The Real Green Revolution
A friend once suggested to me that the three worst things we could be doing for the environment are, in order of destructiveness, 1) drive cars, 2) eat meat, and 3) eat vegetables. I’d consider listing the car third.
Food
Food & agriculture – Aug 23
When we finally take the off ramp (from oil-fueled agriculture) / Organic farmers up against the Wal-Mart / Will the world starve in the 21st century? / Namibia: fuel hike starts to bite farmers
Cuba’s pathbreaking energy policies
As the age of oil ends, a society that clings to the social and economic institutions and practices of the early twenty-first century will go the way of North Korea. The lesson to be learned from these two Communist states is change or die. [Former Washington Post columnist von Hoffman jumps on the peak oil bandwagon.]
Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron?
ared Diamond calls it “the worst mistake in the history of the human race.” Bill Mollison says that it can “destroy whole landscapes.” Are they describing nuclear energy? Suburbia? Coal mining? No. They are talking about agriculture.
Whither cellulosic ethanol?
We are … biotechnologists, as well as chemical engineers and have successful processes going today… Our carefully considered view, for which we will be happy to provide abundant evidence is that severe barriers remain to ethanol from lignocellulose. The barriers look as daunting as they did 30 years ago.
(The latest salvo in the Khosla-TOD debate about biofuels.)
Food, heatlh & agriculture – Aug 15
Overweight ‘top world’s hungry’ / Living ourselves to death / Eat, memory: family heirloom (Masumoto in NYT) / Meat eaters without the guilt / Texas 2006 ag losses worst single-year total ever / Rice prices may double by 2008
Terra Preta: black is the new green
Amazonian Dark Earth, or terra preta do indio, has mystified science for the last hundred years. Three times richer in nitrogen and phosphorous, and twenty times the carbon of normal soils, terra preta is the legacy of ancient Amazonians who predate Western civilization…Claims for biochar’s capacity to capture carbon sound almost audacious.
Solutions – Aug 13
Tories plan radical green transport tax / The greenback pack (rich greens) / Green tech’s growth / What’s a clean Earth worth (to your business) ?
Is just-in-time nearly out of time?
In the coming years we may be faced with [hoarding] in many markets. The most devastating and far-reaching effects could come in the energy markets. Will the just-in-time religion which swept the world in the 1990s survive such a dynamic?
Food & agriculture – Aug 13
Hope has withered for India’s farmers / Acid rain in China threatening food chain / Cuba’s agricultural revolution an example to the world
What happens to our food when the oil runs out?
The Soil Association is looking ahead and preparing for a post peak oil world as an organisational priority. Our aim is to create a new, localised food culture that will deliver long-term quality of life in place of the old dynamic of unrestrained globalisation and short-termist exploitation.
Food & agriculture – Aug 8
Food prices would soar in biofuels switch, says Unilever /
Chez Kaiser’s food revolution: Hospital experiment putting locally grown produce on patients’ plates /
Micropropagation and sustainability
