by Bob Avakian and the new communism, and doing this together with diverse segments of society as part of advancing the struggle to emancipate all humanity, would be nothing short of exhilarating.
1. At the time this article was originally being prepared for publication at revcom.us, a major new scientific report on the impact of global warming on the U.S. was issued by 13 federal agencies that paints a dire picture of the economic and environmental impacts of climate change on the U.S., including health and environment, "including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South. Going forward, American exports and supply chains could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by mid-century and fire season could spread to the Southeast, the report finds." ("U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy," New York Times, Nov. 23, 2018)
2. Democracy Now, Sept. 13, 2018.
3. "Mortality and Health Outcomes in North Carolina Communities Located in Close Proximity to Hog Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations," North Carolina Medical Journal, September-October 2018.
4. "A million tons of feces and an unbearable stench: life near industrial pig farms," Guardian, Sept. 20, 2017, updated Aug. 18, 2018.
5. "Florence rainfall totals for North Carolina: 8 trillion gallons," Star News Online, Sept 20, 2018.
6. Could Smithfield Foods Have Prevented the "Rivers of Hog Waste" in North Carolina After Florence? New Yorker, September 30, 2018. See also "Lagoons of Pig Waste Are Overflowing After Florence. Yes, That's as Nasty as It Sounds," New York Times, September 19, 2018; "After Florence, Manure Lagoons Breach, and Residents Brace for the Rising Filth," New Yorker, September 21, 2018.
7. Could Smithfield Foods Have Prevented the "Rivers of Hog Waste" in North Carolina After Florence? New Yorker, September 30, 2018.
8. Under the CNSRNA, this includes "Land, waters, forests, minerals, and other natural resources are protected and managed as 'public goods.' They fall within the scope of public-state ownership. Socialist-state ownership recognizes its responsibility to preserve the 'commons'--the atmosphere, oceans, wildlife, and so forth--for all of humanity and for the future."(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
