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29 Jun 2005 19:26:10 -0000

Making the World Sustainable

press-release

 

 

 

 

 

The Institute of Science in Society Science Society

Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk

 

General Enquiries sam Website/Mailing List

press-release ISIS Director m.w.ho

========================================================

 

 

ISIS Press Release 29/06/05

 

Making the World Sustainable

***********************

 

Mae-Wan Ho Biophysics Group, Dept. of Pharmacy, King's

College, Franklin-Wilkins Bldg. London SE1 9NN, UK.

 

Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1

0XR, UK E-mail: m.w.ho

 

Plenary lecture at Food Security in An Energy-Scarce World

international conference, 23-25 June 2005, University

College, Dublin, Ireland.

 

A fuller version with references and figures are posted on

ISIS Members' website

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/full/MTWSFull.php).

Details here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php

 

Abstract

 

Decades of an " environmental bubble economy " built on the

over-exploitation of natural resources has accelerated

global warming, environmental degradation, depletion of

water and oil, and brought falling crop yields,

precipitating a crisis in world food security with no

prospects for improvement under the business as usual

scenario.

 

There is, nevertheless, a wealth of knowledge for making our

food system sustainable that not only can provide food

security and health for all, but can also go a long way

towards mitigating global warming by preventing greenhouse

gas emissions and creating new carbon stocks and sinks.

 

One of the most important obstacles to implementing the

existing knowledge is the dominant economic model of

unrestrained, unbalanced growth that has already failed the

reality test. I describe a highly productive integrated

farming system based on maximising internal input to

illustrate a theory of sustainable organic growth as

alternative to the dominant model.

 

Current food production system due for collapse

 

World grain yield fell for four successive years from 2000

to 2003 as temperatures soar, bringing reserves to the

lowest in thirty years [1]. The situation did not improve

despite a `bumper' harvest in 2004, which was just enough to

satisfy world consumption. Experts are predicting [2] that

global warming is set to do far worse damage to food

production than " even the gloomiest of previous forecasts. "

An international team of crop scientists from China, India,

the Philippines and the United States had already reported

that crop yields fall by 10 percent for each deg. C rise in

night-time temperature during the growing season [3].

 

The Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted

in 2001 that the earth's average temperature would rise by

1.4 to 5.8 deg. C within this century [4]. In 2003, a Royal

Society conference in London told us that the IPCC model

fails to capture the abrupt nature of climate change, that

it could be happening over a matter of decades or years [5].

In January 2005, a group based in Oxford University in the

UK predicts a greater temperature rise of 1.9 to 11.5 deg. C

when carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere, currently

standing at 379 parts per million, doubles its pre-

industrial level of 280 parts per million sometime within

the present century [6].

 

The " environmental bubble economy " built on the

unsustainable exploitation of our natural resources is due

for collapse [7] said Lester Brown of Earth Policy

Institute. The task of turning our food production system

sustainable must be addressed at " war-time " speed.

 

He summarised the fallout of the environmental bubble

economy succinctly [8]: " ..collapsing fisheries, shrinking

forests, expanding deserts, rising CO2 levels, eroding

soils, rising temperatures, falling water tables, melting

glaciers, deteriorating grasslands, rising seas, rivers that

are running dry, and disappearing species. "

 

In too many of the major food-production regions of the

world, such as the bread baskets of China, India and the

United States, conventional farming practices including

heavy irrigation have severely depleted the underground

water [7, 8]. At the same time, world oil production may

have passed its peak [9]; oil price hit a record high of

US$58 a barrel on 4 April 2005, and is expected to top

US$100 within two years [10]. This spells looming disaster

for conventional industrial agriculture, which is heavily

dependent on both oil and water.

 

Our current food production system is a legacy of the high

input agriculture of the green revolution, exacerbated and

promoted by agricultural policies that benefit trans-

national agribusiness corporations at the expense of farmers

[11, 12]. Its true costs are becoming all too clear (see Box

1).

