Land and Food: Basic Choices

Thomas Malthus, who believed war, disease and famine were natural ways to get rid of over-population, published before Charles Darwin, who advocated the "survival of the fittest," which led to the Nazi death camps for the "unfit." Malthus published at the start of the 1800s, and Darwin published in the middle of the 1800s. Malthus anticipates Darwin and his "survival of the fittest" doctrine. Both provided rationales for horrific human suffering and death.

For example, thinking like that of Malthus was one of the reasons why the English did not provide famine relief for the Irish in the 1840's. The English leaders, who borrowed from Malthus, saw the Great Famine of 1845-1848 in Ireland, which killed 25% of the population in Ireland and caused another 25% of the Irish to immigrate for fear of losing their lives if they stayed in a famine-stricken, then disease-ridden, Ireland.

The English considered the famine a way to rid Ireland of surplus population! It is not surprising that such a Malthusian approach to hungry people resulted in years of hatred and killing.

I lived in Ireland when I attended the University of Dublin for a year as an undergrad. One day I went for a walk and ended up in the Irish Surpreme Court as part of the auidence. I sat ini the back. What I witnessed has never left me.

It was an Irish "land court." At that time, and probably still today, if a farmer wanted to sell land the first choice to buy the land went to any farmer who would keep the land in production.

I saw a legacy of the Great Famine in front of me. The Irish, having suffered terribly from want of food, had taken strong steps to make sure that their farmland remained a resource for producing food, not expanding urban and suburban sprawl, which is the case here. They had made some basic choices because of an historical disaster.

I think of the Irish Supereme Court when I see the destruction of farmland around me as short-sighted "developers" destroy some of the best farmland in the world where I live, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, and consider it their birthright to do whatever they want with their property.

We may live to regret this someday. Let's learn from history. Let's make sane basic choices.