North Korea Lifts Restrictions on Private Markets as Last Resort in Food Crisis
June 20th, 2010Centralized agriculture will result in famine. Whether it’s Dear Leader or Monsanto, it’s doomed. Call it communism (which results in statist plutocracy) or capitalism (which results in corporate plutocracy), it doesn’t matter. Fascism is fascism, regardless of the mask it happens to be wearing.
To understand the effects of statist plutocracy on your belly, see:
The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine by Robert Conquest
Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust by Miron Dolot
Cuba already went through this. While the fascist regime remains, food production in Cuba represents a modern day miracle. Essentially, Cuba has collapsed in many respects, but there’s no famine. Locally produced organic food is plentiful and affordable. That state encourages and supports decentralized, localized, small scale food production, while maintaining control over some industrially produced crops.
With regard to food production in Cuba, see:
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
The Cuban Organiponico garden bed is an outstanding system for food production.
I took part in an Organiponico class where we built a couple beds at a local school. At the end of the day, you get a very productive, long lasting and attractive garden bed.
In Northland New Zealand, Organiponico uses only 1 part cement to 8 parts PAP7, which is the slag that’s left over from crushing larger rocks at local rock quarries. It’s 7mm and smaller.
Via: Washington Post:
Bowing to reality, the North Korean government has lifted all restrictions on private markets — a last-resort option for a leadership desperate to prevent its people from starving.
In recent weeks, according to North Korea observers and defector groups with sources in the country, Kim Jong Il’s government admitted its inability to solve the current food shortage and encouraged its people to rely on private markets for the purchase of goods. Though the policy reversal will not alter daily patterns — North Koreans have depended on such markets for more than 15 years — the latest order from Pyongyang abandons a key pillar of a central, planned economy.
With November’s currency revaluation, Kim wiped out his citizens’ personal savings and struck a blow against the private food distribution system sustaining his country. The latest policy switch, though, stands as an acknowledgment that the currency move was a failure and that only capitalist-style trading can prevent widespread famine.
“The North Korean government has tried all possible ways [for a planned economy] and failed, and it now has to resort to the last option,” said Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “There’s been lots of back and forth in what the government has been willing to tolerate, and I cannot rule out the possibility of them trying to bring back restrictions on the markets. But it is hard for the government to reverse it now.”
Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo
thanks for your commentary and links, kevin.
extremely interesting. i have read several articles on post-1991 Cuba about 5 years ago during my peak oil phase, but the Organiponico thing is new for me and fascinating.