My friends can attest, but I am chronically online. My daily screen time, when looking at the statistics, shows that I spend at least 40% of my phone-time on Youtube.
One of my favorite series to watch while relaxing is ‘So Expensive’ by Business Insider. Specifically, the ones that focus on people in rural communities creating items unique out of local materials. I admire the tenacity and preservation that the people in the videos present, and often find myself wondering how exactly these people come up with their ideas.
It was a pleasant surprise then, when I read through Winona LaDuke’s ‘Tribes Revive Traditional Hemp Economies (A post-petroleum transition plan)’. I had an idea of what hemp was going into the paper; middle school me was very confused when my history professor specified that hemp and weed (the drug) were not the same plant, despite looking very similar. I was also happy to note that the article was written about reviving the economic growth of Native American tribes, which reminded me of the ‘So Expensive’ videos.
LaDuke writes about the benefits of hemp as a raw material, a push towards a more carbohydrate-based economy based on plant matter (“a New Green Revolution”), and touches a bit on the history of how hemp was grown in the United States. However, it was while reading through the paper that I came to a stray thought in the recesses of my mind; do groups of people, separated from larger society, require economic growth in the way that LaDuke describes and is shown in the Business Insider videos? Is it truly beneficial for the environment to turn away from an economy fueled by petroleum, coal, and natural gas (a hydrocarbon economy), and instead embrace a carbohydrate economy?
Logic built from an eco-conscious education tells me. However, the question is complicated, far too much so to answer in a simple blog post, but it’s something I (and I hope people that may read this post) want to keep in mind going forward. Labor inequalities exist everywhere, with wealthy companies and first-world governments exploiting vulnerable communities. LaDuke admits so much within ‘Tribes Revive’; “in 2000, Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided the reservation and seized White Plume’s crop. Not surprisingly, White Plume feels a bit resentful of the profits being made in what’s now become a largely White-dominated industry, while his tribe had to sit on the sidelines.”
In order to properly maintain and implement a carbohydrate economy as LaDuke presents it, there must be guidelines and laws present to protect these more vulnerable groups of people participating in an industry, so that what happened with White Plume cannot happen on the whims of more powerful groups. If we truly want to help the economies of fringe groups such as the Native people of the Americas, there is much to be done. However, these laws must also have actual repercussions. After all, we already know about the multitude of injustices committed by several groups against land given to the Native people. How does that one saying go?
Oh yes.
”Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”