The commodity mindset of canneries and dams drove Pacific salmon near extinction
Evidence
Drawn by the prospect of fortunes to be made from canneries, salmon fishing exploded. But there was no more honoring of the returning fish, no guarantee of safe passage upstream for the early arrivers. Adding insult to injury, construction of upstream dams created rivers of no return, and degradation by cattle grazing and industrial forestry reduced spawning to nil. The commodity mind-set drove fish that had fed the people for thousands of years close to extinction. To preserve the revenue stream, they built salmon hatcheries, turning out industrial fish. They thought they could make salmon without rivers. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 893
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Direct echo of the commodity-versus-gift economics thread; the hatchery substitution parallels how the marketplace sells dead matter severed from living relationships (ch48).
- XREF: The hatchery ‘make salmon without rivers’ line resonates with settler rootlessness from chapter 50 and the arrogance of substituting engineered for relational production. — connects to: Unrestricted market hunting nearly extirpated the upland plover from Wisconsin farms — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 137; Ritual ceremony materially improves salmon survival and ecosystem cycling — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 905; Commodifying nature as economic resource spans all ideologies — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2523 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Ritual ceremony materially improves salmon survival and ecosystem cycling
#contradicts(0.72) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 905 - Commodifying nature as economic resource spans all ideologies
#expands(0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2523 - Postmodern nature imagery memorializes a nature already systemically eliminated by capitalism
#contradicts(0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 396