Throughout the episode, Helena reflected on how her time with Ladakh communities revealed the profound negative impacts that colonial influence and global economic models have on cultural integrity and environmental health. What she witnessed in Ladakh became a turning point, showing her how quickly “development” can erode community cohesion, ecological balance, and a sense of well-being.

Helena has captured these insights in her book Ancient Futures and the companion film Ancient Futures: Learning from the Ladakh, both widely recognized for exposing the hidden costs of exporting Western, industrial lifestyles around the world. At its core, Ancient Futures asks us to redefine what a healthy society truly looks like and to carry forward the place-based wisdom that can help shape a regenerative future.

Throughout the episode, Helena also points to the period following World War II - often referred to as the “Green Revolution” - as a defining moment in the rise of today’s industrial food system. In this post-war era, global policies and development programs began promoting monocultures for export, supported by fossil-fuel technologies and inputs. What was framed as agricultural “modernization” quickly became a system dependent on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanization, fundamentally reshaping rural economies and ecological health.

By the 1950s, the Green Revolution had expanded globally, pairing high-yield crop varieties with intensive chemical use and heavy irrigation ([source](https://www.britannica.com/event/green-revolution?), source. Though partially influenced by efforts to recover from the Dust Bowl, the movement ultimately replaced natural soil fertility with industrial solutions—laying the groundwork for the chemical-input agriculture still dominant today ([source](https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/?), source.

You can learn more about the Green Revolution here: [link](https://www.britannica.com/event/green-revolution?)

08:40 - Helena reflected that as she traveled the world, she kept noticing the same pattern: food that had traveled thousands of miles often cost less than food grown right down the road. She saw how this undercut local farmers and weakened local economies.

To contextualize this, in the U.S., this trend has grown dramatically over the last 50 years. Today, processed foods travel an average of 1,300 miles, and fresh fruits and vegetables travel more than 1,500 miles before we eat them. A journey powered almost entirely by fossil fuels. Some estimates suggest nearly 10 calories of fossil energy go into the system for every 1 calorie of food energy we get out. (source.

One big reason long-distance food can seem “cheaper” is the dominance of what economists call “economies of size.” In simple terms, very large farms can spread their costs over huge amounts of product, buy inputs like seeds and fertilizers in bulk, and rely on labor-saving technologies such as tractors, synthetic fertilizers, and chemicals. This can make their food appear cheaper at the checkout line. But research shows these cost advantages only go so far. In crop farming, costs drop only until a farm reaches roughly 400–800 acres—and then the savings level off. Despite that, U.S. policies (especially after World War II) pushed farms to expand, encouraging small farmers to leave the land while promoting technology-heavy, large-scale operations. Today, half of all U.S. farms make under $5,000 a year, while just 5% of farms produce 74% of all food sales (source.

In livestock production, consolidation is even more extreme. Large meatpacking companies create strong pressure for farmers to scale up or sign contracts, and while this can look efficient on paper, it often hides major costs: manure pollution, water contamination, antibiotic resistance, and higher risks of disease spreading through the food system (source.

Technology also drives what many call the “technology treadmill” where farmers buy expensive equipment to save time but must then farm more acres to pay for it, facing tighter margins that push them to scale up again. So while this system delivers cheap food in the short term, it also contributes to environmental harm, weaker rural economies, and higher long-term risks for communities and ecosystems. When all these hidden costs are considered, the “efficiency” of large-scale agriculture becomes far more complicated (source.

Explore [Five Ways Local Farmers and Food Producers Help Mitigate Rising Food Prices](https://www.palmerland.org/blog/five-ways-local-farmers-and-food-producers-help-mitigate-rising-food-prices#:~:text=One of the primary advantages,of hands food passes through.)