2010 STATE OF THE WORLD Tran sforming Cultures

From to

THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT 2 0 1 0 STATE OF THE WORLD Transforming Cultures From Consumerism to Sustainability

Advance Praise for State of the World 2010: “If we continue to think of ourselves mostly as consumers, it’s going to be very hard to bring our environmental troubles under control. But it’s also going to be very hard to live the rounded and joyful lives that could be ours. This is a subversive volume in all the best ways!” —Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and full image The End of Nature “Worldwatch has taken on an ambitious agenda in this volume. No generation in history has achieved a cultural transformation as sweeping as the one called for here…it is hard not to be impressed with the book’s boldness.” —Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank extreme close-up “This year’s State of the World report is a cultural Several million pounds of plastic mindbomb exploding with devastating force. I hope enter the world’s oceans every hour, it wakes a few people up.” portrayed on the cover by the 2.4 million bits of plastic that make up —Kalle Lasn, Editor of Adbusters magazine Gyre, Chris Jordan’s 8- by 11-foot reincarnation of the famous 1820s Like a tsunami, consumerism has engulfed human woodblock print, The Great Wave cultures and Earth’s ecosystems. Left unaddressed, we Off Kanagawa, by the Japanese artist risk global disaster. But if we channel this wave, intention- Katsushika Hokusai. ally transforming our cultures to center on sustainability, For discussion questions, we will not only prevent catastrophe but may usher in an additional essays, era of sustainability—one that allows all people to thrive video presentations, and event calendar, visit while protecting, even restoring, Earth. blogs.worldwatch.org/ In this year’s State of the World report, 50+ renowned transformingcultures. researchers and practitioners describe how we can Cover image: Gyre by Chris Jordan harness the world’s leading institutions—education, the Cover design: Lyle Rosbotham media, business, governments, traditions, and social movements—to reorient cultures toward sustainability.

W.W.NORTON B NEWYORK•LONDON www.worldwatch.org From Agriculture to

Albert Bates and Toby Hemenway

Above the door lintels of the cultural museum by the domestication of emmer wheat, einkorn, of Tlaxcala, Mexico’s oldest state capital, are barley, flax, chick pea, pea, lentil, and bitter murals depicting the rise of civilization. First vetch. Humans had begun to alter their land - there appear the hunters, clad in furs, with scapes in profound ways, clearing forests for bows and spears. A woman discovers a small fields, building larger villages and cities, and grassy plant and begins to cultivate it. After a redirecting rivers for irrigation and flood con - time, everyone is planting it, and the newly trol. By 7,000 years ago, many, if not most, domesticated plants grow as tall as a person. people in the world were farmers. 2 Special tools appear to prepare the ground, This might have continued until humanity plant, harvest, and process the grain. In the entered the next Ice Age—a world of cold wall panels that follow, civilization arrives, in deserts, land bridges, and massive mountains all its complexity. of ice. But civilization changed that trajectory Something similar to this story is told in by harnessing the coal, gas, and oil that fueled most, if not all, cultures. In the Fertile Cres - the Industrial Revolution. Once more, people cent of the upper Tigris and Euphrates Rivers altered the planet’s rhythms in ways they could there are ancient coins bearing images of a not fully grasp. plow drawn by oxen. Images of planters and In the span of a single century—the present plows appear on pottery from Egypt and Ana - one—Earth’s climate may warm more rapidly tolia and on rice paper from and China, and to a greater degree than in the previous some of it more than 14,000 years old. 1 20,000 years. Agricultural systems will be pro - As the ice retreated and the climate warmed foundly challenged, beset by a perfect storm of 20,000 years ago, the area of fertile soil and diminishing fuel supply for tractors, fertilizer, suitable growing seasons expanded, even as and transportation; by crop-destroying heat wild game retreated and mammoths and other waves, expanding pestilences, and declining large animals went extinct. About 8,000 years water supplies for irrigation; by growing and ago, animal husbandry began to be augmented migrating populations clamoring for food,

Albert Bates is the director of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology and the Training Center at The Farm. Toby Hemenway is Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University and a biol - ogist consultant for the Biomimicry Guild.

