Interestingly, there are some things that you can't see when the years are quiet.

But in the face of disaster, the harsh reality of capitalism was laid bare.

The true feelings of the world shown on the Titanic, huh...... There should be one in the United States, but definitely not much.

In the midst of the endless wildfires, looming is the bloody wounds of California torn open by the extreme disparity between the rich and the poor.

In a disaster relief report he led the drafting, the Los Angeles City Fire Department deputy revealed a terrifying story:

"In the first 24 hours of the fire, the Fire Department received an extremely staggering number of calls from 'voter representatives' – politicians from all levels of the department constantly asking us to go to numerous 'specific residential units' to protect these designated private properties. These requests for disaster relief distract the attention of the firefighting mission and cause serious information interference to the disaster relief command. ”

To put it bluntly, it was the California legislators who blew up the phone at the fire department and directly asked them to go through the back door and protect their houses and property first.

Moreover, in the United States, where firefighting resources are privatized, the wealthy can also use expensive private firefighters to protect their mansions.

If the fire is too big and the mansion is destroyed, it doesn't matter, and the high insurance premiums will bring compensation to the rich even higher than the value of the house.

As for the poor, calling a fire brigade is too much of a luxury, not just in California, but throughout the United States — a firefighter may let his house burn down because the homeowner has not paid a few tens of dollars in annual fees upfront, and a private fire brigade may send tens of thousands of dollars in bills to the homeowner after extinguishing the fire.

If private fire brigades are intimidating to the poor, private insurance companies are even more intimidating – not only with rising premiums, but also with denials to the poor.

To add insult to injury, it's California's power system.

California power companies announced that they would cut off local power during the peak of the disaster relief, and the local government returned to the era of no electricity overnight.

The power utilities' reasons for the outages are of course justified: the power system will worsen the fire and expand the fire.

As a result, many people woke up to find that their homes were inexplicably out of power.

Not only can they not watch TV or connect to the Internet, but even the street lights have been cut off, they can't go out at night, and their refrigerators have been cut off - those who have stored a refrigerator of fresh ingredients but have been tragically cut off must be able to imagine the despair of the local people.

Say you're in charge of the nightlife?

Ironically, in an effort to save costs, many remote areas of the country have not been updated for a decade – and fires caused by aging wires have not been once or twice.

Repairing old wires is such a trivial matter as too daily for Chinese people. But in a world where capital dominates the privatization of public utilities, it is too far from California.

When you think about it this way, we are so happy to live in China.

Let's be honest, there are so many drought, windy, vegetated, densely populated places in the world, why is it that California is on fire every year?

Everyone knows that a large number of dry trees are the direct cause of the fires, and the fires make the people here disgraced and embarrassed every year, but the bills that require the removal of trees to prevent fires cannot be passed.

Quite simply, all you need to know is that California is the most politically contested state in the United States.

The "voter representatives" will support the theory of environmental protection in a serious and solemn manner, but behind it are many calculations such as "the landscape will be affected", "too much noise", "the poor will destroy the community environment if they move in", and the bipartisan lawmakers who "if you support me, I will oppose it".

So, whether Californians want to admit it or not, the lives of the rich are worth more than the lives of the poor.

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Briefly explaining the causes and consequences of fires, Lu concluded: "In California, no matter where your farm is, you have to be aware of fires. This time we were lucky, the fire was extinguished relatively quickly, at least my house and most of the machinery were not damaged. ”

"But you don't have to worry too much, my farm has only experienced this fire for so many years, as long as it is well protected, this situation will not occur often. ”

"My farm is basically planned according to the ecological farm, but unfortunately the efforts of the past two years have been burned by this fire. To be honest, if it weren't for this loss, and the fact that my two sons and daughters were admitted to college and needed a lot of tuition, I wouldn't have been willing to sell my farm, which is the hard-earned income of two generations of my family. ”

Qi Zheng's eyes lit up when he heard this, and in the previous conversation, he knew that Lu Zhiwei had studied plant science in college and also studied management, and after graduation, he also worked at Del Monte Company, the world's largest vegetable canning company. Later, it was also because of the death of his father that he had to come back to inherit the farm, and it has developed to the scale it has today.

Lu Zhiwei can be used.

"I would venture to ask, what is Mr. Lu's next step after he sells the farm?" Qi Zheng asked casually.

