Month: July 2011

The Creation of World Poverty Part 1

Background In his book The End of Poverty: How We Can Make it Happen in Our Life Time, Jeffey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and director of the UN Millennium Project, tells us that ‘For the first time in history, our generation has the opportunity to end extreme poverty in the …

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Sustainable Agriculture Part 9

THE EARTHSCAN READER IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE EDITED BY JULES PRETTY EARTHSCAN          2005 PART IX   PART V: PERSPECTIVES FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Perspective 22: Rethinking Agriculture for New Opportunities by Erick Fernandes, Alice Pell & Norman Uphoff Over the last 30 years, the creation and exploitation of new genetic potentials of cereal crops, leading to what …

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Mission, Service, Leadership Part 1

GREEK SUMMER 2011 MISSION. SERVICE. LEADERSHIP. PART I   Introduction I was engaged by Bruce Lansdale in 1978 to be his Associate Director for Administration and worked with him till he retired in 1990. Christine and I were married in 1988 and becoming a family member gave me additional insights into a man who has …

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The Ascent of Man Part 12

THE ASCENT OF MAN  JACOB BROWNOWSKI MACDONALD FUTURA PUBLISHERS                        1973 PART XII   Chapter 12: Generation Upon Generation In the 19th century the city of Vienna was the capital of an Empire which held together a multitude of nations and languages. It was a famous centre of music, literature and the arts. Science was suspect …

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Outgrowing the Earth Part 7

OUTGROWING THE EARTH THE FOOD SECURITY CHALLENGE IN AN AGE OF FALLING WATER TABLES AND RISING TEMPERATURES LESTER BROWN EARTHSCAN          2005 PART VII   Chapter 5: Protecting Cropland On April 18, 2001, the western United States – from the Arizona border north to Canada – was blanketed with dust. The dirt came from a huge …

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Master Farmer Part 10

MASTER FARMER TEACHING SMALL FARMERS MANAGEMENT BRUCE M. LANSDALE WESTVIEW PRESS                       1986 PART X PART TWO: TRAINING THE MANAGERS   Chapter 5: The Planning Process (Cont.) Why is planning important in development? Can peasants really learn to plan? Is “leaving it to the gods” the most effective approach when there are so many unknowns?   …

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Sustainable Agriculture Part 8

THE EARTHSCAN READER IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE EDITED BY JULES PRETTY EARTHSCAN          2005 PART VIII   PART V: PERSPECTIVES FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES   Introduction to Part 5: Perspectives from Developing Countries by Jules Pretty The final section of this Reader in Sustainable Agriculture focuses on six perspectives from developing countries. These begin with an overview of …

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The Future of Food & Seed Part 10

MANIFESTOS ON THE FUTURE OF FOOD AND SEED EDITED BY VANDANA SHIVA SOUTH END PRESS                       2007 PART X PART THREE SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE: BREEDING TOMORROW’S SEEDS   Seeds embody the past and the future. The evolution of seeds in the future depends on our conserving the widest diversity of seeds and crop varieties to …

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The Ascent of Man Part 11

THE ASCENT OF MAN  JACOB BROWNOWSKI MACDONALD FUTURA PUBLISHERS                        1973 PART XI   Chapter 11: Knowledge or Certainty One aim of the physical sciences has been to give an exact picture of the material world. One achievement of physics in the 20th century has been to prove that that aim is unattainable. But what physics …

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Outgrowing the Earth Part 6

OUTGROWING THE EARTH THE FOOD SECURITY CHALLENGE IN AN AGE OF FALLING WATER TABLES AND RISING TEMPERATURES LESTER BROWN EARTHSCAN          2005 PART VI Chapter 4: Raising the earth’s Productivity During the last half of the 20th century the world’s farmers more than doubled the productivity of their land, raising grain yield per hectare from 1.1 …

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