Lierre Keith: A Hard Look at Agriculture, and Strategies for Collapse

Lierre Keith is the author of the novels Skyler Gabriel and Conditions of War, as well as the forthcoming The Vegetarian Myth. In this interview we talk about the topics she explores in that most recent book, which mainly include an ecological and social critique of agriculture, and the dilemmas of vegetarianism in light of those critiques. For me, Lierre's is the most solid critique of agriculture I have come across. She talks about how it is at it's most basic level a war against life and the earth, and how sustainable agriculture will always be an oxymoron. With the fossil fuel era coming to a end, we have to start thinking out of the agricultural box, and re-valuing a wild world.

We also talk about the likelihood of collapse and how that may affect different people, we talk about patriarchy and how to deal with increased gender violence in disaster scenarios, and what types of mental bonds must go in order for us to be free one day. And we also got into talking about how problematic collapse is for people with disabilities, degenerative diseases, and those who rely to some degree on industrial technology and industrial medicine.

All these topics are vital for us to be thinking about and talking about, and are still often left out of our dialogues and plans around ecological and social issues. Enjoy.

Download 42:35 Recorded on December 19, 2007

Note: I am having difficulties with my regular server, so this is hosted by rabble.ca. That's the reason for the intro ad for rabble.