 

-------------------------

Box 1

 

True costs of industrial food production system

 

1 000 tonnes of water are consumed to produce one tonne of

grain [13]

 

10 energy units are spent for every energy unit of food on

our dinner table [14, 15]

 

Up to 1 000 energy units are used for every energy unit of

processed food [16]

 

17% of the total energy use in the United States goes into

food production & distribution, accounting for more than 20%

of all transport within the country; this excludes energy

used in import and export [17]

 

12.5 energy units are wasted for every energy unit of food

transported per thousand air-miles [18, 19]

 

Current EU and WTO agricultural policies maximise food miles

resulting in scandalous " food swaps " [20, 21]

 

Up to 25% of CO2, 60% of CH4 and 60% of N2O in the world

come from current agriculture [22]

 

US$318 billion of taxpayer's money was spent to subsidize

agriculture in OECD countries in 2002, while more than 2

billion subsistence farmers in developing countries tried to

survive on $2 a day [11, 23]

 

Nearly 90% of the agricultural subsidies benefit

corporations and big farmers growing food for export; while

500 family farms close down every week in the US [11]

 

Subsidized surplus food dumped on developing countries

creates poverty, hunger and homelessness on massive scales

[11]

-------------------------

 

 

 

 

Benefits of sustainable food production systems for everyone

 

Getting our food production sustainable is the most urgent

task for humanity; it is also the key to delivering health,

mitigating global warming and saving the planet from

destructive exploitation. As Gustav Best, Senior Energy

Coordinator of FAO pointed out [22], agriculture is impacted

by climate change, it contributes a great deal of greenhouse

gases directly, but properly done, it goes a long way

towards mitigating climate change. The benefits of

sustainable food systems are becoming evident [24] (see Box

2). There are major opportunities to reduce energy use, to

make our food system much more energy efficient, and even to

extract energy through converting agricultural wastes into

rich fertilizers to increase productivity, that at the same

time, reduces greenhouse gas emissions while increasing

carbon stocks and sinks.

 

 

-------------------------

Box 2

 

Some benefits of sustainable food production systems

 

2- to 7-fold energy saving on switching to low-input/organic

agriculture [17, 25]

 

5 to 15% global fossil fuel emissions offset by

sequestration of carbon in organically managed soil [26]

 

5.3 to 7.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission disappear with

every tonne of nitrogen fertilizer phased out [27]

 

Up to 258 tonnes of carbon per hectare can be stored in

tropical agro-forests [28], which in addition, sequester 6

tonnes of carbon per hectare per year [29]

 

Biogas digesters provide energy and turn agricultural wastes

into rich fertilizers for zero-input, zero-emission farms

[30]

 

625 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions prevented

each year in Nepal through harvesting biogas from

agricultural wastes [31]

 

2- to 3-fold increase in crop yield using compost in

Ethiopia, outperforming chemical fertilizers [32]

 

Organic farming in the US yields comparable or better than

conventional industrial farming [33, 34], especially in

times of drought [35]

 

Organic farms in Europe support more birds, butterflies,

beetles, bats, and wild flowers than conventional farms [36]

 

Organic foods contain more vitamins, minerals and other

micronutrients, and more antioxidants than conventionally

produced foods [37-40]

 

1 000 or more community-supported farms across US and Canada

bring $36m income per year directly to the farms [41]

 

£50-78m go directly into the pocket of farmers trading in

some 200 established local farmers' markets in the UK [41]

 

Buying food in local farmers' market generates twice as much

for the local economy than buying food in supermarkets

chains [42]

 

Money spent with a local supplier is worth four times as

much as money spent with non-local supplier [43]

-------------------------

 

 

 

 

Dominant model unsustainable

 

There is a wealth of existing knowledge that could provide

food security and health for all and significantly mitigate

global warming. Unfortunately, our elected representatives

are overwhelmingly committed to the neo-liberal economic

model that created the bubble-economy in the first place.

They lack the wisdom and the political will to make the

structural and policy change required for implementing the

knowledge. That is why the Institute of Science in Society

(ISIS) and the Independent Science Panel (ISP) have launched

a Sustainable World Global Initiative to create an

opportunity for scientists across the disciplines to join

forces with all sectors of civil society in a bid to make

our food system sustainable [44]. We aim to produce a

comprehensive report at the end of the year that will lay

out the existing knowledge base as well as the socioeconomic

and political policy and structural changes needed to

implement sustainable food systems for all. The launch

conference takes place in UK Parliament 14 July 2005

(http://www.indsp.org/SustainableWorld2ndAnnouncement.php).

 

The dominant economic model glorifies competitiveness and

unlimited growth involving the most dissipative and

destructive exploitation of the earth's natural resources

that have laid waste to agricultural land and impoverished

billions.

 

A study for the International Food Policy Research Institute

reveals that each year, 10 million hectares of cropland

worldwide are abandoned due to soil erosion, and another 10

million hectares are critically damaged by salination as a

result of irrigation and/or improper drainage methods. This

amounts to more than 1.3 percent of total cropland lost

annually; and replacing lost cropland accounts for 60% of

the massive deforestation now taking place worldwide [45].

