Balancing the Doughnut
A most resonant concept in biodynamics is the principle of Threefolding. Highlighting our materialistic society’s need to balance the three domains of human social activity -- the economic, legal and cultural sphere – Rudolf Steiner developed this regenerative model in the aftermath of WW1. This principle alerted me to the profound imbalances of power which are decimating our food systems and our lives, pointing to an imperative of Health as the defining issue of our time.
This holistic approach enabled me to map 1) the state of our food systems today, then 2) a vision for where we want to be – within that safe operating space of Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics.
The overblown power of the Economic and Political spheres, beholden to a profit-driven ideology, leave little agency for rebalancing food systems in a stunted Cultural sphere. This extractivist consumptive order is exploding the planetary boundaries beyond which we endanger all of Life.
(The global food system) can be called, without being hyperbolic, the mother of all systemic problems.
–Zaid Hassan, The Global Food System 2016
Degenerative food and society doughnut
A balanced interdependence of Cultural, Economic and Political values enables food and society to thrive within the ecological ceiling, creating conditions conducive to Life.
Think of it as a “cartography of hope.” (Ackerman-Leist, 2013)