I've been a pretty harsh critic of industrial agriculture for a while. I've also been known to utter unkind words about the government's extraordinary, multibillion-dollar effort to promote ethanol.
But I've changed my mind. I now believe chemical-dependent, monocrop agriculture can be counted on to not only "feed the world," but also keep its hundreds of millions of cars on the road -- now and forever. What turned me around? This news:
Archer Daniels Midland Co., DuPont Co., John Deere, Monsanto, and the Renewable Fuels Association have banded together to launch the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy. And guess what?
The Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy believes that through innovation, agriculture can meet the growing global demand for food and energy. We know that we have reached just the tip of the iceberg in discovering the full potential for agriculture in the United States and around the world.
What do they mean by "innovation"? According to Reuters, "The group believes that agricultural innovation -- such as genetically modified crops -- is the best way to address global hunger, not reducing biofuel production."
Awesome! At first I was a bit worried. Would this be a scrappy grassroots project, or would it have a big budget to get the message across? The Reuters piece set me at ease:
[Executive director Mark] Kornblau did not say exactly how much money the founding members contributed but said "the initial budget is in the multimillions."Update [2008-7-28 7:55:23 by Tom Philpott]: I should have noted that (beautifully named) Kornblau is a veteran Democratic Party media man. He served as national spokesman and chief communications strategist for the '08 Edwards presidential campaign, after serving a similar role on John Kerry's 2004 run. Before that, he was chief communications director for Sen. Evan Bayh (D.-Ind), a man so enamored of ethanol that as recently as last year, he was hectoring Nascar to switch to the corn-based fuel. Declared the Senator: "No one loves this country more than auto racing fans, and NASCAR has a unique opportunity to take a step that will help the environment and help our national security." We should remember that ethanol represents one of the few real examples of bipartisan consensus in the Bush II era.
Michael Pollan on agriculture and health care
Tweet for the bees
Soda lobby gets its game on
Comments
View as Flat
justlou Posted 9:40 pm
27 Jul 2008
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amazingdrx Posted 11:29 pm
27 Jul 2008
This is all on track and probably unstoppable anyway. Anyone who has been across this hell on earth, red state, bible belt of christian jihadists, hummer lovers, chemical ag, golf courses, malls, tree farms, and parking lots knows it is not worth trying to reclaim.
Too bad about California, they set the trend for the nation, but even they were too late. Latest 26,000 acre fire by Yosemite started by "target practice". No neglience involved.
So shoot 'em if you got 'em. Yikes.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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Jon Rynn Posted 12:39 am
28 Jul 2008
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wiscidea Posted 3:22 am
28 Jul 2008
If someone on the inside can sink industrial ag, Kornblau's the man who can do it.
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justlou Posted 4:19 am
28 Jul 2008
Source: Washington Post, July 25, 2008
"Monsanto, Dupont, Archer Daniels Midland and the PR giant Burson-Marsteller are some of the corporations behind the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy. No doubt feel-good ads from this front group will soon fill the airwaves, especially in Washington DC. The Washington Post reports, "A group of the world's biggest agribusiness companies announced it will use lobbyists on Capitol Hill and national ads to build the case for fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, even as grain prices climb worldwide. The biofuels industry has blossomed under federal mandates requiring the United States to increase alternative fuel usage by 2009. The mandates are under attack from groups who blame the new industry for rising food prices that have sparked riots and hoarding in several countries. ... The alliance has a budget of several million dollars for the campaign, but it did not disclose the exact amount."
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7590
And a rundown on Burson-Marsteller:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Burson-Marstel ...
hmmm... Mark Penn and Hillary Clinton
When Washington goes bipartisan you can bet some big money interests are involved. And when the truth is getting too close to those interests, put the PR industry to work on altering the image of that reality. Funny how close this PR industry is to the workings of DC. So, get ready to gag on the PR ads from this group. We hear enough of it already from their benefactors and voices in DC.
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Jonas Posted 7:52 am
28 Jul 2008
There are hundreds of millions of Indian, Chinese and other people from the developing world craving for mobility and a car - the ultimate symbol of economic success and of modernity.
The Tata Nano nightmare.
We can try to convince these hundreds of millions of people not to follow our historic example and our modernity. We could do so by showing the right way forward: use electric cars and mass transit. But then you bump into the economics of these alternatives - and they look very very bad.
So there's very few things we can do:
-a priority for the EU and the US could be to develop a hyper-efficient, ultra-low cost electric car for the developing world; transfer the technology; and then invest billions in a modern electricity grid powered by renewables, in these countries, so that the car actually works. All this while we do the same in our own countries.
