Urban Farming
May 12, 2008
Urban farming would be a great idea if it encouraged the principle of homesteading, whereby individuals acquire title to real property that is either unowned, or has been abandoned. Many vacant lots in inner cities could properly be considered abandoned. Urban farming is a bad idea because it seeks co-operation with State and local governments. But Governments are the prime reason that land has been abandoned in the inner cities, and they are the force which keeps it as such, so that individuals in their own capacity cannot acquire that land through homesteading.
Instead, States actively engage in evicting people from land that nobody owns, and I’ve heard stories of “urban farms” being effectively repossessed by governments under eminent domain laws, in the past.
Urban farming would be a great idea if it argued from a natural rights perspective, that man may acquire unowned or abandoned property by transforming it from a state of nature. Instead, they argue from a social-utilitarian perspective; that people need this, therefor government should provide it or permit it.
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Urban farming would be a great idea if it encouraged people to associate on the basis of shared REAL need and learn to produce for themselves what they had previously bought through a corrupt and unfree market.
People don’t just wake up one day and start arguing for things from a natural-rights perspective. But finding out that they are not just hapless victims of some huge system might lead them to start radically questioning the structure of the food system. And that might lead to thinking more generally about their rights.
The dilapidation and dysfunctionality of the food production system might present radicals with exciting opportunities to educate other folks — and not just educate, but ENLIST and INVOLVE in the fundamental activity of producing food for themselves, their families and communities. I see that as exciting.
The people spearheading the urban farming movement might be coming at it from (IYO) the wrong ideological standpoint, but that won’t change unless you (or others who share your philosophy) get involved and make the connections that you believe lie latent in there.
My 2 cents.