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|  | | Beyond Developmentality: Constructing Inclusive Freedom and Sustainability
In both capitalist and socialist nations, industrial growth has destroyed the natural world, intensified social inequalities, and abrogated intergenerational equity. The greatest obstacle on the path to sustainability is the hegemony of developmentality, which equates affluence with happiness, measures development in terms of GNP growth, and accepts development to be the destiny of civilization. To arrest further destruction of the natural world and build a sustainable society, the economy must terminate growth. State economic institutions must eventually introduce, and be accustomed to, zero rates of interest and profits. This revolutionary proposition seems absurd to the layperson, policy-makers and the traditional left alike. Public acceptance of a new economic order - where money cannot buy any resource that could yield rent in perpetuity, where internalization of environmental costs would nullify profit, and where saving in banks would yield no interests - would seem extremely difficult at the outset. But from ecological economic perspective, zero-growth economy is our only option if we really want to save our common future.
This incisive, epic work turns the dominant development model and its economics upside down and argues for a new way of thinking about the meaning of development and the complexion of our economy. The book traces the origin and development of the concept of development in the economic context, and suggests a way to achieving post-industrial development with zero industrial growth. The book argues that sustainable development is possible only when concerns for biodiversity and human development are put at the centre of teh economy and social policy. It both provides a theoretical foundation to | | | | Future of Rice
The report covers four broad areas.
1 Problems of Rice Production;
2 Genetically Engineered Rice;
3 Genetic Engineering - feeding the greedy not the world’s hungry;
4 Solutions - the real cutting edge.
The first outlines the nature, scope and types of current rice production as well
as the disease and pest problems that rice farmers face. The second examines
genetic engineering; its lack of precision and predictability and reasons for questioning its safety and longer term usefulness. The report looks at the types of GE rice that are being developed and the myths that the GE industry has propagated about GE rice. Claims that GE rice will reduce chemical use, solve pest and disease problems and feed the world’s hungry are shown to be false.
The report makes it clear that the development of GE is about feeding corporate profits not the hungry of the world. Finally, the report looks at real, cutting edge solutions that take advantage of new technologies such as marker assisted selection, of farmer knowledge, the diversity of rice varieties and the ecological realities of rice growing areas. Some of the solutions, such as mixed farming systems, not only solve pest and disease
problems but create additional sources of income and food for farmers and
communities.
| | | | Industrial Versus Ecological Agriculture
This book deals in detail how the Green Revolution has decimated indigenous wealth of crop geentic diversity, poisoned the air and water, eroded soil fertility, and depauperated poor farmers. The author describes numerous techniques of ecologcial agriculture as the better way to ensure biodiversity conservation and food security. He also gives adequate scientific explanation of why zero-chemical, biodiverse farming can protect the environment and human health.
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Contains a detailed morphological description of 416 Indian folk rice varieties, which are on the verge of extinction from farm fields. Also records diverse cultural uses of these rice varieties. This book is copyrighted in the name of farmers, to prevent bio-piracy patents on the indigenous rice varieties of South Asia.
The singular reason for the vanishing of thousands of local rice varieties is their steady replacement with the so-called “high-yielding varieties” (HYVs), introduced in the 1960s. Farmers were impressed by the initial high yield of the “miracle” seeds of the Green Revolution, and ignored the associated cost of external inputs, subsequent loss of non-grain biomass, and the long-term deterioration of the environment, including soil. The success of HYVs in wet farms have often prompted State agricultural scientists and agricultural extension workers to spread a set of unscientific exaggeration o | | | | Toward Sustainable Use of Forest Resource: Connecting Forest Ecology to Eco
A study of forest ecology and and customary forest use in Balangir district of Odisha.
p class="p1" style="text-align: center;">Toward Sustainable Use of Forest Resource:/b>
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p class="p1" style="text-align: center;">Connecting Forest Ecology to Village Economy/b>
p class="p1">In this study, findings of a forest ecological survey was linked to the mode of customary use of the forest. The study identifies the major drivers of forest decimation and the current trend of forest depletion. This would enable us to draft a mitigation strategy in the FINAL report, based on quantitative data about biomass flow from the forest into the villages |
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