BLOGS.WORLDWATCH.ORG/TRANSFORMINGCULTURES 47 From Agriculture to Permaculture STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 especially for meat and processed foods (see Box the landscape—all while productively using a 5); and by the financial instability borne of steadily compounding supply of human labor. exceeding Earth’s limits and having to retrench In short, a sustainable agriculture. to an earlier stage of industrial development. 3 Before the mid-twentieth century, most Defining Sustainable Agriculture crops were produced largely without the use of chemicals. Insect pests and weeds were Fortunately, for the past half-century some controlled by crop rotations, destruction of pioneers have been preparing the agriculture crop refuse, timing of planting to avoid high of the future, and their ideas are now moving pest population periods, mechanical weed to center stage. Organic no-till, permaculture, control, and other time-tested and regionally agroforestry, perennial polycultures, aquapon - specific farming practices. While these are ics, and biointensive and biodynamic farm - still in use, changes in technology, prices, ing—long considered fringe ideas—are now cultural norms, and government policies have converging as serious components of a sus - led to today’s industrially intensive agriculture. tainable agriculture. 5 The dominant system of agriculture now One of the foundation stones was laid early practiced throughout the world, referred to in the twentieth century, when Franklin Hiram as “conventional agriculture,” is character - King journeyed to China, Korea, and Japan to ized by mechanization, monocultures, the learn how farms there had been worked for use of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pes - thousands of years without destroying fertility ticides, and an emphasis on maximizing pro - or applying artificial fertilizer. In 1911 King ductivity and profitability. published Farmers of Forty Centuries : or Per - This type of agriculture is unsustainable manent Agriculture in China, Korea and because it destroys the resources it depends Japan , which described composting, crop rota - on. Soil fertility is declining due to erosion, tion, green manuring, intertillage, irrigation, compaction, and destruction of organic matter; drought-resistant crops, aquaculture and wet - water supplies are being depleted and polluted; lands farming, and the transport of human finite fossil energy supplies are being exhausted; manure from cities to rural farms. 6 and the economies of rural communities are left King’s work was inspiration for many, in shambles as agricultural outputs are shipped including Sir Albert Howard. In 1943 he to distant markets. The shortage of productive published An Agricultural Testament, which cropland, decreasing soil fertility, and the enor - described building compost piles, recycling mous waste and imprecise management asso - waste materials, and creating soil humus as a ciated with industrial-scale food economics are “living bridge” between soil life, such as myc - responsible for the world’s recurrent and accel - orrhizae and bacteria, and healthy crops, live - erating food and water shortages, malnutri - stock, and people. At the heart of Howard’s tion, mass starvation, and loss of biodiversity. work was the idea that soils, nutritious crops, In addition, agriculture accounts for about 14 and organisms in general are not just arrays of percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and from minerals but are parts of a complex ecology of 1990 to 2005 global agricultural emissions cycling organic matter, and that these life- increased by 14 percent. 4 supporting cycles are critical for a self-regen - Humanity now confronts a critical challenge: erative agriculture. 7 to develop methods of agriculture that sequester Howard became embroiled in a mid-twen - carbon, enhance soil fertility, preserve ecosystem tieth century conflict. On one side were disci - services, use less water, and hold more water in ples of chemists such as Carl Sprengel and

48 WWW.WORLDWATCH.ORG STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 From Agriculture to Permaculture

Box 5. Dietary Norms That Heal People and the Planet

While many different combinations of foods should avoid food-like products with so many will meet a person’s dietary needs, dietary additives, preservatives, flavors, and fillers that norms are for the most part shaped by the their nutritional value may be compromised. individual’s culture, typically very early in life. And by eating fewer calories (while ensur - Traditionally, these preferences were in large ing those calories are high in nutrients), over - part shaped by the foods that were available to all health and longevity can be increased—a people in their bioregion. finding that has been borne out in several dif - In today’s globalized world, however, more ferent animal species, including humans. people can choose from a wide array of foods. Moreover, eating fewer calories means having While increased choice is theoretically a good a smaller ecological impact. For example, if a thing—giving people variety and the opportu - person starts adhering to an 1,800-calorie-a- nity to choose diets that are healthy and have day diet at age 30, he could live to the age of little ecological impact—dietary norms have 81 before consuming the same amount of been reshaped in an increasingly unhealthy calories as a person who follows the typically and unsustainable manner. Easy access to recommended 2,600-calorie diet would by the high-fat, high-sugar foods combined with bil - age of 65. lions of dollars spent annually on marketing Eating “mostly plants”—not necessarily have dramatically shifted what is considered a completely vegetarian but, as in many cultures “normal” diet—from the number of calories throughout history, eating meat infrequently or per meal to the amount of meat, sugar, and perhaps even just ritually—will have significant refined flour consumed. All of these in turn ecological benefits. According to agricultural have contributed to rising obesity levels and researcher David Pimentel, a vegetarian diet have had significant ecological impacts. needs one third fewer fossil fuels than a meat- Today 1.6 billion people are either over- based diet. Another study found that produc - weight or obese, and 18 percent of green- ing just 1 kilogram of beef involves as much house gases are produced by livestock that carbon dioxide emissions as the average Euro - are raised to feed humanity’s growing demand pean car being driven 250 kilometers. for meat. In 2007, people ate 275 million tons Unfortunately, today the dietary norm that of meat, about 42 kilograms per person world - is spreading around much of the world—dri - wide and 82 kilograms in industrial countries ven by the media, government subsidies, (2.7 servings every day). , and even by parents—is the con - By cultivating new dietary norms, food can sumer diet of high quantities of meat, contribute to good health and possibly even processed foods, refined flours, and sugar. help heal the planet. A study of several of the What is needed is the intentional cultivation longest-lived peoples in the world found that of sustainable dietary norms—an effort that is they ate just 1,800–1,900 calories a day, no getting started, thanks to books like In Defense processed foods, and minimal amounts of of Food , documentaries like Food Inc. , govern - animal products. By comparison, the average ment programs that promote healthier eating, American consumes 3,830 calories a day. social enterprises selling healthier food, and Food writer Michael Pollan explains suc- movements like “” that enourage cinctly what a healthy, restorative diet could people to consider carefully what they eat. look like: “Eat food, not too much, mostly —Erik Assadourian and Eddie Kasner plants.” By food, Pollan means that people Source: See endnote 3.

