During the last 32 years since Bangladesh became an independent nation in 1971 production of rice, the main staple food, has exceeded 19 million tons per year, whereas it was only about 8 million tons in 1971. In spite of the fact that population has increased steadily, the availability of rice today for every man, woman and child is nearly one pound per day according to the data provided by the Bureau of Statistics in 1999. This is indeed a remarkable achievement. Besides this, it is encouraging to note that food production is growing at a greater pace than the population. Even wheat the second major food grain used as staple is gaining popularity and its domestic production is reaching 2 million tons per year. Net availability of meat, fish, milk, egg and pulses has increased from 1994-95 to 1997-98, which is reflected in their increase in per capita consumption.

This advancement in agriculture and increase in productivity can be attributed to production of hybrid seeds, application of proper fertilizer, use of safe insecticide and pesticide, farm mechanisation, water and soil management and above all the will of the people. Bangladeshis have been in the forefront to receive the benefit of the cutting edge of technology. Development of agricultural colleges and universities, research institutes and extension services deserve mention in the success of Green Revolution in this small country of about 57000 square miles with 120 million people.

Apart from the technological advancement, Bangladeshis deserve special credit for developing the capability of disaster management. Taking precaution against natural calamities has become a part of life. The high frequency of floods and cyclones has taught the people to be prepared for handling such disasters to avoid famine and death. Management of food grain storage and distribution during the times of natural disasters has been given top priority by the government that has set an example of cooperation between the private and public sector including the armed services. It is, therefore, expected that Bangladesh will keep the food production and distribution as a major priority. With this assumption one can be optimistic about the outlook for food grain availability and price stabilisation even if some import has to take place during times of need.

Tooling Up for Hydroponics

“I think that if a product on the supermarket shelf has a label, ‘Proudly brought to you by the international pirates plundering the toothfish of the Southern Ocean’, it wouldn’t sell terribly well. Conversely, if the label said, ‘This comes from a sustainable fishery’, that does have an impact.”
More than a decade ago Dr Keith Sainsbury recognised for the first time the destructive impact of trawling, in this case on the seabed of the North-West Shelf. His work, described in the 2004 Japan Prize citation as “the most scientifically rigorous demonstration”, was central to controls on trawling the shelf. Nets were not forbidden, but held to a level that was sustainable for the seabed.
Many of the world’s wild fisheries have reached their upper limits, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The journal Nature reported that the world had lost more than 90 per cent of all large predator fish – cod, marlin, bluefin tuna and others – to fishing. “We learned from our mistakes on land that managing human uses one at a time is not the way to develop a sustainable marine ecosystem,” Sainsbury said. Instead his prize came for work on using feedback from an ecosystem itself to decide how it should be managed as a whole. It is this problem-solving that has won Dr Sainsbury the 2004 Japan Prize, worth $625,000, for food production based on ecosystem concepts. The prize is considered the highest in the field of ecology and sustainable development.
Point Source

Land cleared for planting as world demand rockets
The dry, yellowing fields stretch out to the horizon, past shiny new silos, their polished tin gleaming in the noon sunshine. Beside freshly hoed fields stand new tractors and ploughs. This is the Amazon, a vast lung producing 20% of the earth’s oxygen, and home to 30% of all plant and animal species. It is so immense that it would swallow Europe in full and three more Englands besides. The rainforest is shrinking at a rate that is staggering environmentalists. Around 25,000 sq km (10,000 sq miles) disappeared last year – an area about the size of Belgium. Huge swaths of the land are being transformed not only by illegal logging companies and cattle ranchers, but also by a newer invader, the soya bean. For many the extraordinary expansion of this bean – used not only for its oil and food for humans but also as feed for cattle – is the new front in the battle for the Amazon.
Cargill, the US food giant, has spotted the potential and built a vast soya terminal on a river bank in the town. The company is being challenged by the Brazilian government’s environment agency, which is concerned that the terminal was built without an environmental impact report; but the evidence points to an escalation in development all around.
Cristovan Sena, a government forestry engineer, said: “Native primary forest is being destroyed at a much faster rate than was achieved by the loggers. In our region we will soon see the irreversible substitution of the rainforest by a landscape of grains… Saying that growers will respect the 20% limit is nonsense. You just have to look at what is being done now to see they don’t respect legal reserves.” The soya growers are following the loggers into land that was forested, and there have been cases of small farmers suffering threats or actual violence when they refuse to sell.
Point Source

Dickson Despommier’s hydroponic metropolis would squeeze sprawling farmland into skyscrapers, feed millions, and cool the Earth. Nearly 41 percent of Earth’s land is now used for agriculture, yet we’re on the brink of vast population growth, from 6.7 billion people today to an estimated 9.2 billion by 2050, with the majority living in cities. The only way to make room for enough carbon-sequestering trees to reverse global warming, Despommier argues, is to change the way we farm. Radically. Despommier envisions blocks of vertical farms in the world’s biggest cities, each structure 30 stories high, providing enough food and water for 50,000 people a year, with no waste.

Tooling Up for Hydroponics

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday said that malnutrition and famine were one of the most serious problems of the current era that should be urgently addressed.
The world has enough food for everyone but despite this, inadequate nourishment and famine still continue to affect one out of seven people in the world, Erdoğan said at a ceremony here for the inauguration of the Central Asia regional office of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Turkey and FAO decided to support agricultural projects in Central Asia by means of the (Ankara) office, he said. We know that today 850 million people in the world are suffering from malnutrition. Most of them live in rural areas of the least developed or developing countries.
Point Source

Beijing will start a daily report mechanism on food safety during the “Good Luck Beijing” International tournaments officially to kick off on Aug 8, a test run for a food safety monitoring system designed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Sources with the Beijing Municipal Food Safety Office said that Beijing is going to share this system with all other cities hosting the Olympic Games including Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qingdao and Qinhuangdao.
The system will monitor 10 types of information including production, processing, sale and cooking of food.
Point Source

Norway’s revived electric carmaker, now called “Think Global,” is raising more capital with the goal of producing 10,000 cars a year by 2009. Now Jan-Olaf Willums, chief executive of Think Global, appears to have some solid investors behind him. The firm started rolling again earlier this year, with a line-up including retailing tycoon Stein-Erik Hagen, hotel developer Petter Stordalen and shipping heir Petter Sundt. The goal is to be the world’s leading electric carmaker. Willums said Think needs to produce 10,000 cars a year to be profitable, and will likely make some of the cars overseas. “England, the US, Switzerland and the Netherlands are possible production sites,” he said.
Point Source

More investors acting on faith
Faith in the investment markets is taking on a whole new meaning as religious funds and advisers are attracting money like never before. As religion enters more and more cultural touch points, from novels to films to politics, it’s rather logical that it would enter the world of finance in a similar way — and by that I mean big!
marketwatch.com

AMERICA’S STRUGGLE OVER VALUES
The most striking findings are: 1) a majority of Americans across the board (74 percent) believes that America has suffered a moral decline in the past 20 years; and 2) a majority (64 percent) believes that the news and entertainment media are a major influence in that decline.
fredericksburg.com

Religion rocks…
…When pride in religion comes minus any prejudice against other faiths
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