permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 11/29/2012 2:57 AM, Steve Hart wrote:
> Yep...too true LL...most of these examples you speak of if not all..and I
> have visited many are very isolated and do not blanket entire countries or
> even regions but small pockets..these people I include in the gifted
> percentage I suggest. And yes look at the mongrels destroying such habitat
> to support the western consumerist society driven primarily if not
> absolutely by the economic regime we have been hedged into since the Mont
> Pelerin Society formed and locked us all in their straight jacket.

Here's more, Steve. A friend wrote this and sent it to me today in reply 
to the BBC news about reduction in deforestation in Brazil:

"I'll try to find some recent stories I've read about third world land 
purchases. It's a very big deal right now. If "Amazon deforestation" is 
at a record low, it's only because they can find the land they want to 
consume cheaper elsewhere. They've been clearing the Amazon for the past 
forty years. And there's not that much destruction left to commit.

At present it's mostly happening in tropical Africa and Asia. 
Multinational corps and countries (most notably, China) are buying up 
huge amounts of land to plant export crops for transport back to their 
own countries.

It's the usual development model. At a fraction of the land's actual 
worth, they bribe corrupt governments into selling them the land. Then 
the host government evicts the small farmers before handing it over. The 
real estate term for this is that the land is delivered "vacant and 
broom clean". The Chinese get valuable agricultural land, the corrupt 
local elites get more cash to feed their greed and the peasants, as 
usual, end up paying the tab.

Thousands of displaced families migrate into the swollen, overcrowded 
cities, where no jobs are waiting for them. But the process still gets 
funded by the World Bank, which thinks this is a viable development 
model because, on paper, it results in an increase in that country's GDP.

How? Because when a small household grows crops and eats them, no cash 
changes hands. Hence, zero GDP gets created. And when they sell a 
portion of their crops to their neighbors, no cash exchanges get 
reported to their government. Hence no increase in GDP. HOWEVER... if 
China buys up 100,000 hectares of land in Zambia to grow soy or palm 
oil, and exports it, the cash value of the exported crop gets added to 
the GDP of Zambia. Even if none of the income accrues to the Zambian 
people, and the only employees of the organization are all Chinese.

That's how modern miracles of development get created. Here are a couple 
of resources:"

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/01/20121484624797945.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/11/201211714649852604.html

<>

Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 9:53 AM
Subject: BBC News - Amazon deforestation 'at record low'


[China now imports most of the soybean that it uses from Brazil and the 
USA, needless to say probably gmo and grown with roundup herbicide and 
chemical fertilizer. LL]

BBC News - Amazon deforestation 'at record low'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20512722

“Start Quote
Regrettably we have noticed that in states that didn't used to have an 
aggressive level of deforestation there has been a rise”
Environment minister Izabella Teixeira
The latest data from the National Institute of Space Research relates to 
a period before a change in the code which environmentalists say eases 
the protection designed to prevent deforestation - a claim the