Shifting from Industrial Agriculture to Diversified Agroecological Systems in China

By Zhenzhong Si, Agroecology Now!

Ecological agriculture – food production following the ecological principles with reduced or no use of chemicals – is being increasingly adopted by an emerging group of agricultural entrepreneurs. Driven by consumer interest in safe and healthy food, various ecological food initiatives such as organic and “green” food companies, farmers’ cooperatives, community supported agriculture, and ecological farmers’ markets have been taking root in China in the past decade.

Is there a way to counter the Chinese stranglehold on rare earth metals?

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

Rare earth metals which are crucial to modern electronics are in the news because the Chinese, the dominate world supplier, are threatening to cut off exports in retaliation for tariffs on Chinese goods imposed by the Trump administration. Is there any way to counter Chinese control of these crucial metals?

China’s Urban Villages – an Interview with David Bandurski

By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future

There’s a standard historical narrative of economic development with which we’re familiar in the west, essentially of peasant farmers quitting agriculture for industrial wage labour in the city and thereby building all-round prosperity.

Of Cages and Hedges

By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future

The lessons of China’s tumultuous history demand attention from those of us who advocate for more localized, land-based economies as part of the solution to global problems.

Can China Save the Planet?: Review

By Craig K. Comstock, Resilience.org

A current book asks Will China Save the Plamet? The author, Barbara Finamore, served as the China representative of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Her story gives first-hand material less for answering this question than for showing how a big country can  move from defensive nationalism to global leadership in starting the transition to a green economy.

City Food as a World Citizen

By Wayne Roberts, Resilience.org

In a nutshell, Modernist thinking on food exalts agricultural productionism, which frequently uses toxic technologies to overwhelm natural systems and limits, artisanal work methods and traditional home-based skills and habits.

Eco-Civ 101

By Albert Bates, The Great Change

If you want to put meaning into meaningless slogans, he said, think about an eco-civilization that means local resource sovereignty, multidiversity solidarity, and sustainable ecological safety.

Peak Oil Review: 2 October 2017

By Tom Whipple, ASPO - USA

1. Oil and the Global Economy 2. The Middle East & North Africa 3. China 4. Venezuela

Peak Oil Review – April 4

By Tom Whipple, ASPO-USA

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including: -Oil and the Global Economy -Middle East and North Africa -China -Russia -Briefs

Stock market confessions, chaos, complexity and the illusion of control

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

The illusion that we can control the world financial system is just one more illusion we share in an increasingly unstable world. Once that illusion is shattered, we will have to rethink carefully our assumptions about our lives, financial and otherwise.

Peak Oil Review – July 20

By Tom Whipple, ASPO-USA

A weekly review: Oil and the Global Economy, The Middle East and North Africa, China, Russia/Ukraine, Greece, The Briefs.

Peak Oil Notes – July 16

By Tom Whipple, ASPO-USA

A Mid-Week Update. It has been one of the more event-filled weeks in recent memory, but so far oil prices have changed little with New York futures continuing to trade between $51 and $53 a barrel and London between $57 and $59.