Clearing forests releases their massive carbon stocks to the

atmosphere, turning important carbon stocks and sinks into

sources. Some estimates have placed the total carbon stock

of secondary tropical forests as high as 418 tonnes of C per

hectare including soil organic carbon, and carbon is

sequestered at 5 tonnes C per hectare per year [46]. Change

in land use such as this accounts for 14% of the global

total greenhouse gas emission [4].

 

The World Health Organisation estimates that more than 3

billion people are malnourished (lacking in calories,

protein, iron, iodine and/or vitamins A, B, C, and D), of

which 850 million actually suffer from hunger (protein-

energy malnutrition) [47]. The principal cause of hunger is

poverty. Some 1.08 billion poor people in developing

countries live on $1 or less a day; of these, 798 million

are chronically hungry.

 

Continued commitment to the dominant economic model – that

has so glaringly failed the reality test - is perhaps the

greatest obstacle to implementing sustainable food systems.

There are already many success stories from the grassroots,

and I shall describe one of them [30] briefly. It

illustrates most concretely an alternative model of

sustainable, balanced growth that I have been elaborating

over the past 8 years [48-51], and presented in its most

definitive form recently in collaboration with ecologist

Robert Ulanowicz [52].

 

Environmental engineer meets Chinese peasant farmers

 

It may sound like a dream, but it is possible to produce a

super-abundance of food with no fertilizers or pesticides

and with little or no greenhouse gas emission. The key is to

treat farm wastes properly to mine the rich nutrients that

can be returned to the farm, to support the production of

fish, crops, livestock and more; get biogas energy as by-

product, and perhaps most importantly, conserve and release

pure potable water back to the aquifers.

 

Professor George Chan has spent years perfecting the system;

and refers to it as the Integrated Food and Waste Management

System (IFWMS) [53]. I just call it " dream farm " [30].

 

Chan was born in Mauritius and educated at Imperial College,

London University in the UK, specializing in environmental

engineering. He was director of two important US federal

programmes funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and

the Department of Energy in the US Commonwealth of the

Northern Mariana Islands of the North Pacific. On retiring,

Chan spent 5 years in China among the Chinese peasants, and

confessed he learned just as much there as he did in

University.

 

He learned from the Chinese peasants a system of farming and

living that inspired him and many others including Gunter

Pauli, the founder and director of the Zero Emissions

Research Initiative (ZERI) (www.zeri.org). Chan has worked

with ZERI since, which has taken him to nearly 80 countries

and territories, and contributed to evolving IFWMS into a

compelling alternative to conventional farming.

 

The integrated farm typically consists of crops, livestock

and fishponds. But the nutrients from farm wastes often

spill over into supporting extra production of algae,

chickens, earthworms, silkworms, mushrooms, and other

valuables that bring additional income and benefits for the

farmers and the local communities.

 

Treating wastes with respect

 

The secret is in treating wastes to minimize the loss of

valuable nutrients that are used as feed. At the same time,

greenhouse gases emitted from farm wastes are harvested for

use as fuel.

 

Livestock wastes are first digested anaerobically (in the

absence of air) to harvest biogas (mainly methane, CH4). The

partially digested wastes are then treated aerobically (in

the presence of air) in shallow basins that support the

growth of green algae. By means of photosynthesis, the algae

produce all the oxygen needed to oxidise the wastes to make

them safe for fish. This increases the fertilizer and feed

value in the fishponds without robbing the fish of dissolved

oxygen. All the extra nutrients go to increase productivity,

which is standing carbon stock, preventing carbon dioxide

(CO2) going to the atmosphere. Biogas is used, in turn, as a

clean energy source for cooking. This alone, has been a

great boon to women and children [54], above all, saving

them from respiratory diseases caused by inhaling smoke from

burning firewood and cattle dung. It also spares the women

the arduous task of fetching 60 to 70 lb of firewood each

week, creating spare time for studying in the evening or

earning more income. Biogas energy also enables farmers to

process their produce for preservation and added value,

reducing spoilage and increasing the overall benefits.

 

The system has revolutionized farming of livestock,

aquaculture, horticulture, agro-industry and allied

activities in some countries especially in non-arid tropical

and subtropical regions. It has solved most of the existing

economic and ecological problems and provided the means of

production in the form of fuel, fertilizer and feed,

increasing productivity many-fold.

