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January 2005
Tsunami, Mangroves and Market Economy
This interesting article on the relationship between the damage caused by the Tsunami, and the destruction of coastal mangroves for shrimps, is interesting and has some interesting numbers on the relative economic benefits from shrimping, and damages from the tsunami.
Devinder Sharma via Simpolicies list
The magnitude of the disaster was only exacerbated by the neoliberal economic policies that pushed economic growth at the expense of human life...Since the 1960s, the Asian sea-coast region has been plundered by the large
industrialised shrimp firms that brought environmentally-unfriendly
aquaculture to its sea shores. Shrimp cultivation, rising to over 8 billion
tonnes a year in the year 2000, had already played havoc with the fragile
eco-systems....The expansion of shrimp farming was at the cost of tropical mangroves --
amongst the world's most important ecosystems. Each acre of mangrove forest
destroyed results in an estimated 676 pounds loss in marine harvest.
Mangrove swamps have been nature's protection for the coastal regions from
the large waves, weathering the impact of cyclones, and serving as a nursery
for three-fourth of the commercial fish species that spend part of their
life cycle in the mangrove swamps. Mangroves in any case were one of the
world's most threatened habitats but instead of replanting the mangrove
swamps, faulty economic policies only hastened its disappearance. Despite
warning by ecologists and environmentalists, the World Bank turned a deaf
ear.
...Let us now look at the comparative advantage of protecting environment and
thereby reducing the havoc from the growth-oriented market economy. Having
grown tenfold in the last 15 years, shrimp farming is now a $9 billion
industry. It is estimated that shrimp consumption in North America, Japan
and Western Europe has increased by 300 per cent within the last ten years.
The massive wave of destruction caused by the Dec 26 tsunami in 11 Asian
countries alone has surpassed the economic gain that the shrimp industry
claims to have harvested by several times. With over 1,50,000 people dead,
the staggering social and economic loss will take some time to be
ascertained.
(read the full article)
Continue reading "Tsunami, Mangroves and Market Economy"
Posted by at 8:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
Organic CRC rejected
(From Organic Advantage Jan 2005)
The Organic industry has been unsuccessful in achieving a government sponsored Organic Co-operative Research Centre grant from the latest bid process for CRCs. This is a backward step for food and farming science in Australia.
Biological Farmers of Australia Co-op (BFA) was committed to a 7 year $210,000 investment in the proposed Organic Co-operative Research Centre were it to be successful. Other sponsors included Coles Supermarkets as well as industry players including Organic Crop Protectants and Universities and Departments of Agriculture across the country.
"The collaboration would have been an excellent move forward for innovative modern biologically based agricultural research of benefit to both the farming community and the broader environment. Particularly it would have assisted in growing the organic industry, which continues to show demand in the marketplace domestically and internationally, whilst being limited by supply and science based understanding of organic production practices‰ noted Dr Andrew Monk, CEO of BFA.
"This multi-disciplinary, nationally based grouping of researchers would have overseen the commissioning of independent research in fields such as nutrition and food quality as well as integrated, biologically oriented sustainable farming systems, enabling Australia to capitalise on its natural advantages as well as finding solutions to some of our ongoing environmental challenges.
"At a time when the EU is delving further into this type of research*, this is clearly a backward step for Australia. There is a growing trend in both agricultural policy, as well as food policy more generally internationally, toward support for organic food and farming systems. There is a need for a long term approach of support for this industry, it is not something that can be turned on over night. We are talking a profound and fundamental change in the way we do science research and the way we practice and support our food and farming systems in Australia", said Monk.
Co-operative Research Centres are usually industry or "issue" specific networks of researchers, supported by industry and matching government funding, which assists in multi-disciplinary research of benefit to the industry and other stakeholders.
The BFA, which via its subsidiary Australian Certified Organic Pty Ltd (ACO) collects more than half the voluntary organic industry levies and membership fees, will now seek other avenues to ensure that industry members' levies are equaled by government supported grants to progress the interests of the industry and in turn the Australian environment.
R&D in organics will be featured in the Next Edition of the Australian Organic Journal.
Posted by at 11:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
An Indian village full of solar cookers
TIRUPATI, JAN. 6. Here is a bright little village in Andhra Pradesh that is all solar and smoke-free — the first of its kind in the country.
Bysanivaripalle, 125 km northwest of Tirupati, has 36 families. Their main means of livelihood is sericulture (silk cocoons). The eco-conscious residents of the electrified village went in for the first biogas plant in the region two decades ago. The officials of the Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NEDCAP) did not need to put in much effort to motivate them to go solar.
Intersol, an Austrian non-governmental organisation, sponsored the provision of "Sk-14" cookers here last year. Gadhia Solar, a Valsad-based environmental body that imports, supplies and installs them, executed the job. It is the single largest cluster of cookers that Gadhia Solar has installed anywhere. A group of schoolchildren from Austria visited the village last year to witness the project."
Posted by at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)