BLOGS.WORLDWATCH.ORG/TRANSFORMINGCULTURES 49 From Agriculture to Permaculture STATE OF THE WORLD 2010

Justus von Liebig, who advocated fertilizing world energy production. The style called principally with nitrogen, phosphorus, and “conventional” depends for nearly all of its potassium minerals and promoted a mechan - workings on a dwindling and increasingly ical approach, arguing that plant growth is expensive supply of fossil fuels. 10 boosted by adding the scarcest, or limiting, Sustainable agriculture, in contrast, can be mineral. This soon became a widely accepted pursued indefinitely because it does not agronomic principle and the basis for the Green degrade or deplete the resources that it needs Revolution. On the other side were the organic to continue. Since most of Earth’s arable land advocates, adhering to Howard’s view that is already under cultivation and human popu - crop health depends on maintaining soil ecol - lations are continuing to expand, an even bet - ogy by returning to the soil not just the min - ter goal would be to actually improve the erals lost in farming but also the organic matter capacity of the land to produce. that supports the nutrient cycles of soil life. Some net gain approaches are coming into Howard’s position was, in the words of biol - view, but they are not magic elixirs. While ogist Janine Benyus, that it is life that best optimized farming practices can increase the creates the conditions conducive to life. 8 capacity of the land to produce over the long term, they cannot be considered in isolation; a robust solution to humanity’s continued existence on this planet must include adopting sustainable lifestyles and maintaining human population at sustainable numbers. m r a

F Organic Agriculture: An Overview h c r a e s a

e Key features of organic agriculture are the use R n i

a of biologically produced fertilizers such as car - t n u o bon-enhanced manures instead of manufac - M a y tured inorganic nitrates and phosphates, a M y infrequent use of biologically derived pesti - s e t r u cides rather than routine application of synthetic o C and systemically toxic compounds, and—most The face of agroforestry at the Maya Mountain Research Farm, Belize. critically—maintenance of soil ecology and organic matter through cover crops, green Howard lost that battle but may yet have manures, crop rotation, and composting. 11 won the war, as it becomes apparent that many A long-term comparison done by the aspects of industrial agriculture are unsustain - Rodale Institute from 1981 to 2002 found that able, from the topsoil loss that approaches 75 organic systems provided crop yields equivalent billion tons annually to the looming deple - to those of conventional methods. The trials tion of the critical fertilizer phosphorus and the showed that when rainfall was 30 percent less negative returns typified by crops that use 10 than normal—typical drought levels—organic calories of fuel energy to produce one calorie methods yielded 24–34 percent more than of food energy. 9 standard methods. The researchers attribute Twentieth-century agriculture has badly the increased yields to better water retention degraded nearly every ecosystem it has encoun - due to higher soil carbon levels. 12 tered while consuming roughly 20 percent of Data gathered from the trial have revealed

50 WWW.WORLDWATCH.ORG STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 From Agriculture to Permaculture that soil under organic agriculture manage - loans, or government subsidies are. 15 ment can accumulate about 1,000 pounds of Land Institute research shows that com - carbon per acre-foot each year. This is equal to pared with annuals, perennial food plants pro - about 3,667 pounds of carbon dioxide per vide more protection against soil erosion, acre (4,118 kilograms per hectare per year) manage water and nutrients more effectively, taken from the air and sequestered into soil sequester more carbon, are more resilient to organic matter. Also, organic methods used pests and stresses, and require less energy, 28–32 percent less energy and were more prof - labor, and fertilizer. Yields are currently low itable than industrial methods. These results compared with annual crops, but they are ris - suggest that organic methods offer great ing. Studies performed in Africa suggest that promise for reducing fossil fuel use and green - many grains, fruits, and vegetables now farmed house gas emissions. The study suggested that in annual monocultures will produce similar converting the 64 million hectares of U.S. results when farmed in perennial polycultures. 16 cropland currently planted in corn and soy - beans to organic methods would sequester Agroforestry 264 million tons of carbon dioxide; this is the equivalent of shutting down 207 (225- Agroforestry combines trees and shrubs with megawatt) coal-fired power plants, about 14 annual crops and livestock in ways that amplify percent of the installed coal electric capacity in and integrate the yields and benefits beyond either the United States or China. 13 what each component offers separately. Like other methods of sustainable agriculture, it is Perennial Polycultures based on observing productive natural ecosys - tems and mimicking the processes and rela - Wes Jackson and his colleagues at The Land tionships that make them more resilient and Institute in Salina, Kansas, have been devel - regenerative. oping new perennial crops to replace annual In one form of agroforestry, called alley grains that must be replanted every year. These cropping, grains or other non-woody crops grains are grown in polycultures, mixed with are planted in strips between rows of nut, fruit, other perennial species that fix nitrogen for fer - timber, or fodder trees. Cattle, poultry, or tility, and produce seed oil for food, fuel, and other livestock can be pastured in the alleys or lubricants. These polycultures mimic the plant fed from the crop yields. communities that make up wild prairie. 14 Near the town of San Pedro Columbia, in “Here’s where we have to be thinking Southern Belize, Christopher Nesbitt has been deeply,” Jackson says. “Agriculture had its growing food crops in this traditional forest beginning 10,000 years ago. What were the style at his Mayan Mountain Research Farm for ecosystems like 10,000 years ago, after the the past 20 years. He mixes some fast-growing retreat of the ice? Those ecosystems featured native tree species, some annual crops, and material recycling and they ran on contempo - some intermediate and long-term tree crops to rary sunlight. Humans have yet to build soci - build soil and produce continuous harvests. eties like that. Is it possible that embedded in Some of his trees are leguminous and hold nature’s economy are suggestions for a human nitrogen by the microbial attraction of their economy in which conservation is a conse - roots. Some are pollinator-friendly and attract quence of production?” Ecological wealth, bees and hummingbirds to transfer the fertile Jackson argues, is a more reliable sponsor of pollen of important food plants. Understory human food systems than fossil fuels, bank trees like coffee, cacao, cassava, allspice, noni,