 

" It can turn all those existing disastrous farming systems,

especially in the poorest countries into economically viable

and ecologically balanced systems that not only alleviate

but eradicate poverty. " Chan says [55].

 

Increasing the recycling of nutrients for greater

productivity

 

The ancient practice of combining livestock and crop had

helped farmers almost all over the world. Livestock manure

is used as fertilizer, and crop residues are fed back to the

livestock.

 

Chan points out, however, that most of the manure, when

exposed to the atmosphere, lost up to half its nitrogen as

ammonia and nitrogen oxides before they can be turned into

stable nitrate that plants use as fertilizer. The more

recent integration of fish with livestock and crop has

helped to reduce this loss [56].

 

Adding a second production cycle of fish and generating

further nutrients from fish wastes has enhanced the

integration process, and improved the livelihoods of many

small farmers considerably. But too much untreated wastes

dumped directly into the fishpond can rob the fish of

oxygen, and end up killing the fish.

 

In IFWMS, the anaerobically digested wastes from livestock

are treated aerobically before the nutrients are delivered

into the fishponds to fertilize the natural plankton that

feed the fish without depleting oxygen, thereby increasing

fish yield 3- to 4-fold, especially with the polyculture of

many kinds of compatible fish feeding at different trophic

levels as practiced in China, Thailand, Vietnam, India and

Bangladesh. The fish produce their own wastes that are

converted naturally into nutrients for crops growing both on

the water surface and on dykes surrounding the ponds.

 

The most significant innovation of IFWMS is thus the two-

stage method of treating wastes. Livestock waste contains

very unstable organic matter that decomposes fast, consuming

a lot of oxygen. So for any fish pond, the quantity of

livestock wastes that can be added is limited, as any excess

will deplete the oxygen and affect the fish population

adversely, even killing them.

 

Chan is critical of " erratic proposals " of experts, both

local and foreign, to spread livestock wastes on land to let

them rot away and hope that the small amount of residual

nutrients left after tremendous losses that damage the

environment have taken place.

 

According to the US Environment Protection Agency, up to 70%

of nitrous oxide, N2O, a powerful greenhouse gas with a

global warming potential of 280 (i.e., 280 times that of

carbon dioxide) comes from conventional agriculture [57].

Nitrous oxide is formed as an intermediate both in

nitrification – oxidising ammonia (NH3) into nitrate (NO3-)

– and denitrification, reducing nitrate ultimately back to

nitrogen gas. Both processes are carried out by different

species of soil bacteria. Animal manure could be responsible

for nearly half of the N2O emission in agriculture in

Europe, according to some estimates; the remainder coming

from inorganic nitrate fertilizer [58]. Thus, anaerobic

digestion not only prevents the loss of nutrients, it could

also substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions from

agriculture in the form of both methane (harvested as

biogas) and nitrous oxide (saved as nutrient).

 

Chan further dismisses the practice of composting nutrient-

rich livestock wastes [59], for this ends up with a low-

quality fertilizer that has lost ammonia, nitrite (NO) and

nitrous oxide. Instead of mixing livestock wastes with

household garbage in the compost, Chan recommends producing

high-protein feeds such as earthworms from the garbage, and

using worm castings and garbage residues as better soil

conditioners.

 

To close the circle, which is very important for sustainable

growth, livestock should be fed crops and processing

residues, not wastes from restaurants and slaughterhouses.

Earthworms, silkworms, fungi, insects and other organisms

are also encouraged, as some of them are associated with

producing high value goods such as silk and mushrooms.

 

Proliferating lifecycles for greater productivity

 

The aerobic treatment in the shallow basins depends on

oxygen produced by the green alga Chlorella. Chlorella is

very prolific and can be harvested as a high-protein feed

for chickens, ducks and geese.

 

When the effluent from the Chlorella basins reaches the

fishpond, little or no organic matter from the livestock

waste will remain, and any residual organic matter will be

instantly oxidized by some of the dissolved oxygen. The

nutrients are now readily available for enhancing the

prolific growth of different kinds of natural plankton that

feed the polyculture of 5 to 6 species of compatible fish.

No artificial feed is necessary, except locally grown grass

for any herbivorous fish.

 

The fish waste, naturally treated in the big pond, gives

nutrients that are effectively used by crops growing in the

pond water and on the dykes [60].

 

Fermented rice or other grain, used for producing alcoholic

beverages, or silkworms and their wastes, can also be added

to the ponds as further nutrients, resulting in higher fish

and crop productivity, provided the water quality is not

affected.

