ABSTRACTS

Introduction

Earth
"There is hardly any other word which bears a meaning as deep as the word "earth" does: Mother Earth, that which we are molded of; the native land; landowners and the landless; a Goddess whom man fertilizes with his own sweat and whom he dishonors by using it for things other than what it is for." 
 

Symbol

Earth
"The earth is in symbolic contrast with the sky as is the passive principle with the active principle, the female aspect of manifestation with the male aspect, the darkness with light, yin with yang..." (Source: Dictionnaire des Symboles /Dictionary of Symbols/ by Jean Chevalier-Alain Gheerbrant. Paris, 1973-74.)
 

Land and Society

Endre Tanka: 
No Land Back
"The fate of the cropland is not only a key element of agricultural modernization, but a matter of life and death to the nation. Since 1989 decisions about the land have been made - on the pretext of destroying collective ownership - without the inclusion of the majority of society. This contradiction is artfully enhanced by the social elite dominating the media. On the one hand the avalanche of false arguments, and the meticulous development of reality's artificial labyrinths and ideological traps, have reduced the land question to nothing more than a cliché. Mass interest has been drowned in the ocean of disillusioned apathy. On the other hand the goal of diverting attention from the question has been to suppress its essence: successful manipulation has exiled from public thinking society's need for becoming familiar with the theoretical roots of the conflict and evaluating the consequences of political decisions defining the existence of land ownership and land use. The question is whether we are able to recognize what our interests are while forming the mechanism of expropriating the land, and deciding which institution is able to validate it effectively, without clarifying the basic correlations." 

György Beke: 
Land and Soul
"Where the land has once been opened it will forever bear that mark. Just as the human body has scars where it was once cut the surface of the earth doesn't heal completely either. The earth's wounds are covered by grass or particles of sand carried by the wind, but there is always a telltale sign. The earth protests against the undoing of its unity. The earth is like a human being: it has an individuality."

Imre Lázár Baji: 
The End of the Enclosure Movements
Golgotha Between Arcadia and Utopia.
"On the final ground of enclosure the exiled descendants of Cain are severed from the foundation of the sanctity of their existence. On the great free market the element of empathy, compassion, self-sacrifice, faith, hope and love is in the way of calculable efficiency and is to be ostracized."

Aurél Budai: 
Looking for Eden
" 'It is truly unique
to see the ghost of the past appear
in our clear century. -- Where is it from?'
'A late ray from the Garden of Eden.'
(Imre Madách: The Tragedy of Man, scene XII)
Madách's famous work is a storehouse of deep philosophical thoughts. At the same time a great percentage of these thoughts have ... a new meaning since the birth of the work more than a century ago. The germ of certain ideas and phenomenon have grown and become essential questions of our time. The association of ideas over and beyond the original meaning is inherent in the naming of Eden: today it is the object of longing arising from the unwellness of society. It is the ancient idyll which those of sensitive soul strive to recapture using the tools of poetry and art. Originally Eden was where the myth of creation took place, the garden where the first pair of humans, Adam and Eve, were born and lived happily in ignorance until they succumbed to the tempter. Having eaten of the forbidden fruit they were expelled."
 

Sándor Oláh: 
Man and Earth in the Land of the Székely's
The privatization of the land, locally referred to as the new conquest, is a complicated process full of tension and contradiction. To this day it has not reached a point of rest. 

Sándor Kopátsy: 
Close to the Earth
There are a growing number of signs indicating that the importance of villages will increase in the society of the future.

The Farmer is the Guardian of the Countryside. 
A Discussion with Béla Glattfelder
Béla Glattfelder, agricultural engineer, researched questions concerning Hungary's acceptance to the European Union at the Agricultural Research Institute. He represented the Alliance of Young Democrats in a signature collecting campaign organized by opposition parties in support of a memorandum against the acquisition of cropland by foreigners. 

Landslide 
During the summer of 1997 when opposition parties launched an attack against the modification of the land law planned by the socialist-liberal government, a debate began in the media surrounding the "thousand year lawsuit": to whom should Hungarian land belong to? According to one argument cropland is capital which can be bought and sold freely, and which should be worked efficiently using up-to-date methods, rendering ownership subordinate to the demands of efficiency. The other extreme vows that the land is more than just capital: it is the foundation of national existence. 
 

Land and Economics

Gabriella Józsa: 
Starving Population vs. the Economic Hunger for Land
(The relationship between natural Earth-farming and artificial social farming)
"In this study we consider farming, used in popular economic studies in the classic sense, artificial farming. It is a product of society which developed from Earth-farming, is a continuation of it, or rather -using a different approach- took its place out of necessity."

Gergely Sándor Lukács: 
The Potentials and Restrictions of Mortgaging in Agriculture
"For the sake of clarifying the title: several land mortgage banks operated during the history of Hungarian banking, but none between the years 1950-1997. The impossible situation that arose in the area of agricultural financing was the motivating force behind the creation of the Land Credit Bank Foundation in February 1992 by banks with an interest in financing and the development of rural Hungary." 
 

