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Last Sunday, the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) Published a parody of herself in a video "narrative" on Instagram. She suggested that telling the Hispanic communities in New York to grow cauliflower instead of yucca is a "colonial environmentalism" and that climate change approaches must involve working with local leaders rather than imposing on them. unique solutions (* ahem * like the Green New Deal). Yes, it was a real Ocasio-Cortez video, not a conservative parody. She parodies herself.
"What I like, too, is the growth of plants that are culturally familiar to the community, and that are so important," Ocasio-Cortez explains in his stream of short videos. "This is an essential element of the Green New Deal: all these projects make sense in a cultural context and this is an area in which we have the most difficulty … because people say why we have to do this? It s too difficult . "
She then attacked a very rational scientific complaint about horticulture as being fundamentally bigoted.
"But when you really think about it, when someone says it's too difficult to create a green space that grows yucca instead of I do not know, cauliflower or something like that, you do you adopt a colonial approach, environmentalism and that is why many communities of color are opposed to certain environmental movements because they have a colonial perspective and so it is not surprising to many of these projects do not work occasionally because our communities are naturally listening to live in an environmentally friendly way, "said Ocasio-Cortez.
"Many of us are separated from one or two generations of the earth." My family in Puerto Rico lives in many ways on the land, "she added, as if it had to be done again. she's an authority on agriculture.
"But if I went to a mostly white community and said, 'Ok, you're going to grow plantains and yucca and all those things you do not know how to cook and your palate is not used to, It's to be a little cute, but it's not easy and you have to make the traffic in these communities as easy as possible and make it work, "Ocasio-Cortez said.
"So, to do it right, it's not to get into a community and not impose what you think is right, that's what so many community development projects are wrong about," he said. she declared. "What you need to do is connect and find leaders in these communities, support them, and be careful when they talk about these things."
On this last point, I agree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and I think she's been arguing against the Green New Deal. Working with local communities follows a Roman Catholic principle called subsidiarity. The basic idea is that government works best at the smallest and most local level, so reforms need to be tailored to local communities.
This is exactly the opposite of the Green New Deal, which sets impossible standards for decarbonization and calls for the mandatory rebuilding of every building in America. It imposes a "right" to "safe, affordable and adequate housing", but Americans should be tragically familiar with the types of housing the government provides and consider "safe, affordable and adequate". Let's just say that people will not be satisfied, and the idea of Ocasio-Cortez that the government should decide which housing is considered "adequate" will hit most community leaders in the wrong direction.
As for the claims about colonialism, they are both absurd and backward.
First, scientifically speaking, New York is much better suited to growing cauliflower than edible yucca. Cauliflower is native to the Mediterranean and grows in moist soils. The yucca is native to Mexico and grows in arid conditions, even in northern Canada, but in dry climates. The reason the yucca does not grow on the coast, especially in New York.
When someone says it is difficult to grow yucca in New York, it does not spring from colonialism, but from science. Ocasio-Cortez should perhaps deepen the subject if it wants to force America into a dark new age by personalizing the pseudoscience of climate alarmism and alarmists. Perhaps an interest in science will convince her that we must not trust alarmist models.
Second, the Ocasio-Cortez suggestion that traditional modes of production from indigenous communities should be the model of the American multicultural economy is laughable. Residents of Mexican origin not only live in New York, but they can also buy plantains and yucca from Central America. Even if the yucca could grow in New York, it would be wiser for New Yorkers to grow foods like cauliflower and sell them to buy yucca grown elsewhere.
In addition, Americans are learning to cook various foods all the time and, as the economy expands the availability of food types, the millennial generation is diversifying into taste and cooking.
As White worshiping yucca and plantains, I found the patronizing attack of Ocasio-Cortez on the whites' provincial tastes was pretty disgusting. Does this democrat who wants to redo the US economy seriously think that only Latinos should love yucca and plantains? Is there a cultural appropriation to taste dishes from other cultures? When certain foods are Americanized – Chinese cuisine, for example – the cultural flavors are lost, but the millennial generation is looking more and more for authentic flavors from other parts of the world.
Tragically, Ocasio-Cortez's anti-science mug fits perfectly into the story of intersectionality. Starting from the idea that indigenous peoples are oppressed, some have argued that science itself is an oppressive Western construction that must be annihilated. It is ironic, however, to see a democrat – in the name of science – pushing something as unscientific as this "indigenous agriculture" of growing yucca in New York. Even with climate change, it's quite difficult.
Follow Tyler O'Neill, the author of this article, on Twitter at the address @ Tyler2ONeil.
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