Lu Zhiwei smiled heartily, "There's nothing bad to say, we have an organic food supermarket in Ontario." I'm going to go to Los Angeles to open a few more chains. Looking back on my more than 10 years of farming experience, I feel more and more that large-scale industrial agriculture in the United States has reached a dead end, and small-scale, intensive, and diversified farms are the ideal model for future agriculture. ”

"I'm optimistic about the future of organic food, but this farm is too big for the ecological farm, and the two of us can't keep up with it, so we have to give up. If I could, I would like to see the person who takes over the farm run the farm in a sustainable way, rather than predatory like most big farmers. ”

"So this offer is definitely a conscience price, I have been listing the farm for sale for a while, and many people are scared by this fire. The surrounding farmers wanted to merge, but I didn't agree, our business philosophy has always been at odds, and I didn't want to hand over the farm to them unless I had to. ”

Qi Zheng nodded and understood. To put it bluntly, Lu Zhiwei wants to expand the scale of the organic food supermarket and needs investment, which coincides with the damage to the farm, and the recovery also needs investment, and his children need money to go to college, so he can only choose to sell the farm.

Qi Zheng and Zhang Zehong, under the leadership of Lu Zhiwei, carefully walked around the farm, although most of them were affected, it can be seen that the farm is very well planned.

The farmland was divided into square pieces, and according to Lu Zhiwei, some were planted with corn, some with barley, some with buckwheat, some with soybeans, and some with rape flowers.

It's winter, and there are still a lot of fruits and vegetables in the unaffected part of the farm, which seems to be growing well, and it is clear that the land on this farm is fertile enough.

Lu Zhiwei told Qi Zheng that his farm raised livestock such as cattle, pigs, and sheep, and poultry such as chickens, ducks, and geese, and that the farm had entered a sustainable development model in the past two years.

Livestock manure is returned to the field as fertilizer, the soil is becoming more and more fertile, the vegetables grow thicker than ordinary farms, and even the weeds in the field are particularly fertile, and the insects are larger than in other places. The sheep are fed with weeds in the field, and the chickens eat insects in the field, and the sheep grow well and the chickens lay more eggs.

The agricultural products produced by his ecological farm are different from the RB and Australia that Qi Zheng understands in terms of sales channels.

RB and Australia's eco-farms are mostly used as tourist destinations, and a significant proportion of the customer composition comes from overseas. Therefore, the processed products of their farms can be sold locally as tourism commodities.

One of the original intentions of the birth of American ecological farms is to shorten the "food mileage" - that is, the distance from the field to the table. As a result, many of its customers are local and local residents.

Lo Chi Wai's eco-farm is no exception, producing produce that is first supplied to residents in the nearby community before being sold at his own organic food supermarket.

In Loh's words: "As an eco-farm, our core operating philosophy is not only environmentally and economically sustainable, but more importantly rooted in inclusive development of the community. ”

It can be said that without this fire, everything on the farm would be thriving.

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Qi Zheng and Zhang Zehong were both interested in the American eco-farm model, and the two had a lively discussion with Lu Zhiwei and his wife.

Qi Zheng combined the memories of later generations to gain a deeper understanding of the universality and particularity of American ecological farms.

The universality lies in the fact that in any ecological farm, a similar "circular agriculture" model is their basic standard.

Needless to say, we don't use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and we don't feed with added hormones.

The concept of "ecology" is more embodied in a sustainable development model. For example, animals are fed with crops, and animal waste is broken down by microorganisms to make organic fertilizer to help crops grow. For example, according to the cultivation period of different crops, chickens, ducks and geese are put in to eat weeds and pests.

This model of "circular agriculture" achieves the ecological balance of farm organisms through the multi-level utilization of energy and the recycling and regeneration of materials. Ecological farms are more productive than industrial agriculture destroys soils and have no environmental impact on surrounding communities.

The peculiarity lies in the fact that American Eco Farms are rooted in the community, creating strong stickiness and inclusiveness, and becoming a part of community life.

The nature of serving the community makes American Eco Farms products sold primarily through the farm's stores, local farmers' markets, CSA members, local shops and tours.

What's more, some farms don't sell to outside customers. Some ecological farms are exclusively for local community consumption, and non-local residents cannot buy them even if they have money. Even member families have to pay if they want to buy more than the limit.

Thanks to the special land system, these ecological farms not only follow the "natural" attitude in terms of ecology, but also "go with the flow" in terms of commercial operations.

For example, in the U.S. eco-farms, we can see that in order to ensure a satisfying experience, they will strictly limit the flow of people. There are also some farmers, in order not to disturb their lives and production, they take the initiative to create an off-season and limit their opening hours.

Therefore, China and the United States have different national conditions and different consumption environments, and the American ecological farm model may not be able to be imitated in China, and even many places do not have reference value at all.

But in general, in the United States, organic food, in terms of the government's policy support and the support of the market environment, is currently incomparable in China.

For Americans whose living conditions are too good, compared with the taste of food in industrial agriculture and the busy city, the organic vegetables and pastoral environment in the ecological farm are the most scarce, fashionable and valuable content.

That's good, I'm not afraid that you are picky, I am afraid that you don't know the goods!

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