BLOGS.WORLDWATCH.ORG/TRANSFORMINGCULTURES 51 From Agriculture to Permaculture STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 ginger, and papaya benefit from intercropping bicides altogether, which is something we can with high canopy trees like breadfruit, açai achieve through fine-tuning and successful and coconut palm, cashew, and mango. Fast- recruitment of the right grasses.” 20 yielding crops such as avocado, citrus, banana, Long-term research studies reveal average bamboo, yams, vanilla, and climbing squashes losses of 328 pounds of organic matter per acre provide an income for the farm while waiting per year with plowing, whereas no-till studies for the slower harvest of samwood, cedar, teak, report an average increase of 956 pounds of chestnut, and mahogany to mature. 17 organic matter per acre per year. Erosion from The World Agroforestry Centre reports that a conventionally tilled watershed has been methods like these can double or triple crop found to be 700 times greater than that from yields while reducing the need for commercial a no-till watershed. No-till systems that use fertilizers. A U.N. Environment Programme high-residue cover crops build soil organic report estimates that if best management prac - matter content and slow the movement of tices were widely used, by 2030 up to 6 giga - water over the soil surface, allowing more of tons of CO 2 equivalent could be sequestered it to penetrate. In New South Wales, Maurice each year using agroforestry, which equals the reports his most interesting finding: soil carbon current emissions from agriculture as a whole. 18 levels were significantly higher in areas of perennial grass in the remnant vegetation— No-till and Low-till about 4 percent, compared with 1.5 percent in paddocks coming out of the old continuous- Some of the nutrient-accumulating and -con - cropping system. 21 serving features that allow natural ecosystems to build and sustain soil fertility include min - Permaculture imum soil disturbance, the presence of a pro - tective layer of plant residues covering the soil The term permaculture, a contraction of “per - surface with no large bare areas for any length manent agriculture,” was coined by Australians of time, and a constant covering of living plants Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and refers to take up and store any nutrients that become to a systems approach for designing human available through decomposition. These nutri - ecologies, from farms to houses to cities, that ent-building and -conserving features can be mimics the relationships found in natural bio - incorporated into cropping systems by con - mes. It integrates concepts from organic farm - verting to no-till or low-till methods, such as ing, sustainable forestry, no-till management, reducing the period of bare fallow, planting and the village-design techniques of indigenous cover crops, reincorporating stubble and plant peoples. It applies ecological theory to under - residues, keyline plowing, and reducing aera - stand the characteristics of and potential rela - tion of the soil. 19 tionships among different design elements. 22 On his 2,000-hectare farm near Wellington, The discipline uses a set of principles adopted New South Wales, in Australia, Angus Maurice from ecosystems science. One principle is to use is convinced that permanent pasture and what the cradle-to-cradle model of recycling all he calls “no kill” cropping systems will be the resources and producing no waste. Another is future of grain production. “We have seen sig - to promote interactions between components nificant recruitment of perennial grasses in the so that needs and yields are integrated within past five years, which is encouraging,” he says, the design. For example, a chicken needs food, “but we realize to reach the system’s full poten - water, safe habitat, and other chickens, and it tial we would have to eliminate the use of her - produces eggs, feathers, meat, and manure, as

