From solync@cei.netSat Apr 20 12:13:32 1996 Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 04:55:14 -0500 From: carol cross To: eaf-l@eaf.com Subject: Re: What is EcoAgroForestry? Resent-Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 07:05:47 -0400 (EDT) Resent-From: eaf-l@eaf.com EcoAgroForesters: I am looking forward to your feedback.... Dr. Carol "EcoAgroForestry" deals with systems of interlocking, interactive patterns that cause organisms to be able to survive or not survive in a given place. Let us break the word down into its component parts. Eco = Ecology - Ecology is the study of organisms in their environment. There are three basic levels of ecology * Physiological - This is the ecology of the individual organism in the environment and its adaptations and interactions with its environment. * Population - This is the ecology of a group of related individuals of one species and how this groups' numbers increase and decrease due to its interaction with the physical, chemical and biological factors in the environment. * Community - This is the relationship between many species or organisms, including both plants and animals and the relationship between the levels including predation, competition, mutualism, parasitism and other coexperiences and is concerned with the flow of energy through the ecosystem and the organisms Agro = Agriculture - the practice of producing food, fiber, and other needs from tilling and cultivating land used by settled EarthHuman populations Forestry = the growing of trees in plantations and/or the maintenance of existing wild populations of trees at their most productive level. EcoForestry promotes specific practices for creating long-term, sustainable forest resources. It includes selective and certified logging, ecologically sound logging practices, replanting of trees and the development of forest plantations for all future lumber needs after the year 2010. It also involves the phasing out of logging in the tropics except for plantation forestry and the PHASING OUT of cutting of all tropical and temperate Old Growth Forests. AgroForestry = the creation and maintenance of land use systems that include the production of agricultural crops, livestock and trees within the same contiguous space. EcoAgroForestry - the development of sustainable, productive, long term, human-based life maintenance systems. It involves the use of ecologically sound methods of producing crop plants, animals and trees in a production system that uses sustainably appropriate inputs and methods. It includes composting, biomass energy, solar energy, recycling, polyculture, wind energy, biological pest control, organic farming and gardening methods, aquaculture, water and soil conservation technologies and other appropriate technologies that avoid the use of pesticides, insecticides, and inappropriate technologies. "ENTREPRENEUR" - a risk taker who desires to create a business using his/ her own ideas, taking the risk to create more wealth by creating new products and/ or services. ECOAGROFORESTRY ENTREPRENEUR = a person who makes a commitment to create ecologically sound and sustainable businesses as a part of his or her desire to potentiate himself and others at the same time he or she fulfills the chosen duty to regenerate the Earth and restore the ecological balance of its systems by practicing EcoAgroForestry. Specifically designated toward those who become Leader in the SOLYNC EcoAgroForestry Entrepreneurial Culture and become Joint venture owners of a Village Business Incubators. ECOAGROFORESTER = Any person anywhere in the world who is involved in any aspect of moving our EarthHome and EarthHumans toward a more sustainable way of living, working, being and doing. That includes those who choose to do ecotravel, who use soy ink, who wear natural cottons, who grow and use organic foods, who develop ecobusinesses, who build with or create sustainable materials, who use kenaf based paper, who teach our children and adults about sustainability. Anyone working to protect the rainforests or create a community garden, to replant the forests of the world, to help Third World Peasants in the Peace Corps, or other volunteer programs, anyone who cares about the EarthHome and is devoting any part of their life energy and resources to its protection is an EcoAgroForester. It is our Mission that within the next century, the EcoAgroForestry Century, everyone on the EarthHome will be an EcoAgroForester. We have created the EcoAgroForestry Society to be a nexus/ a focal point/ a virtual netlink where EarthHuman/ The EarthHome/ LifeKind can come together and get into confluence with others who share the same philosophy of sustainability. About myself: As the founder of EcoAgroForestry, I am focusing my energy toward developing an EcoAgroForestry Entrepreneurial culture in Latin America for Street children. In the new development paradigm that I have formulated, I have more narrowly defined an EcoAgroForestry Entrepreneur as a leader in a Village Business Incubator movement where the street children will be tranformed into the Green Force. I will happily send you the story of Forestman which relates to that part of my dual personality upon your email request. My personality is dual because I have two agendas. Agenda One - Establishing Rural Agroindustrial Centers (RAICs) based on EcoAgroForestry which includes sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry and rural agroindustrial development. These centers will focus on the use of kenaf and agroresidues for developing value added products for both local use (like fuel briquettes and livestock feed) and for export. I want to create viable, growing yet sustainable agroindustries in rural areas so people can find jobs and not have to make the deadly migration to the shantytowns of the developing countries. Consortiums of both internationals and local people will develop each RAIC to provide a new paradigm of economic development. My goal is to have several hundred of these RAICs around the world in which I will own 10%, more or less depending on the situation. The purpose of developing this business is to develop sufficient income for my real agenda. I intend to use my own funds to start Agenda two. However, anyone wanting to become a part of Agenda two is welcome to share themselves in a variety of ways. Agenda Two - Establishing a permanent culture to bring the street children (15,000,000 in Latin America alone) into a potentiating, caring and compassionate, entrepreneurial culture. Clearly most of this will not be accomplished in my lifetime. But by creating each of these entities as a corporation, they can have a perpetual life and the work can continue after my death. Donations and volunteers will not be able to sustain the villages for the massive number of villages needed for the 15,000,000 children in Latin America, which is not addressing the 150,000,000 worldwide. The children must become an asset to the village, not a liability. They will do this by developing as an entrepreneur to create the income necessary for their upkeep. The children will also give part of their time as members of the Green Force, replanting local areas as part of their repayment for being brought off the streets. There are no free lunches (I have never received one and neither will they) and these children will not be given charity. Charity destroys self esteem and people's innerness as exemplified by the destruction of the welfare populations in the USA. These children will learn to work, to develop their own small businesses and to give of themselves to the EarthHome and the local communities adjacent to the villages they are in. Additionally, each child is expected to bring another child off the streets and be responsible for their development. Our goal is to bring children from the streets into low tech EcoAgroForestry Village Business Incubators, train them to become productive citizens and transform them into a Green Force to replant the EarthHome. So as loosely defined, an EcoAgroForestry Entrepreneur could be anyone involved in one of the RAICs or other sustainable businesses. More tightly defined, it would be used for the people who will live in their own villages and devote their lives for around US15,000+ per year as a joint venture coowner of one or more of these villages to house the street children. Thanks for letting me share this with you. I am writing a book called the EcoAgroForestry Century that I plan to have in September at the EcoAgroForestry Century Conference here in Arkansas. By the way, where did you find out about us? Share the Light, Carol Cross, PhD solync@cei.net Carol Cross, PhD EcoAgroForestry Founder (501) 367-6127 (Ph) 2801 Olive, #35A, Suite 113 (501) 367-8736(FAX) Pine Bluff, AR 71611 Email: solync@cei.net Together we Can Create A Sustainable World Through EcoAgroForestry (Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Forestry and Rural AgroIndustrial Development). Form Consortiums & Develop a EcoAgroForestry Village Business Incubator (VBI) or Rural Agroindustrial Center (RAIC), NOW! Become an EcoAgroForestry Entrepreneur and Regreen the EarthHome!