Keynote Greetings from Prof. Fred Magdoff for the ILPS Commission 13 Workshop, November 2015

1. Keynote Greetings
Prof. Fred Magdoff
November 14, 2015

2. A Message to the Commission
13 Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff
Professor Emeritus of Plant and Soil
Science, University of Vermont
Adjunct Professor of Crop and Soil
Science, Cornell University
November 7, 2015

3. Prof. Fred Magdoff
Co-Author, “What Every Environmentalist
Needs to Know About Capitalism”

4. AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
I wish that I could be with you today at
your conference. But rest assured that I
am one of many, many people—including
within the United States—that are
concerned with the ecological crisis and
its effects, especially on the poor. As with
all social and ecological problems, it is the
poor that are most vulnerable and suffer
the most.
Prof. Fred Magdoff

5. What is called the “ecological crisis”
actually consists of many crises—global
climate change, air pollution, ocean
acidification, accelerated extinction of
animal and plant species, chemical/toxin
pollution of water and soil, humans, and
most other organisms —but all have the
same underlying cause
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

6. The problem is not too many people in
the world, it is not that humans are
inherently destructive or just don’t care, it
is not because of some philosophy that
people follow, and it is not because
individuals are making incorrect decisions
about what to purchase.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

7. The underlying cause of the ecological
crisis—that is occurring on local, regional,
and global scales—is the capitalist
economic system. This system has only
one goal: for individual capitalists to
accumulate profits. In its pursuit of
profits, businesses as are impelled to
grow and are impelled to sell more and
more.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

8. It is capitalists’ (and top managers’) greed
for ever-increasing wealth that drives the
system. In order to make such a system
function in a wealthy country like the
United States, massive amounts of
resources are used to convince people to
purchase more and more goods and
services.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

9. Colonial and imperial wars are an integral
part of capitalism—from the early
conquests and plundering of nations of
the South to the current wars in the
Middle East. In addition to the direct and
indirect slaughter of literally millions of
people, these ventures have also caused
ecological havoc.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

10. Resources, including agricultural land,
continue to be plundered from around
the world, with adverse effects on
indigenous/local people. In a capitalist
system, there cannot be rational
management by people of the resources
on which we depend.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

11. Resources are obtained and exploited as
inexpensively as possible and without
regard for the rights of the inhabitants or
for the pollution that occurs during
extraction, transportation, production,
and consumption, and disposal following
consumption. In such a system there can
be no thought given by capitalists to the
environmental and social consequences
of their actions.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

12. Capitalism needs to be replaced with a
socially just, equitable, and
environmentally sound system. One with
profound democracy, with worker and
community control of the factories,
shops and fields.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

13. One that brings out and rewards the best
in each of us—compassion for others
(instead of individualism), cooperation
(instead of competition and warfare), and
sharing and reciprocity (instead of greed).
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

14. And, instead of profits, the whole purpose
of the economy must be to satisfy basic
human needs for everyone—for food,
housing, clothing, health care, education,
recreation, and a healthy environment to
live in.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff

15. I wish you well in your discussions and I
am confident that they will help your
continuing struggle for social, economic,
and environmental justice.
AMessage to the Commission 13
Workshop
Prof. Fred Magdoff