52 WWW.WORLDWATCH.ORG STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 From Agriculture to Permaculture well as services such as weed-eating and insect and animal manure was added before and after control. A design that integrates chickens would planting. Animals raised on the farm included meet their needs from on-farm resources and chickens, pigeons, turkey, geese, ducks, rabbits, allow the chickens’ outputs to meet the needs sheep, and a dairy cow. They were fed from the of other elements in the design, such as crops farm once there were enough trees and plants or an aquaculture system. growing to harvest regularly without overtax - Once set in motion, permaculture designs ing the system. evolve naturally, capture synergies, and produce Within the first year the soil and well-water a high density of food and other products began showing a marked decline in salinity, and with diminishing labor and energy inputs over the garden areas had significant increases in time. One example of a permacultural strategy growth. Pests were minor and largely con - is the combining of crops in synergistic alliances trolled by the farm animals. The combining of called guilds, such as the traditional blending plants and animals brought about the inte - of corn, beans, and squash. Researchers have gration of farm inputs and outputs into a man - found that these combinations can increase aged ecosystem of continuous production, total yields two- to threefold over monocul - water conservation, and soil improvement. In tures of single crops. 23 less than a decade a permacultural balance had One of the better known examples of suc - been achieved, with lessening inputs and cessful permaculture is found in one of the improving outputs. least hospitable places on Earth for farming. In the Kafrin area of the Jordan valley, 10 kilo - Transitional Agriculture meters from the Dead Sea, the nearly flat desert receives only two or three light rainfalls The early corn-growers depicted in the murals in winter. The fine-grained silt is salty, and in Tlaxcala would not have imagined they even the wells in the area are too saline to be were transforming humans’ relationship with used for irrigation. Earth’s ecology. Although it might be inspir - It was there that Geoff Lawton and his team ing to have a grand mission like restoring the of permaculturists set up a small, 5-hectare balance of nature, most farmers who venture farm and in 2001 began digging swales—2- into sustainable agriculture are simply inter - meter-wide mounds and shallow trenches that ested in improving crop yields or saving labor crossed the farm in wavy lines on contour. or money. While tradable credits for seques - They planted leguminous forest trees in the tering carbon could soon provide another mounds to fix nitrogen and make leaf fodder. farm revenue stream, many farmers will likely Each tree was given a drip-node from an irri - go into sustainable agriculture simply because gation line coming from a water dam built to gas-and-oil-dependant agriculture is becom - capture road runoff; the lake formed by the ing more expensive. 25 dam was stocked with tilapia and geese, which As Angus Maurice’s family farm in Aus - contributed organic fertilizers for the trees. 24 tralia demonstrates, sustainable agriculture is In the moist trenches, they planted olive, fig, not an either/or proposition, and there will guava, date palm, pomegranate, grape, citrus, necessarily be a period of transition from the carob, mulberry, cactus, and a wide range of current system to a more sustainable one. Even vegetables. Barley and alfalfa were planted as if most farmers do not go all-organic or apply legumes and forages for farm animals between permaculture principles, they can still improve the swales. Tree and vegetable plantings were their fortunes—and that of the planet—by mulched with old newspapers and cotton rags, adopting bits and pieces, a little at a time.

BLOGS.WORLDWATCH.ORG/TRANSFORMINGCULTURES 53 Notes STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 women in non-western societies from Judi Aubel, of Generations United, a U.S. nonprofit organiza - Ibrahima Touré, and Mamadou Diagne, “Sene - tion, at www.gu.org. galese Grandmothers Improve Maternal and Child Nutrition Practices: The Guardians of Tradition 14. “Lelum’uy’lh Child Development Centre,” Are Not Averse to Change,” Social Science & Med - at cowichantribes.com/memberservices/Education icine , September 2004, pp. 945–59. %20and%20Culture/Child%20Development%20 Centre. 7. United Nations, World Youth Report 2005 (New York: 2005), p. 76; Cara Heaven and 15. Judi Aubel et al., Rapid Review of ‘Time with Matthew Tubridy, “Global Youth Culture and Youth Grandmas Initiative’ (Accra, Ghana: Government Identity,” in Oxfam, Highly Affected, Rarely Con - of Ghana and U.N. Population Fund, 2007). sidered (Oxford: 2008), pp. 149–60, with quote on p. 154. 16. Judi Aubel et al., The “Custodians of Tradition” Promote Positive Changes for the Health of New - 8. Akopovire Oduaran, “Intergenerational Soli - borns: Rapid Assessment of Ekwendeni Agogo Strat - darity: Strengthening Economic and Social Ties,” egy (Lilongwe, Malawi: Save the Children–US, Background Paper, Expert Group Meeting, United 2006). Nations, New York, 23–25 October 2007, pp. 1–13, with quote on p. 10. 17. Ian S. McIntosh, “Nurturing Galiwin’ku Youth in Northeast Arnhem Land: Yalu Mar - 9. Haatso Youth Club of Ghana from Oxfam, op. rngikunharaw,” Cultural Survival Quarterly , sum - cit. note 7, p. 157; quote from Senegalese man mer 2002. from Grandmother Project and World Vision, op. cit. note 2. 18. For information on the Grandmother Pro - ject, see www.grandmotherproject.org. 10. Jan Servaes and S. Lui, eds., Moving Targets: Mapping the Paths between Communication, Tech - 19. “Enquete d’Evaluation Finale: Rapport nology and Social Change in Communities (Penang, d’Analyse,” INFO-STAT, Bamako, Mali, 2004; Malaysia: Southbound, 2007); quote on media role Christian Children’s Fund project from Aubel, from Oxfam, op. cit. note 7, p. 154. Touré, and Diagne, op. cit. note 6.