This option will cost the tax payer in the EU and the US a lot of money (say 10 to 15% of the average middle class citizen's income. Very few people are willing to spend that much, especially not if the money goes straight to a developing country).
-the alternative is liquid biofuels, used in flex-fuel Tata Nano cars. If we choose this option, we should be investing billions in research into cellulosic biofuels (including FT-fuels), which are at least a tad more sustainable, and share the technology with the South. We are not doing that either.
-still another option is to try to "convince" and "persuade" the hundreds of millions of the fact that our concept of "modernity" (and mobility) is dumb and not worth aiming for. But I suspect that we won't succeed here. Modernity is way too attractive. It's an unstoppable monster that drags all people on the planet towards itself (the only ones escaping are non-existing tribes in the Amazon, and post-modern bourgeois green citizens who live the least efficient lives on the planet).
-so the big ugly monocropping evil GM-pushing megamultinationals have us cornered from all sides. In theory, they are right: there is enough land available to feed either 40 billion people, or to feed and fuel all people and cars by 2050. That's not the problem. The problem is that first generation liquid biofuels are not an efficient technology route, but definitely an economically sound one.
What can we do? Convince Indians and Chinese people not to own cars? Won't work. Invest billions into their renewables that are up to 20 times more expensive than ICE-cars powered with liquid biofuels? No option either.
I'm pessimistic. Economic rationality is cruel, and good intentions are no threat to it.
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Jonas Posted 8:07 am
28 Jul 2008
Environmental "zealots" routinely destroy these plots, making it impossible for the scientists to do their work, they say ("making better bananas to feed the hungry in the third world", etc.)
A french case currently before the European Court of Justice could provide some backbone for the scientists to get policy makers to agree with their call for secrecy.
BBC: GM crop trials 'should be secret'
If they continue this way, they're going to lose still a bit more of the little support they have left.
In any case, my only fear is that the developing countries, whose populations don't have the luxury to ponder the pros and cons of GM crops, will continue to be forced to accept these crops.
In South America and India there's very little real resistance to GM plants. Africa may soon follow and fall too.
Even in the U.S. resistance is marginal compared with Europe. So will the Euros ever succeed in winning the fight against the big bad Frankenstein? Since they are becoming ever more irrelevant on the world stage, I fear they won't.
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Jon Rynn Posted 8:20 am
28 Jul 2008
There are actually lots of slow, low-range electric cars, commonly called neighborhood electric vehicles...but I know, everyone wants an American lifestyle.
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Biodiversivist Posted 3:01 pm
28 Jul 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Wolverine Posted 3:21 pm
28 Jul 2008
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wiscidea Posted 11:21 pm
28 Jul 2008
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/TNAU-ventures-into-d ...
>>>>>
New Delhi, May 25 Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) is developing transgenic hill banana, which would be resistant to bunchy top virus (BBTV).
Speaking to FE, P Balasubramanian of the TNAU's centre for plant molecular biology said, "We are planning to engineer resistance in the hill banana cultivar, Virupakshi against BBTV. A full-length 850bp replicase gene of BBTV from infected hill banana was isolated in our laboratory. ... The isolated replicase gene may be cloned into RNA silencing (RNAi) vector ... sourced from Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. The silencing gene construct developed may be used in hill banana transformation."
Balasubramanian further said that that in addition to hill banana, TNAU was working on transgenic transformation of the popular Cavendish banana cultivar, Robusta (AAA). ... Successful regeneration of a diploid banana, Ney poovan (AB) has also become possible.
Hill bananas are perennial in nature and are found at an altitude of 2,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level in the region of well distributed annual rainfall of 1,250-1,500 mm. Hill bananas are the ruling crop of the lower Pulneys hill ranges, Sirumalai and Kolli hills of Tamil Nadu from the 1940s. BBTV has been the sole cause for reduction in hill banana cultivation from 18,000 hectare in 1970s to a mere 2,000 hectare at present.
>>>>>
The identified gene could be put into cultivated varieties of bananas preferred by farmers in various regions, preserving genetic diversity. It does not increase the use of pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals, synthetic or natural. The gene is found in food we already consume. It is from a virus that infects plants, not a fish gene! It does not raise the cost of growing food. It helps farmers harvest a traditional crop that used to cover 18,000 hectare in 1970s, but now, due to the virus, is now grown on only 2,000 hectare.
Why can't this technology be combined with organic farming practices to reduce suffering, help farmers earn a living, and preserve our environment?
