[Terrapreta] DEFORESTATION TO PRODUCE FOODS?

[lou gold]

Thanks Ben for this great link *Amazonia.org.br <http://amazonia.org.br/>.
*Somehow I was not aware of it.

The article is of course disturbing to a forest defender like myself. And I
also see that the many forces of Globalization -- both good and bad -- are
sweeping the world. The dream of becoming middle-class according to the TV
standard is powerful. And, as long as the earth reservoir is subject to
depletion without restoration, what one group attains will come at the
expense of another group. Malthus gave its early formulation.

There simply must be a paradigm shift toward restoration and reciprocity. I
believe that there are TWO important avenues:
1) there must be a "small is beautiful" way to help the global rural poor
feed themselves (I like the BIOCHAR.FUND model) AND 2) there must be a way
to transform industrial-scale agriculture so that it will not have to keep
mining new areas of fertility (perhaps Dynamotive or EMBRAPA are working on
this).

The question mark in the above (a big one) is whether the global rural poor
will be satisfied with a sustainable simplicity or whether they will
(understably) want to explore the avenues of consumption seen through the
portals of TV and Internet? One way of thinking about this would be to put
the question to ourselves (How small and beautiful would WE 'developed ones'
want to be?).

With regard to Maggi, it is important to note that he is one of the most
powerful politicians in Brazil.  When President Lula was in deep trouble and
fearful that he might not get re-elected to a second term,  Maggi's support
was critical. It appears that the road from soya central through the forest
to ports on the Amazon was part of the deal. Crazy, or not, this was part of
the power equation just as are US subsidies and protectionism for corn
ethanol.

I wrote about this in my blog at
http://lougold.blogspot.com/2007/11/soy-in-amazon-pat-roberts-writing-in_06.html.
If folks have the time to read the full Pat Roberts article (link in blog)
it is very worthwhile. It gives a much better sense of what is taking place
on-the-ground.

On a sadder note, a jury has just acquitted the alleged mastermind rancher
who was convicted earlier of ordering the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, a
contemporary Chico Mendes, who was fighting for both the rural poor and the
forest in Amazonia. The acquittal came as a result of a mandatory retrial
following the initial conviction and has been condemed by Lula and the
central government in Brasilia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/world/americas/08rancher.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

hugs,

lou



On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 7:14 PM, Benjamin Domingo Bof <
benjaminbof at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:

> *Interview with Blairo Maggi: "Will you leave humanity starving or occupy
> new areas to produce food?"* - 05/08/2008
>
> *
> *
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