11. Grandmother Project field notes, Koulikoro, 20. Quote from World Vision and Grandmother Mali, June 2004; maternal and child health pro - Project, June 2006, Velingara, Senegal. grams from Judi Aubel, “Participatory Communi - cation Unlocks a Powerful Cultural Resource: 21. Findings from group interviews with com - Grandmother Networks Promote Maternal and munity members from 12 villages, Girls Develop - Child Health,” Communication for Development ment Project, World Vision and Grandmother and Social Change , vol. 2, no. 1 (2008), pp. 7–30. Project, Velingara, Senegal; Bam Tare local radio sta - tion, Velingara, Senegal; author’s field notes during 12. Deepa Srikantaiah, “Education: Building on an intergenerational forum, SareFaremba village, Indigenous Knowledge,” IK Notes (World Bank), Velingara, Senegal. No. 85, 2005; Pat Pridmore and David Stephens, Children as Partners for Health: A Critical Review 22. Helen Gould, “Culture and Social Capital,” in of the Child-to-Child Approach (London: Zed Books, UNESCO, Recognising Culture (Paris: 2001), p. 69. 2000), p. 127; G. Mishra, “When Child Becomes a Teacher–The Child to Child Programme,” Indian From Agriculture to Permaculture Journal of Community Medicine , October-Decem - ber 2006, pp. 277–78. 1. Jacques Cauvin, The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture (Cambridge, U.K.: Cam - 13. Description of many intergenerational pro - bridge University Press, 2000). grams in North America is found on the Web site

202 WWW.WORLDWATCH.ORG STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 Notes

2. Ibid., pp. 51–61, and Jared Diamond, Guns, 5,524–29, from Michael Mason, “One for the Ages: Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New A Prescription That May Extend Life,” New York York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997); Steven Times , 31 October 2006, from Ricki J. Colman et Mithen, After the Ice: A Global Human History al., “Caloric Restriction Delays Disease Onset and 20,00 0–5,000 BC (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Mortality in Rhesus Monkeys,” Science , 10 July Ltd, 2003), p. 4. 2009, pp. 201–04, and from Roy B. Verdery and Roy L. Walford, “Changes in Plasma Lipids and 3. A. P. Sokolov et al., “Probabilistic Forecast for Lipoproteins in Humans During a 2-year Period of 21st Century Climate Based on Uncertainties in Dietary Restriction in Biosphere 2,” Archives of Emissions (Without Policy) and Climate Parame - Internal Medicine , 27 April 1998, pp. 900–06; ters,” American Meteorological Society’s Journal of ecological benefits from Erik Assadourian, “The Climate , 19 May 2009; Thomas R. Karl, Jerry M. Living Earth Ethical Principles: Right Diet and Melillo, and Thomas C. Peterson, eds., Global Cli - Renewing Rituals,” World Watch , November/ mate Change Impacts in the United States (Cam - December 2008, p. 32, from David Pimentel et al., bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2009), “Reducing Energy Inputs in the US Food System,” p. 12; J. Schahczenski and H. Hill, Agriculture, Cli - Human Ecology , August 2008, from Akifumi Ogino mate Change and Carbon Sequestration (Fayet - et al., “Evaluating Environmental Impacts of the teville, AR: National Sustainable Agriculture Japanese Beef Cow-calf System by the Life Cycle Information Service, 2009), pp. 15, 104–05; Joseph Assessment Method,” Animal Science Journal , vol. Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies (Cam - 78, issue 4 (2007), pp. 424–32, and from Daniele bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Fanelli, “Meat is Murder on the Environment,” Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down: Cat - New Scientist , 18 July 2007. astrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2006). Box 5 from 4. Union of Concerned Scientists, Industrial the following: Patricia Gadsby, “The Inuit Para - Agriculture: Features and Policy (Cambridge, MA: dox,” Discover , 1 October 2004; Committee on 2007); D. Pimentel et al., “Impact of Population Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Growth on Food Supplies and Environment,” Pop - Youth, Institute of Medicine, Food Marketing to ulation and Environment, September 1997, pp. Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? (Wash - 9–14; A. Bouwman, Global Estimates of Gaseous ington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 2006), Emissions from Agricultural Land (Rome: FAO, p. 164; World Health Organization, “Obesity and 2002); C. W. Rice, “Introduction to Special Section Overweight,” Fact Sheet No. 311 (Geneva: Sep - on Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Sequestration in tember 2006); greenhouse gases from Henning Agriculture and Forestry,” Journal of Environ - Steinfeld et al., Livestock’s Long Shadow, Environ - mental Quality , vol. 35 (2006), pp. 1,338–40; U.S. mental Issues and Options (Rome: Food and Agri - Environmental Protection Agency, Global Anthro - culture Organization (FAO), 2006); meat pogenic Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions: from Brian Halweil, “Meat Produc - 1990–2020 (Washington, DC: 2006). tion Continues to Rise,” in Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2009 (Washington, DC: 2009), pp. 5. Secretariat of the United Nations Conven - 15–17; long-lived cultures from John Robbins, tion to Combat Desertification, “SLM Techniques Healthy at 100 (New York: Random House, 2006), Related to Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation p. 57; U.S. consumption from FAO, “Dietary and Desertification,” North American Biochar Con - Energy, Protein and Fat Database,” 7 August 2008, ference, 2009. at www.fao.org/economic/ess/food-security-sta tistics/en/, viewed 22 September 2009; Michael 6. F. H. King, Farmers of Forty Centuries: or Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan (New York: The Penguin Group, 2008); calorie (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1990, originally pub - restriction from Joseph M. Dhahbi et al., “Temporal lished in 1911). Linkage Between the Phenotypic and Genomic Responses to Caloric Restriction,” Proceedings of the 7. D. C. Coleman, “Through a Ped Darkly: An National Academy of Sciences , 13 April 2004, pp. Ecological Assessment of Root-Soil-Microbial-Fau -

