[p2p-research] the culture of the audit and the prefigurative politics of the local food movement

[Kevin Carson]

On 7/28/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I must admit that I'm partly on the progressive side here.
>
> A minimal amount of regulation, that takes into account the issue of cost,
> is in my view necessary.
>
> For example, in the no-trust country where I live, you cannot rely on
> self-declared organic nor on self-regulation of financially interested
> parties; only a form of regulation that involves different stakeholders, and
> perhaps checked by some public authority, would do the trick ...
>
> Unless you live in a village where you know everyone, and you fully trust
> the word of your supplier, could you rely on absolutely non-regulated
> production, in my view,

There are certainly complex, interacting factors involved.   But I
could envision a phased process, in which the state's subsidies to
agribusiness, long-distance shipping, etc., were first removed, and
food safety and other laws removed later after the marketplace
relocalized.  it seems likely to me that the effect of Peak Oil and
increased transportation cost will be not only relocalized production,
but more demographically stable local communities in which established
trust networks play a larger role.  As states become increasingly
hollow and cease to provide certification and trust on a centralized
basis, as a matter of fact, local social networks will probably turn
increasingly to informal trust mechanisms out of necessity (i.e. trade
within fraternal lodge networks, 'friend of a friend" stuff, etc.).

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html