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Sunday, April 10, 2005

Indigenous People and the paradox of sustainability...

That I no longer wake screaming is a by-product of the abattoir that is corporate research. Call it corporate fatigue. Preliminary analysis leads me to believe that the exclusion of Maori land-owners from development such as conventional agriculutre, recently reframed as a positive thing in allowing a quicker return to production via organic growing, may have consigned many land-owners to continued laggard status in the adoption of specifically sustainable biotechnologies. This is a possible consequence of being marginal particpants in the infrastructure that supports contemporary agri-food systems. Here in Aotearoa/New Zealand we powered into a 'Neoliberal Reformation' the likes of which Reagan and Thatcher could not dream in their most fevered moments (perhaps Pinochet mused upon it once or twice, unable to forsee that level of power...). As a result, the rather good research and development we did is overly reliant on so-called private (not true, they're everywhere...) enterprise to disseminate.

This they do in the name of profit. That's the law.

Unfortunately, the much promised profit from sustainable horticulture (remember the organic premium everyone was supposed to get?) will obviously decrease as more and more produce is supplied under those criteria enforceably deemed Environmental Sound.

So be it.

But let us not forget that Sustainable Development discourse arose as a critque of the profit motive that was stripping our descendents resources in a manner we could no longer observe without contempt for ourselves.

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Simon Lambert

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