BLOGS.WORLDWATCH.ORG/TRANSFORMINGCULTURES 203 Notes STATE OF THE WORLD 2010 nal Interactions,” in A. H. Fitter et al., eds., Eco - July 2003; T. X. Cox et al., “Prospects for Devel - logical Interactions in Soil (Cambridge, U.K.: Black - oping Perennial Grain Crops,” Bioscience , August well Scientific Publications, 1985), pp. 1–21; B. 2006, pp. 649–59. Anderson, “Soil Food Web—Opening the Lid of the Black Box,” The Permaculture Activist , 16. M. H. Bender, An Economic Comparison of fall 2006. Traditional and Conventional Agricultural Systems at a County Level (Salina, KS: The Land Institute, 8. J. Benyus, “Nature’s Designs,” TED Talk, 2000); J. Dewar, Perennial Polyculture Farming: February 2005; see also J. Benyus, Biomimicry: Seeds of Another Agricultural Revolution? (Santa Innovation Inspired by Nature (New York: William Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2007). Morrow, 1998). 17. Nesbitt from A. Bates, “Going Deep in 9. D. Pimentel, “Soil Erosion: A Food and Envi - Belize,” The Permaculture Activist , spring 2009; see ronmental Threat,” Environment, Development and also R. Nigh, “Trees, Fire And Farmers: Making Sustainability, February 2006, pp. 119–37; Philip Woods and Soil in The Maya Forest,” Journal Of H. Abelson, “A Potential Phosphate Crisis,” Science , Ethnobiology , fall/winter 2008. 26 March 1999, p. 2,015. 18. World Agroforestry Centre Communications 10. Francis Urban, “Energy, Agriculture, and the Unit, “Trees on Farms Key to Climate and Food Middle East Crisis,” World Agriculture , April 1991; Security,” press release (Nairobi: 24 July 2009); K. D. Pfeiffer, Eating Fossil Fuels: Oil, Food and the Trumper et al., Natural Fix? The Role of Ecosys - Coming Crisis in Agriculture (Gabriola Island, BC: tems in Climate Mitigation: A UNEP Rapid New Society Publishers, 2006). Response Assessment (Cambridge, U.K.: UNEP- WCMC, 2009). 11. For information on recalcitrant carbon, such as found in biochar or terra preta, see J. Lehmann 19. P. Bohlen and G. House, eds. Sustainable and S. Joseph, eds., Biochar for Environmental Agroecosystem Management: Integrating Ecology, Management: Science and Technology (London: Economics, and Society (Advances in Agroecology) Earthscan, 2009). (London: CRC Press, 2009); R. Hotinski, Stabi - lization Wedges: A Concept and Game; Carbon Mit - 12. P. Hepperly, Organic Farming Sequesters igation Initiative (Trenton, NJ: Princeton Atmospheric Carbon and Nutrients in Soils (Emmaus Environmental Institute, 2007). PA: Rodale Institute, 2003). 20. A. Lawson, “Never Let Paddocks Go Naked: 13. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Family’s ‘No Kill’ Pasture Cropping Plan,” Meat & “Existing Electric Generating Units in the United Livestock Australia: The Land , 24 July 2008. States, (2007),” at www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/ electricity/page/capacity/capacity.html; U.S. 21. S. W. Duiker and J. C. Myers, Better Soils with Department of Energy, “Carbon Dioxide Emis - the No-till System (Pennsylvania Conservation Part - sions from the Generation of Electric Power in the nership, 2002); Lawson, op. cit. note 20. United States (2000),” at www.eia.doe.gov/ cneaf/electricity/page/co2_report/co2report.html. 22. B. Mollison and D. Holmgren, Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settle - 14. E. R. Ingham, D. C. Coleman, and J. C. ments (Tyalgum, NSW, Australia: Tagari Publica - Moore, “An Analysis of Food-web Structure and tions, 1978). Function in a Shortgrass Prairie, a Mountain Meadow, and a Lodgepole Pine Forest,” Biology and 23. D. A. Perry, “Bootstrapping in Ecosystems,” Fertility of Soils , July 1989, pp. 29–37. BioScience , April 1989, pp. 230–37; S. R. Gliessman, Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agri - 15. Robert Jensen, “Sustainability and Politics: culture (Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Press, 1998). An Interview with Wes Jackson,” Counterpunch , 10