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amazingdrx Posted 11:58 pm
28 Jul 2008
The swiftboat ads are working.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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vakibs Posted 12:27 am
29 Jul 2008
Questions facing the Indian rich and middle-class are not about efficiency or sustainability. They are mostly about getting stuff done in the chaos of a broken infrastructure.
The public transport is so overstressed that people literally hang out of the moving buses (I have done this myself). This is the reason why the rich buy cars.
Due to the absolute lack of planning, the cities are so polluted that the very air and water is unfit for human consumption. Roads are filled with potholes and sanitation drains overflow during the rains. This is why the rich migrate to the suburbs, trying to get some calm.
Chronic blackouts push the rich to buy diesel-based electric generators for their homes !
Needless to say, all this makes the problem worse.
Urbanization in developing countries is such an important problem for global environment that everything else pales in significance. Done with meticulous planning (and proper allocation of resources), this will be a valuable tool for saving the planet. If not, this will worsen the problem by a thousand times.
The government needs to invest massively in public transport (particularly rapid urban transit), modernizing the electric grid, and redesigning urban housing projects in an ecologically sound manner.
This is not forthcoming in any near future.
By the way, some good news from India : the REVA electric car, compressed air car from Tata Motors.
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Ron Steenblik Posted 12:29 am
29 Jul 2008
The problem is that first generation liquid biofuels are not an efficient technology route, but definitely an economically sound one. [My emphasis]
Economically sound only if you have the growing conditions of Brazil. Otherwise, biodiesel is not economic in any place (if you cost the feedstock vegetable oil at the opportunity cost of the oil), and most ethanol production is uneconomic without subsidies -- either to ethanol production itself, or for agricultural inputs (like irrigation in India).
These are only my personal opinions.
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Jon Rynn Posted 2:09 am
29 Jul 2008
Also, I know this doesn't help, but one of the main reasons that the American suburbs grew quickly after World War II was because the cities had not been invested in since the 1920s -- between the Great Depression and World War II, nothing went in, and they had not had a great level of investment even before then. So "everyone" wanted to get of the crowded, dingy, depressing cities. That may be finally turning around now, particularly as gasoline goes through the roof.
One source of funds in India -- the military. I know, I know, politically impossible.
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turanga leela Posted 3:55 am
29 Jul 2008
Honestly, any public sector agronomist will tell you that genetic modification has done practically nothing to improve yields compared with 100 years worth of research and conventional plant breeding in the land grant schools. But it's all shiny and new in terms of technology (or at least techno-speak) and that's why investors keep lining up. Really put them to it, and the GMO boosters will show you the graph of crop yield improvement over the last 100 years, in which the "GMO revolution" appears as a tiny blip.
The biggest problem I see with the Monsantos of the world is the one Vandana Shiva so unflaggingly points out, time and again: corporations being able to gain complete control of the world's food supply. It is the same kind of imperialist machination that got a small percentage of oiligarchs control of much of the world throughout the twentieth century. These GM folks aren't dumb. They've seen the writing on the wall and are aware that peak oil is going to give them the power vacuum they need to push terminator technology onto the world's food producers and force them to buy seed year after year. None of this is really about fuel, or the environment--it's first and foremost about money and power--using the power that comes from taking complete control of some basic human need to extort money out of the entire world.
The environmental problem of GMOs is, in my view, a smaller one compared to the geopolitical dangers. However, the environmental problem with GMOs is, in large part, the same problem with all plant breeding: namely, narrowing an entire species down to a single genotype with the most desirable traits. The less genetically diverse your crop is, the more susceptible it is to disease. Of course the chemical companies can then exploit this vulnerability by selling farmers a fleet of petrochemicals to "protect" their vulnerable crops. But Tom, I am sure, is our resident expert on all of this. ;)
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MAD MAC Posted 1:30 am
01 Aug 2008
Everyone on this list is pretty pessimistic about everything. I don't know why most of them haven't killed themselves already.
Victory in Pattani
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MAD MAC Posted 1:39 am
01 Aug 2008
I noticed that throughout this thread there was not one post anyone could describe as optimistic or positive.
You are a bunch of whining, negative, motherf@#$%
Victory in Pattani
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Bart Anderson Posted 7:04 am
03 Aug 2008
... these are a few of my favorite things ... (tra-la)
Gristmill debunking PR crap from agro-business.
Permaculture.
New understanding of soil ecology.
Re-discovering traditional methods of raising and preparing food.
Feisty 75-year-old Master Gardeners raising vegetables and helping newbies.
People searching out good information and thinking for themselves.
Bart
Energy Bulletin
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MAD MAC Posted 1:52 pm
03 Aug 2008
Victory in Pattani
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