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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (99688)	3/28/2005 1:59:57 AM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I highly recommend the book I just read by Fritjof Capra called The Hidden Connections. He has done a fine job of compiling some of the best and most current resources on sustainable human systems out there. He has wound these into a very accessible treatise about a culture of sustainability - it is a fascinating read and it vindicates the organic farmer as a part of a food web based ecologically stable system. The examples include real life success stories in the emerging nations. Coffee plantations in Columbia have very low pesticide usage and use field waste to produce high value products like shitake mushrooms. These wastes are in turn fed to chickens and hogs. You wouldn't necessarily agree with all the components, because some of these webs involve sustainable animal husbandry, but it is far more ethical than factory farms here in the U.S. The basic idea is that you produce and consume locally as much as possible and segregate contamination. Not every commodity is amenable to this and there would be regional differences. I have fond memories of going to some place new and having different things growing in different places. The average morsel of food in the world travels over 1000 miles before it is consumed. This average is actually low because some places like the US have even higher average distances. The way this is funded is by having a tax shifting strategy that puts the true costs of the travel and other environmental impact on the food product. When viewed through this vantage point, the overall benefit to all members of the "web" is higher. It is an optimization but not one based upon commodity price alone.