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24. For an overview of this project, see “Jordan tute of Health , at www.nih.gov/news/Wordon Valley Permaculture Project,” The Permaculture Health/jun2002/childhoodobesity.htm; positive Research Institute of Australia, at permaculture experiences from Sustainable Development Com - .org.au/project_profiles/middle_east/jordan_valley mission, “Outdoor Experiences,” at www.sd-com _permaculture_project.htm. mission.org.uk/breakthrough.php?breakthrough=22, viewed 6 August 2009, and from Kahn and Kellert, 25. Credits for sequestering carbon are discussed op. cit. this note; No Child Left Inside Coalition, in Lehmann and Joseph, op. cit. note 11. “About the No Child Left Inside Act,” at www.cbf.org/Page.aspx?pid=948; outdoor and Education’s New Assignment: Sustainability wilderness traditions from L. Cook, “The 1944 Education Act and Outdoor Education: From Pol - 1. UNESCO, “Educating for Sustainability,” at icy to Practice,” History of Education , vol. 28, no. portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1216& 2 (1999), pp. 157–72, from B. Humberstone and URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201 K. Pedersen, “Gender, Class and Outdoor Traditions .html. in the UK and Norway,” Sport, Education and Society , March 2001, pp. 23–33, from P. Lynch, Early Childhood Education to Transform Camping in the Curriculum: A History of Outdoor Cultures for Sustainability Education in New Zealand Schools (Canterbury, New Zealand: PML Publications, 2006), and from 1. A. N. Meltzoff, A. M. Gopnik, and P. K. Kuhl, R. Ramsing, “Organized Camping: A Historical The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Perspective,” Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clin - Children Learn (New York: William Morrow & ics of North America , October 2007, pp. 751–54. Company, Inc., 1999); J. P. Shonkoff and D. Phillips, eds., From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The 2. M. Woodhead, “Early Childhood and Pri - Science of Early Childhood Development (Washing - mary Education,” in M. Woodhead and P. Moss, ton, DC: National Academy Press, 2000); D. Baily eds., Early Childhood and Primary Education. Early et al., Critical Thinking About Critical Periods (Bal - Childhood in Focus 2: Transitions in the Lives of timore: Paul H. Brooks, 2001); Organisation for Young Children (Milton Keynes, U.K.: The Open Economic Co-operation and Development University, 2007); UNICEF, The Child Care Tran - (OECD), Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Edu - sition. A League Table of Early Childhood Education cation and Care (Paris: 2006). Box 6 is based on the and Care in Economically Advanced Countries (Flo - following: healthy and ecological development from rence: UNICEF Innicenti Research Centre, 2008); S. Clayton and S. Opotow, eds., Identity and the OECD, Starting Strong: Early Childhood Education Natural Environment: The Psychological Signifi - and Care (Paris: 2001); UNESCO, EFA Monitor - cance of Nature (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, ing Report 2009. Education For All (Oxford: Oxford 2003), from P. H. Kahn and S. R. Kellert, eds., Chil - University Press, 2008). dren and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations (Cambridge, MA: The 3. International Workshop, “The Role of Early MIT Press, 2002), and from R. Louv, Last Child in Childhood Education for a Sustainable Society,” the Woods (updated ed.) (Chapel Hill, NC: Algo - Gothenburg, Sweden, 2–4 May 2007; Centre for nquin Books, 2008); U.S. youth outdoor partici - Environment and Sustainability, The Gothenburg pation rates from Outdoor Foundation, Outdoor Recommendations on Education for Sustainable Recreation Participation Report 2008 (Boulder, Development (Gothenburg, Sweden: Chalmers Uni - CO: 2008); negative health effects of sedentary versity of Technology and University of Gothen - activities from R. R. Pate, J. R. O’Neill and F. burg, 2008), p. 28. Lobelo, “The Evolving Definition of ‘sedentary’: Studies of Sedentary Behavior,” Exercise and Sport 4. I. Pramling Samuelsson and Y. Kaga, eds., Sciences Reviews , vol. 36, no.4 (2008), pp. 173–78, The Contribution of Early Childhood Education to and from C. Torgan, “Childhood Obesity on the Sustainable Society (Paris: UNESCO, 2008); the Rise,” Word on Health: Consumer Health Infor - list of 7Rs has been expanded from the 4Rs model mation Based on Research from the National Insti - proposed in L. Katz, “The Role of Early Childhood

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