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Re: re: Endangered Tropical Woods



Thankyou for making that so clear.  I have heard some big companys will do
$100 dollars damage to the ecosystem to make 1 dollar. There is no reason
that coffee and bananas can't be part of the tropical forest they have been
for years.You make a good point we have to walk softer .  That is why we
have to take more into account.  "Sustainable ag" can not mean " make enough
money to sustain a thing that may be doing more harm than good. Sustainable
ag has to take in the big picture.

96 GMT, Karen Stark wrote:
>One problem with "sustainable" plantations of wood species, as well
>>as of coffee, bananas, and any other tropical plant item we use, is
>>that a diverse tropical forest may very well be destroyed in order
>>to create the "sustainable" (or "organic" in the case of food
>>items) plantation.  I feel that we should not be using any
>>tropical species (including the omnipresent banana!) unless they
>>are certified and that the certification includes certifying that
>>significant tropical forest wasn't destroyed (recently) to
>>create the plantation.  
>
>
>Not only a diverse tropical ecosystem, but often a diverse human economy. 
>I work in a research library with one of the worlds largest collections 
>of literature from Asia and south america. The picture of third world 
>agriculture as unsustainable slash-and-burn is frequently innaccurate. I 
>have been too lazy to keep track of all the literature I handle printed 
>by NGO's or other local groups, but there is a human story of cultural 
>and economic disruption, usually violent and always coercive, which is 
>happening right now. I stopped eating non-organic bananas a few years 
>back when I read an open letter which was published in Akwe:kon journal. 
>It was by the cacique of a village that grew bananas, asking north 
>americans to stop buying bananas because growing them was economically, 
>physically and socially destroying his village. We assume that Coca cola 
>is taking over the world because of some Darwinian superiority, and fail 
>to realize that there are people who are having the western lifestyle 
>forced down their throats with the barrel of a gun.
>
>Karen 
>
>
>
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