Posts Tagged by pesticides
Energy Scarcities Cause Food Scarcities
| May 22, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
There are many components to the cost of growing food and shipping it to its final destination – a surprisingly large part of which is energy. Moving water around the state of California uses 18 percent of all the electricity and 31 percent of the natural gas consumed in the state.
And of course, pumping water is only one element of the energy that is part of the food supply chain. Think of the:
• Manufacturing and transportation of fertilizers and pesticides
• Sowing, harvesting, and processing
• Transporting the food to market
The average food item we consume in the U.S. travels 1200 miles to reach our supermarkets, and even “fresh” food is two weeks old (and far less nutritious than it was when it was harvested) by the time it gets to us. Read More
Webinar on Aeroponics and Locally Grown Food
| May 3, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Here is the archived webinar from April 2012, in which I interview Rafael Quesada, CEO of Tower Harvest, on the subject of aeroponics. The company offers a low-cost way of growing organic produce in urban areas and other “food deserts.”
Aeroponics Addresses Many Social Issues
| April 27, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Sustainability |
Yesterday’s webinar on aeroponics went very well. Unless I’m mistaken, every single one of the participants wrote in at least one question in the course of the hour-long dialog between my guest Rafael Quezada and me. There were so many, in fact, we couldn’t get to all of them.
We’ll have the archived version on the site soon for those who missed it.
The more I learn about the subject, the more enthralled I become. I can’t think of another discipline that addresses as many social ills with a single technology. Sure, there is the subject of better nutrition itself and all that this entails: childhood obesity, diabetes, and the numerous forms of damage we’re doing to ourselves with our increasing toxic food supply. But aeroponics also addresses:
• The locally grown issue, eliminating the delays and the carbon footprint associated with agribusiness, and the trucking of food thousands of miles from harvest to destination.
• The chemical run-off issue, where our pesticides and herbicides are polluting our rivers and oceans.
• The challenge of bringing nutritious food to desert areas, or to blighted urban areas where grocers will not set up shop.
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
- Victor Hugo, French dramatist, novelist, & poet (1802 – 1885)
Electric Vehicle Adoption — What Do We Really Know?
| August 3, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
The talk I gave at the Electric Vehicle Summit last week is linked here, including the PowerPoint as well as the audio track. I concluded it with a reminder that, in terms of the EV adoption curve, we don’t really know as much as we think we do.
“Let’s put this in perspective,” I told the audience near the end of my 45-minute presentation. “You folks are listening to me, and, I’d like to think, trusting what I’m telling you. But I got my information from various sources, that, in turn, got their information from other sources. At the end of the day, it’s possible that, pardon the pun, we’re all just breathing one another’s exhaust. When there are so many variables, and so much of our world changes month to month, I look askance at projections that go out 40 years. I think you should too.”
I read a poem (Please Mrs. Butler) that, in a round-about way, makes this point, i.e., maybe I’ve raised more questions than I’ve provided answers. I acknowledged the chuckles I received, took a few questions, and sat down.
But the idea that we think we know more than we do is an extremely important one; it certainly applies far more broadly than the EV adoption curve. This subject, called “epistemic arrogance” lies at the root of so much of human folly. I’m reminded of an eminent business leader I’ve met a few times who takes every opportunity to offer his position on global warming. “It’s a hoax. Mankind positively does not possess the power to alter the incredible power of nature. The concept is absolutely idiotic,” he re-asserted at a recent meeting.
“Are you sure?” I asked the first time I heard this, my jaw on the floor. “I mean no offense — and I know there are ‘climate change deniers’ out there — but you seem quite certain about a proposition that flies in the teeth of the peer-reviewed findings that the vast majority of climate scientists have published over the last 30 years.” But couldn’t get him to back off even a micron.
I’m wondering where we’re going to see the most dramatic and lethal evidence of our epistemic arrogance. It certainly could be global warming, though there’s no reason to rule out nutrition. The last hundred years has seen agricultural science develop hundreds of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, as well as farming methods that many say have ruined the soil. Others believe that our GMOs represent a terrible biohazard. Almost no one thinks that commercially raised tomatoes have any flavor, but, more importantly, anyone who’s studied the subject knows that the nutritional value of the food in our grocery stores is a small fraction of what it was a century ago.
We also have skyrocketing rates of diseases that simply didn’t exist in the early 1900s. Is there a connection?
And what’s the solution? Should we feel comfortable with the approach that ADM, Monsanto, and the other agri-giants are taking, i.e., more unnatural processes and higher doses of more powerful chemicals — aimed at undoing the damage caused by the last round?
While it doesn’t seem likely to me that this will this fix the problem, and it’s certainly not the direction I’d be taking if I were directing this effort, I have to say what I wish other people would admit: “I don’t know.”
I’m reminded of an important idea in law called the Precautionary Principle, that requires the developer of an action or policy to prove that what he is advocating will cause no harm to the public or the environment. I.e., if a concept could potentially contain a risk to public health and safety, the burden is placed on the concept’s proponents to prove that such risk does not exist, rather than on the public to prove that it does.
But in cases like the food supply as discussed here, it’s obvious that we as a civilization are light-years away from any meaningful implementation of this principle. Agribusiness makes decisions that affect the health of everyone living on this planet. We eat what they feed us, and we suffer the consequences.
Occasionally it would be nice to hear, “Look, we clearly have no idea of the unintended consequences of what we’re doing here, so let’s err on the side of caution.” Wouldn’t that be refreshing?
But I’m not holding my breath. What about you?
Dr. Robert Sweeney on Electric Transportation
| July 29, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
When Robert Sweeney was earning his Ph.D. in water resources at The Ohio State University, his concentration was the unwanted spin-off from the use of pesticides. “There are many unwanted effects on what we called ‘non-targets’ like algae and other plant life,” Bob explains. “From there, I turned my attention to some of the larger issues that affect the health of our environment, for example, the use of oil and gasoline. I concluded quickly that we really must make the transition to electric transportation in all forms: cars, trucks, buses, and so forth.”
Bob is now the driving force behind a series of expositions, designed to let the public know about the availability of electric vehicles. The Southern Electric Vehicle Expo (October 2-4 in Asheville, NC) will attract people from all over the country. “So many people are interested,” Dr. Sweeney tells me, “but until they have a live experience with an EV, they presume it’s a golf-cart; they need to see that it’s well-made, attractive, and capable of terrific performance.”
When I asked “the good doctor” (as I sometimes call him) where he sees electric transportation going in the coming years, he had some interesting answers. “Well obviously there will be a long and slow replacement of internal combustion engines on our roads generally. But did you know that around here, people with off-grid vacation homes use their EVs as portable batteries? They charge them during the day in town, but use them to power their homes at night. Mall operators are setting up charging stations to entice shoppers to come, and to stay longer and spend more.”
I asked about the involvement of the public sector. “It’s critical. Vancouver has mandated that 20% of its parking spaces be equipped with chargers. Closer to home, Raleigh/Durham/Cary is demanding at a growing portion of its traffic be electric; if it doesn’t, it won’t meet air quality standards and the federal government will cut aid. There is a lot happening fairly quickly; it’s a great time to be involved in this.”
I’m honored to know Dr. Sweeney, and I thanked him warmly for his dedication to making our earth a cleaner place in which to live.