 

Trials are taking place with special diffusion pipes

carrying compressed air from biogas-operated pumps to aerate

the bottom part of the pond; to increase plankton and fish

yields.

 

Apart from growing vine-type crops on the edges of the pond

and letting them climb on trellises over the dykes and over

the water, some countries grow aquatic vegetables floating

on the water surfaces in lakes and rivers. Others grow

grains, fruits and flowers on bamboo or long-lasting

polyurethane floats over nearly half the surface of the

fishpond water without interfering with the polyculture in

the pond itself. Such aquaponic cultures have increased the

crop yields by using half of the millions of hectares of

fishponds and lakes in China. All this is possible because

of the excess nutrients created from the integrated farming

systems.

 

Planting patterns have also improved. For example, rice is

now transplanted into modules of 12 identical floats, one

every week, and just left to grow in the pond without having

to irrigate or fertilize separately, or to do any weeding,

while it takes 12 weeks to mature. On the 13th week, the

rice is harvested and the seedlings transplanted again to

start a new cycle. It is possible to have 4 rice crops

yearly in the warmer parts of the country, with almost total

elimination of the back breaking work previously required.

 

Another example is hydroponic cultures of fruits and

vegetables in a series of pipes. The final effluent from the

hydroponic cultures is polished in earthen drains where

plants such as Lemna, Azolla, Pistia and water hyacinth

remove all traces of nutrients such as nitrate, phosphate

and potassium before the purified water is released back

into the aquifer.

 

The sludge from the anaerobic digester, the algae, crop and

processing residues are put into plastic bags, sterilized in

steam produced by biogas energy, and then injected with

spores for culturing high-priced mushrooms.

 

The mushroom enzymes break down the ligno-cellulose to

release the nutrients and enrich the residues, making them

more digestible and more palatable for livestock. The

remaining fibrous residues also can still be used for

culturing earthworms, which provide special protein feed for

chickens. The final residues, including the worm casting,

are composted and used for conditioning and aerating the

soil.

 

Sustainable development & human capital

 

There has been a widespread misconception that the only

alternative to the dominant model of infinite, unsustainable

growth is to have no growth at all. I have heard some

critics refer to sustainable development as a contradiction

in terms. IFWMS, however, is a marvellous demonstration that

sustainable development is possible. It also shows that the

carrying capacity of a piece of land is far from constant;

instead it depends on the mode of production, on how the use

of the land is organised. Productivity can vary three- to

four-fold or more simply by maximising internal input, and

in the process, creating more jobs, supporting more people.

 

The argument for population control has been somewhat over-

stated by Lester Brown [7, 8] and in several contributions

to the present conference predicting massive starvation and

population crash as oil runs out. I like the idea of " human

capital " to counter that argument, if only to restore a

sense of balance that it isn't population number as such,

but the glaring inequality of consumption and dissipation by

the few rich in the richest countries that's responsible for

the current crises. The way Cuba coped with the sudden

absence of fossil fuel, fertilizer and pesticides by

implementing organic agriculture across the nation is a case

in point [61]. There was no population crash; although there

was indeed hardship for a while. It also released creative

energies, which brought solutions and many accompanying

ecological and social benefits.

 

For the past 50 years, the world has opted overwhelmingly

for an industrial food system that aspired to substitute

machines and fossil fuel for human labour, towards

agriculture without farmers. This has swept people off the

land and into poverty and suicide. One of the most urgent

tasks ahead is to re-integrate people into the ecosystem.

Human labour is intelligent energy, applied precisely and

with ingenuity, which is worth much more than appears from

the bald accounting in Joules or any other energy unit. This

is an important area for future research.

 

Sustainable development is possible

 

Let me clarify my main message with a few diagrams. The

dominant model of infinite unsustainable growth is

represented in Figure 1. The system grows relentlessly,

swallowing up the earth's resources without end, laying

waste to everything in its path, like a hurricane. There is

no closed cycle to hold resources within, to build up stable

organised structures.

 

Figure 1. The dominant economic model of infinite

unsustainable growth that swallows up the earth's resources

and exports massive amounts of wastes and entropy

 

In contrast, a sustainable system is like an organism [48-

52], it closes the cycle to store as much as possible of the

resources inside the system, and minimise waste (see Figure

2). Closing the cycle creates at the same time a stable,

autonomous structure that is self-maintaining, self-renewing

and self-sufficient.

