[p2p-research] Fwd: Actually Existing Internet Communism

[Samuel Rose]

This is closely related to something I've been exploring with people
locally as way of procuring supplies of food. Some are calling these
"foraging networks" in Europe (we may call them "foraging tribes"
here).

The idea is that we can work together to time the harvest of wild
plant products that are legal to harvest from public lands (or private
lands with permission), and that we can split the cost of supplies for
labor, and split the labor of processing, and plan the actions so that
they are efficient, and participants walk away with healthy
alternatives to commercial agriculture. An example is the Acorn, which
is a direct replacement for staples like grain, soy, and some beans.
Many ancient societies subsisted off of the Acorn, although they were
usually subsumed by agricultural societies. In this region, there are
quite literally millions of pounds of Acorns that are there for the
taking on public and private lands, and well planned foraging
expeditions could yield participants with staple food product that
could last all year, that is processed, store-able and usable in a
variety of ways. This method of procuring staple foods can bring new
value to public land stands of Oak trees of various types.

These activities are an example of self/mutual provisioning, using a
commons-based resource. The impact on the environment in choosing this
alternative is exponentially less than normal food production
approaches. The time that it could take to produce a supply of staple
foods that can be stored for most of the year, just based on effective
Acorn gathering, could be less than 2 weeks out of the year. It's
possible that a group of peers, collaborating together could
co-produce all of their food within 2-3 months (and still supplement
with traditional gardening/agriculture, local aquaculture, etc). P2P
Foraging is not always an option, but when it is (such as on the major
continents) it could really pay off for participants.

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 7:00 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Roberto, Kevin, and really, all of you,
>
> in the  context of provisioning just mentioned by roberto verzola
>
> I want to strongly recommend a book I just started reading, and which
> reformulates the economy in precisely that way, and in my view, itś a very
> important contribution to a p2p economics,
>
> its Civilising the Economy, A new economics of provision, by Marvin T,
> Brown,
>
> strongly recommend
>
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 7:55 PM, Roberto Verzola <rverzola at gn.apc.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> I agree with you, Kevin, about non-State, non-commercial economic
>> activities. Commons are one example. Toeffler a long time ago called it
>> "prosumption" (production for consumption), I believe. I have also come
>> across a apt term, "self-provisioning". Perhaps this classification suggests
>> itself: State-provisioning, market-provisioning, mutual (P2P?)-provisioning,
>> self-provisioning, etc. It also fits nicely into the definition of economics
>> as the study of society's provisioning process. Of course, as you said, many
>> do the activity not for its provisioning result (which may just be a
>> side-effect) but for the sheer joy of doing it.
>>
>> Greetings to all from Manila,
>>
>> Roberto Verzola
>>
>> Kevin Carson wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: *Kevin Carson* <free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com
>>> <mailto:free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com>>
>>> Date: Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 9:27 PM
>>> Subject: Actually Existing Internet Communism
>>> To: free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com
>>> <mailto:free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>    Actually Existing Internet Communism
>>>    <http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/matthewyglesias/%7E3/xa9NDT-tkc4/>
>>>
>>> via Yglesias <http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org> by myglesias on 11/9/10
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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Sam Rose
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