I had to re-read my last post[Link to previous post] another time to get in touch with the angst that was eating me from the inside ever since I wrote the post. I realized that what was bothering me was the fact that in my mind, as I was writing that post, I had demonized everyone in the biotech industry and made them all wrong. I recognized that I was making everything a bit too black or white. In my path to raise my consciousness, I have worked very hard to entertain the world of greyness. I know and knew then full well that not everyone in biotech is evil, nor is anyone who is looking to genetically modify corn, but it was nonetheless a great experience to see myself go to a place that I think we all go to in times when we need assurance for our point of view. My ego definitely took the best of me and wanted to protect my stance at the cost of truth. I ultimately believe there are no bad people in the world-at most misguided ones.

Now that I can write with a bit more presence and humility, I do want to point out that today we still as a species need to bring greater awareness to our acts in the name of progress and sustainability. I don’t know what is the right balance when it comes to bio-fuels, the subject of my last post. Do we want to see the earth, its resources in the form of the soil to be depleted so that our cars are fueled? Do we want to see the same pesticides and herbicides that have been devastating the farm lands of the world to be used once again in creating bio-diesel? Is this where food needs to be diverted to for progress? What is progress and who decides if we’ve attained it? I find in times like this it helps to listen to as many sides as possible. In the following excerpt, wisdom from indigenous people of the world is one such viewpoint I’d like to share with you.

Last week 3000 worldwide delegates met at the seventh session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues where Bolivian President Evo Morales gave the keynote address. I wanted to provide you with an excerpt of an interview session with Democracynow.org and Evo Morales regarding bio-fuels:

[Link to entire interview - text and audio/video]

JUAN GONZALEZ(Interviewer): You have raised some criticisms of some other Latin American leaders. You didn’t name any, but it’s obvious to many that some of your questioning is directed at presidents like Lula of Brazil, who has pushed biofuels. Have you talked to President Lula about this? And what’s been his response, if you have?
PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] We have had discussions at summits of heads of states, sharing some of our experiences. I am certain that these presidents will understand the cry of the people of Bolivia, of the people of Latin America and the whole world, which wants to have more food and not more cars. First food, then if something’s left over, more cars, more automobiles. I think that life has to come first.
But the most important thing—and this is the first time that I find I’m in agreement with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund—they’ve publicly stated that if food prices are going up, it’s precisely because of the biofuels question, and it has a major impact. So if we have these points of agreement, then we have an obligation to together explain and persuade these international organizations, together with the social movements, so as to be able to change the policies of some governments or some presidents.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Green stuff, cleantech, economy, energy, food supply. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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