Land and Environment

Adolf Paster: 
The Role of the Land in the Natural Agricultural Order
Present study was read at the economic seminar held in Máriabesnyő between April 24-27, 1997, entitled "New Ecological and Economic Possibilities on the Threshold of the 21-st Century."
"The question of land ownership, in all probability, was a point of argument even in Abraham's day. Several different systems have been put to the test, but none proved satisfactory. Not because we weren't smart enough, but because the right to the land was always dispossessed by those of greater economic strength who in turn excluded the majority of the population from enjoying the advantages of land ownership. One reason this could not be improved was because the systems of land ownership weren't very efficient. Another reason was that the image of man in the consciousness of people was incorrect. The land question is unsettled both ethically and legally giving rise to the exploitation of the natural environment and other human beings. We know all too well what role land ownership plays in today's extortive and wasteful capitalist market economy. However, we do not know what role it should play in a new, work oriented, natural and just economic order."

Donella H. Meadows: 
How Organic is a Genetically Modified Potato?
"For those who grow carrots the old way labeling it 'organic' and getting a better price for it can be tempting. If the word 'organic' indicates positive value, then fakes are going to appear."

Donella H. Meadows: 
From Garbage Dump to Garden
How "transforming waste into energy turned the garbage dump into a source of beauty, recreation, food production and jobs" in Burlington Vermont.

Agro-Ecology for Sustainable Development
Program of Action for Sustainable Agriculture
Is the Earth able to feed all of humanity which lives upon it? According to ecologists Michael Dover and Lee Talbot this depends on the sustainability of agricultural systems of production. In their volume of studies (Michael J. Dover - Lee M. Talbot: To Feed the Earth: Agro-Ecology for Sustainable Development. Washington, 1987, World Resources Institute.)
they introduce the potentials of rational agriculture using natural and artificial ecological systems, and show us the road we must take if we are to utilize everything our planet and its land has to offer to feed humanity.
 

Land and Ideology

Csaba Vass: 
Earth. Heidegger Variations 
"The Earth, as a foundation, is the place where existence hides, where Man communicates with the divine. God's work is creation; the divine, first step of creation is fruit. Fruit is not that which happens when something comes of nothing, nor is it when something dies away. Space, where something comes of nothing, a lodging. The place where something dies away: the realm of Hades. Fruit: the happening of possibilities. Earth is the place where life can hide from death, and can return from death. Earth is the hiding place of possibilities, where they can bloom, where the growing can grow, where truth can happen."

The Scenes of Our Lives

The Countryside
"I believe that the Earth serves the mutual usage of one big family which includes the dead, the living and those not yet born." -An indigenous Nigerian
"Parks are artificial and dead. Farms, if they are privately owned, rob man of their natural biological inheritance - the land they are from."
 

Ways and Ways Out

The Value of Quicksand
A discussion with Ozer Krammer, Israeli agricultural advisor.

István Somodi: 
Tasks Concerning Land Ownership Policies 
Which Cannot be Postponed 
"...If we don't act now decisions will not be made within the framework of Hungarian sovereignty, according to our own needs, but according to the objectives of a future union of states developed on the basis of rationality, but hardly in respect of national interests."

Towards a Better Distribution of Land
(The Challenge of the Agrarian Reform) 
A summary of the study published in 1997 by the Papal Conference of Justness and Peace (Iustitia et Pax).

Produce $100,000 on 25 Acres
Excerpt from the introduction of Booker T. Whatley's book entitled How to Make $100,000 Farming 25 Acres.
 

Masters and Workshops

László Hollós: 
The Kids Are Here!
A discussion with Zsuzsa Foltányi, member of the Eco-Companion Foundation's board of trustees, about the ecological movement in Hungary.

Act Globally!
A discussion with Ferenc Frühwald, vice-president of the Bio-cultural Association.
 

Eco-Grumbling

Roland Román Jr.: 
On the Eternal Hunting Grounds of Illusion
"...The information revolution is spreading across the network, a world revolution open twenty-four hours a day; by the time you wake up the whole thing has transgressed you, but then it's your turn..."
 

Bookshelf

Tamás Régheny: Two "Outdated" Books 
A review of the two books: John Michell: The Earth Spirit. Its Ways, Shrines and Mysteries, and David Maclagan: Creation Myth. Man's Introduction to the World. 

Iván Kápolnai: The Fundamental Work of a Region
Review of a book of maps compiled by Lajos Pándi entitled Europe-Between 1763-1933. 

Györgyi Bartók: "...Because I do Like the Land" 
Review of the book Testament and Agriculture by Károly Kós, published twenty years after the death of the famous Hungarian architect, writer and artist.

"Garden, Educate Yourself, Make Friends!" 
Review of Imre Somogyi's Towards a Garden-Hungary. The author (1902-1947) "was convinced, that the taste and aroma of Hungarian fruits and vegetables render them without rival in all of Europe, and if these endowments are paired with skilled cultivation then Hungary produce would be unmatched on the European market."

Péter Bencsik: Spatial History -- Temporal Geography
Review of Norman G. Pounds's An Historical Geography of Europe.

Péter Medgyasszay: Earth Houses
Review of : Hugo Houben -- Hubert Guillaud: Earth Construction. A Comprehensive Guide.

Magdolna Farkas Adorján: How Do We Cure The Sick Gaia?
Review of: James Lovelock: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine. 
 

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