Business

Hi!
I apologize to anyone who has been checking here over the last few days and been disappointed with any lack of posts. Thanks for reading!
The thing is along with a seriously busy schedule now and thus having to focus hard on schoolwork, I received a nice dose of feedback which made me need to have a long, hard think about the blog. It was posted by ANONYMOUS, who had some interesting things to say.
So first of all, i have some questions for any readers of Peaceful Seeds.
First, do I seem to be reducing these issues to black and white representations of greedy corporate interests against the individual and collective future interests of the world?
Because that is something that I really, really never wanted to do.
I do have some serious blame to lay on greedy corporate interests, specifically those of the World Bank and the IMF. The whole racket that they have going on is very serious, and I was hoping to gradually present information on them to build the case. However, not all corporations are greedy, destructive, or environmentally unfriendly. Unethical corporations, and their increasing power, manipulation, and control, are truly a huge problem in the world today. The Ascent of Money in general is. However it's a problem that I do seriously think too few people in the world think about, and too many people in the accept.
But the fact is that we are all a part of the problem. And the problem is very complex, and my intention has been to slowly showcase the scope and intricacies of what's going on. And just as we are, corporations are an essential part of the solution.
I know this blog isn't perfect, but it's MAD young. This is only my 14th post, and I'm low on free time, but I am aware that I'm not yet providing the whole picture. I want to help people be aware of how their actions affect the world, and how our collective societies affect the world, as well as how we can change things to solve the problems we face.
And the solutions aren't always hard to figure out. An example of positive action/sustainability is in the video I posted called "How we regrew a rainforest." This video shows these things: working with local people who are eager to make a living, be self-sufficient and learn how to do it, and directly involving them in both environmental protection and sustainable economic practices; working against deforestation, soil destruction, and biodiversity loss - a lot of people need to be aware of the importance of rainforests to the global system, as they remove carbon, regulate the climate, retain water, and foster biodiversity, as well as a whole lot more; and the win-win correlation between helping poor people in poor countries, animals and plants and their habitats, ecosystems in general, and the profits of sustainability.

But seriously, I have really been trying to get this blog off the ground without just posting things about problems and laying blame or grandstanding or being an ideologue. I mean, my first two posts were sort of introductory, and I've tried to include stuff about the IMF and the Global economy, and how it works, as well as the crimes being committed, but also I've been trying to make posts about how incredible nature is, and sustainable solutions, as well as some stuff about myself. So I'm really sorry if I seem to be just posting stuff impugning the problems and reducing things to black and white.

My next question: have I been too angry, or coming off as just someone who's angry and ranting about problems?
I've been trying not to, but I couldn't help my outburst a week ago about the amount of garbage in the ocean. The truth is though that I do get very angry at the senselessness. But what I'm trying to do now in the early stages of this blog is show some of my interests, some of what's going on, some of the problems we face, some of the solutions, but mainly just provide food for thought.
I'm hoping to gradually raise awareness of the complexities of the issue, and why we have these problems today, what we can do, and also what needs to be done on the global scale. I'm trying to do it slowly, though, and preferably focus on one thing at a time. But I don't want to pretend like I'm totally right, or that I know everything or have all the answers, or rant on about problems or things that piss me off, nor be some kind of ideologue.
I've been trying to not reduce these issues to a black and white context, and I've been trying to introduce the problems so that I can examine them as well as introduce the possible solutions. I don't want to completely discount the opinions I night not agree with, but also I want to help inform people about specific problems so that they can think about them. Hopefully they can start coming up with possible solutions that they'll want to discuss and debate with people. But I also don't want to rush the blog because of the information overload I've been receiving weekly. I'm also trying not to be presumptuous about the solutions.

If I may however directly address something which ANONYMOUS asked: Yes, we do need to raise environmental awareness. As we can see today, people are aware of environmental destruction, and the need for change, yet very little is actually being done. But environmental damage isn't all; a lot of people today are still buying Nike, going to the supermarket, and whatnot, without thinking about the impacts that their day-to-day decisions have not only on the environment, but on the world. For example, we here consume the vast majority of the world's resources. That's no news. But the thing is most people who are starving in third world countries live in places with food surpluses, but they have to produce that food for export to rich Western countries because they are trying to pay off their debt to the IMF. The food that's produced throughout the world is then shipped elsewhere to be processed. Industrial food processing actually began as a response to rising incomes in countries like ours, to increase the price of food. However, with industrial food production and processing comes "vertical/horizontal integration", which leads to monopolies. It's called the Agri-food Chain, and each link in the chain is dominated by a handful of multi billion dollar multinational corporations.
But you're right; none of this is news (not to mention the whole picture is a lot more complex). But why do we keep supporting this unjust system? People may be aware of it and think: "oh, but what can one do about it??" The first step is being conscious, informed, aware, and making a decision as to how you are going to live. The solution starts with education, as well as action. I'm hoping to be getting all of my food from local organic fair-trade sources by next month. Raising awareness is crucially important to solving the problems because the majority of people around here go about their lives as consumers without thinking about it, and the majority of the world is living in poverty because of it. And not only are we over-consuming resources, but we're wasting disgusting amounts of it. But this isn't news either!
Yes, solutions need to be focused on, but so do the problems because they stem from us, and our ways. If you want to implement solutions, you cannot stop raising awareness. However, I also kind of want to get people mad, because then they might want to DO something about it.

As far as solutions for the people who have no choice because of their situation: Education is probably the most important key for solving the problems in the 'developing' world. And if we want to help the environment, we have to help those people. I said that in the post right before the angry one about the garbage in the oceans.

So anyway, anyone who's reading this, please let me know what you think of Peaceful Seeds so far. I'm sorry about this long post, but it's been bothering me, and I hope I haven't been coming off as some guy who's pissed off and divorced from reality. Please send me your feedback, so that I can try to be a better blogger.
Thanks; peace be with you.