Exporting cruelty and unsustainability to the third world

Imogen — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:26:05 -0500

I think it's a great pity that the photo accompanying this story shows rows of battery caged hens. Sadly, it seems in this case these loans have merely traded human misery for animal misery. While many people might respond, with great indignance, that human suffering is more important than that of other beings, I don't think that's really all that relevant. Whether or not you think animals are on equal footing with humans, the fact remains that forms of animal husbandry that are not humane are not sustainable. It is clear to us now that our efforts to twist nature through the use of factory farms, petrochemical fertilizers, and pesticides have produced environmental nightmares that are only just beginning to come back to bite us in the ass. As we try to empower people in the third world and aid in its development, I wish we could do so in a way that avoids the mistakes we have made in the development of the industrialized world. We must remember that the effects of the Green Revolution were both positive and negative. (And its continued promotion in Africa is something that should be revised.) Getting people out of poverty by employing the methods of factory farming or the products of Cargil and Monsanto is not for the best.

Guest Post: Harnessing and Harmonizing: Making Natural Resources and Markets Work for the Poor

Francisco Noguera — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:10:03 -0400

Guest blogger Lauren Withey is a research analyst working on the World Resources Report at the World Resources Institute. She is a contributing writer to the newly-released World Resources 2008 - Roots of Resilience: Growing the Wealth of the Poor.

By Lauren Withey

Sofia Begum never imagined that she would be running her own poultry business. In 2000, the former housewife from northern Bangladesh was struggling to make ends meet for her family. She and her husband, a fisherman, were too poor to send their children to school. Like most of the families around them, the couple relied heavily on the local wetland to provide the protein and income necessary to sustain their daily lives. But degradation to the wetland from agricultural pollution, sediment from deforestation upstream, and overfishing had taken its toll in recent years. Fish harvests had fallen dramatically and the communities reliant on the wetlands had few other economic opportunities to fall back on.

Fortunately for Sofia, a new effort was just beginning in the area that aimed to help her community develop alternative income sources while restoring the wetlands under community management. The Managing of Aquatic Ecosystems through Community Husbandry (MACH) program was funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and executed by four civil society organizations with the support of the Bangladeshi government.

Communities across northern Bangladesh created two types of groups to carry out this process: Resource Management Organizations (RMOs) designed and implemented wetland management plans to aid the wetlands' recovery, while Resource User Groups (RUGs) served as training and financing mechanisms to develop alternative income sources. Specialty vegetable farms, fruit orchards, livestock-rearing operations, energy and clothing businesses, small stores are just a few of the fruits of the RUG's efforts in MACH communities.

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Exporting cruelty and unsustainability to the third world

Guest Post: Harnessing and Harmonizing: Making Natural Resources and Markets Work for the Poor