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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: [SANET-MG] The business of landscapes, eco agriculture, sustainable agriculture, sustainable development (links to websites)
  • Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2016 01:56:38 -0400

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 8:21 PM
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] The business of landscapes, eco agriculture,
sustainable agriculture, sustainable development (links to websites)
To: sanet-mg@googlegroups.com



On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 6:37 PM, Karl S North <knorth@binghamton.edu> wrote:

> They say a landscape approach is a holistic approach to natural resource
> management that sustains the health of landscapes and their ecosystem
> processes. On the face of it, that is a good thing. I have several
> concerns, however. One is that their main focus is management of multiple
> stakeholders in an alliance that includes many business members that have
> never had any interest in holistic natural resource management, like Basf,
> Cocacola and Cargill. Another is with the inclusion of big "beltway"
> environmental organizations like the Nature Conservancy and the
> Environmental Defense Fund. Their traditional definition of conservation is
> a rather rigid one that does not acknowledge constant change in ecosystems,
> and takes a piecemeal "let's save the lions" approach that often ignores
> other ecosystem species including indigenous humans like Masai herders.
> Finally, they still use the term "sustainable development" which, in a time
> when the end of growth is in view, should really be denounced as an
> oxymoron.
>
> It sounds like what they are trying to do is like herding cats, all of
> which have independent goals, and some of which are such big cats (like the
> outfits mentioned above) that they have always run roughshod over the
> landscapes that they invade.
>
> A bunch of nefarious exploiters of peoples and landscapes have apparently
> latched on to these organizations as a way to greenwash themselves. Nestle
> and Unilever funding the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, for
> instance.
>
>

> So it seems to me that some of the leadership of these outfits are
> well-intentioned, but extremely naive.
>

or well paid.......

Thanks Karl. I gave them the benefit of the doubt while realizing that they
might ultimately be David dealing with Goliath.
Your analysis seems to be right on the money. Where will they go with this
project? Good jobs, no doubt. They are soliciting corporate alliances and
advocates interested in seeing if their plan bears fruit.
A friend (skeptical) posted one of their emailings to the permaculture list
wondering if the permaculture community should network with them. I replied
that it might be worthwhile if they changed their use of the term
sustainable agriculture to permaculture to bring about, as you said,
holistic resource management. It would make much more sense to view their
project challenges through the lens of permaculture.and properly align the
vision and mission of their project.

Thanks for your enlightening reply.
--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared









--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared




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