by Kathleen Dean Moore, Roundtable Core member and Island Institute Board member

Here’s what  I want to know: What did the farmer do after he put all his eggs in one basket and then tripped over a hay-rake?

This has been the world’s project for the last few centuries, has it not?  The growth economy has narrowed and narrowed future options by building infrastructure for the exclusive use of fossil fuels, while killing off competitive sources of energy; dramatically reducing biodiversity among living things as humanoids convert their biomass into human flesh; eliminating cultures, languages, indigenous life-ways and lives and replacing them with the global economy; growing one genetically modified variety of corn and lopping the heads off any stalk of wheat that grows to a non-average height; making sure that each Big Mac is exactly like the other 47 billion; demeaning any ways of loving or living that differ from the ‘norm’; measuring all value in US$; and — all together now — singing the same song (“I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”).

So here’s what I see, scrolling in slow motion: The farmer hurries across the farmyard, whistling. A basket of eggs swings from his hand.  Because his eyes are on the kitchen door, he doesn’t see the hay-rake. He trips and sails forward — a giant leap.  His legs pedal air. The hand holding the basket reaches forward, as if it were holding a lantern.  The eggs bound out of the basket, one after another — twelve eggs flying.  And one after another, they flatten against the pounded earth.  Soon after, the farmer’s body smacks full-length onto the ground.  There is stunned silence in the barnyard. Then, wide-eyed, the man lifts his head.  He has egg on his face, and blood in his nostrils.  Continue reading →