 

Figure 2. The sustainable system closes the energy and

resource use cycle, maximising storage and internal input

and minimising waste, rather like the life cycle of an

organism that is autonomous and self-sufficient

 

In many indigenous integrated farming systems, livestock is

incorporated to close the circle (Figure 3), thereby

minimizing external input, while maximising productivity and

minimizing wastes exported to the environment.

 

Figure 3. Integrated farming system that closes the cycle

thereby minimizing input and waste

 

The elementary integrated farm supports three lifecycles

within it, linked to one another; each lifecycle being

autonomous and self-renewing. It has the potential to grow

by incorporating yet more lifecycles (Figure 4). The more

lifecycles incorporated within the system, the greater the

productivity. That is why productivity and biodiversity

always go together [62]. Industrial monoculture, by

contrast, is the least energy efficient in terms of output

per unit of input [51], and less productive in absolute

terms despite high external inputs, as documented in recent

academic research [63]. Figure 4. Increasing productivity by

incorporating more lifecycles into the system Actually the

lifecycles are not so neatly separated, they are linked by

many inputs and outputs, so a more accurate representation

would look something like Figure 5 [49, 50, 52].

 

Figure 5. The many-fold coupled lifecycles in a highly

productive sustainable system

 

The key to sustainable development is a balanced growth

that's achieved by closing the overall production cycle,

then using the surplus nutrients and energy to support

increasingly more cycles of activities while maintaining

internal balance and nested levels of autonomy, just like a

developing organism [49, 50, 52]. The `waste' from one

production activity is resource for another, so productivity

is maximised with the minimum of input, and little waste is

exported into the environment. It is possible to have

sustainable development after all; the alternative to the

dominant model of unlimited, unsustainable growth is

balanced growth.

 

The same principles apply to ecosystems [52] and economic

systems [50, 51] that are of necessity embedded in the

ecosystem (Figure 6).

 

Figure 6. Economic system coupled to and embedded in

ecosystem

 

Deconstructing money and the bubble economy

 

Economics immediately brings to mind money. The circulation

of money in real world economics is often equated with

energy in living systems. I have argued however, that all

money is not equal [50, 51]. The flow of money can be

associated with exchanges of real value or it can be

associated with sheer wastage and dissipation; in the former

case, money is more like energy, in the latter case, it is

pure entropy. Because the economic system depends ultimately

on the flow of resources from the ecosystem, entropic costs

can either be incurred in the economic system itself, or in

the ecosystem, but the net result is the same.

 

Thus, when the cost of valuable (non-renewable) ecosystem

resources consumed or destroyed are not properly taken into

account, the entropic burden falls on the ecosystem. But as

the economic system is coupled to and dependent on input

from the ecosystem, the entropic burden exported to the

ecosystem will feedback on the economic system as diminished

input, so the economic system becomes poorer in real terms.

 

On the other hand, transaction in the financial or money

market creates money that could be completely decoupled from

real value, and is pure entropy produced within the economic

system. This artificially increases purchasing power,

leading to over-consumption of ecosystem resources. The

unequal terms of trade, which continues to be imposed by the

rich countries of the North on the poor countries of the

South through the World Trade Organisation, is another

important source of entropy. That too, artificially inflates

the purchasing power of the North, resulting in yet more

destructive exploitation of the earth's ecosystem resources

in the South.

 

It is of interest that recent research in the New Economics

Foundation shows how money spent with a local supplier is

worth four times as much as money spent with non-local

supplier [43], which bears out my analysis. It lends support

to the idea of local currencies and the suggestion for

linking energy with money directly [64]. It also explains

why growth in monetary terms not only fails to bring real

benefits to the nation, but end up impoverishing it in real

terms [65, 66].

 

Lester Brown argues [7] that the economy must be

" restructured " at " wartime speed " by creating an " honest

market " that " tells the ecological truth " . I have provided a

sustainable growth model that shows why the dominant model

fails, and why telling the ecological truth is so important.

 

Acknowledgement

 

I am indebted to FESTA for inviting me to present a lecture

at the conference, Food Security in An Energy-Scarce World,

which resulted in the present paper. It benefited a great

deal from the formal presentations as well as discussions

with Richard Douthwaite, Folke Gunther, Colin Hines, Julian

Darley, David Fleming, James Bruges, Bruce Darrell and

numerous others.

 

 

========================================================

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sis.org.uk/. ANY COMMERCIAL USE MUST BE AGREED WITH ISIS

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