Subject: New EcoAgroForestry Mailing List (fwd)

From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 00:07:44 -0400 (EDT)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 13:58:57 -0500
From: carol cross <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: New EcoAgroForestry Mailing List

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ECOAGROFORESTRY LIST EAF-L NOW OPEN FOR SUBSCRIBERS
=============================================== 

This EcoAgroForestry mailing list is based on the interest shown by many
respondents to the kenaf seminar and to the debate on rural and urban
development. This list has been established to provide a forum for the
business, industrial, agricultural, forestry, rural development, investment,
sustainable development, environmental and rural communities everywhere in
the world internet community to discuss topics in creating a livable,
productive and enduring EarthHome through EcoAgroForestry. Dr. Carol Cross
is pleased to be your hostess and hopes that this forum will be a means to
transfer technology, provide a medium for the development and
standardization of EcoAgroForestry rural agroindustrial systems, and to
advance the science and engineering of Rural AgroIndustrial Centers (RAICs)
for sustainable production. We especially want to involve farmers all over
the world to get involved in sharing information with each other. It is
vital that farmers and livestock producers become involved in the
development of RAICs so they stop being the victims of the world commodity
markets and become processers and owners of value added production systems.

We expect the forum will be a springboard for the pursuit of innovative
approaches to rural development. Because the success of the group will be a
function of the involvement of its members. Dr. Cross invites anyone with an
interest and/or expertise in any of the above EcoAgroForestry areas to join
the list. Due to the complexities of creating sustainable rural
agroindustrial development, we welcome input from environmentalists,
engineers, businesspersons, investors, suppliers, development groups, and
others with similar interests.  Anyone who wishes to contribute to this very
vital, important and fascinating topic are invited to participate.

Dr. Cross recognizes that EcoAgroForestry is not the only system for
creating a sustainable world.  However, we feel it is an idea which can add
tremendously to the well being of all LifeKind, EarthHumans and ultimately,
the EarthHome, its limitations notwithstanding.

Users can subscribe to the list by sending an email to

[email-masked]

leaving the subject blank, and entering the line below in the body of the
message:

subscribe EAF-L

The welcome message will provide more details about the list...

 JOIN US ON EAF-L 

The basic underpinnings of the list is EcoAgroForestry which is a new term
coined by Dr. Cross.

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 sustainable, 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. 

EcoAgroForestry also includes the industrial development of rural areas so
that people will not have to leave to find work and "a better way of life"
in urban areas?  I propose that we need models for profitable rural
development that could create "a better way of life" in the rural areas of
the world.  These projects for development should stand on their own, be
sustainable, and must be business-focused projects. As Danny Wong from
Singapore said, This is "indeed a revolution in the agricultural industries". 

EcoAgroForestry will be focused on sustainable agriculture, sustainable
forestry and rural agroindustrial development. Rural agroindustrial
activities will be developed at two levels. 

Level One will be EcoAgroForestry Village Business Incubators (VBIs).  VBIs
will be low tech, with buildings developed from bamboo and indigenous
materials, using appropriate technologies. Level Two will be Rural
AgroIndustrial Centers (RAICs) which can include one or more production
level modules. In both these centers, production will be based on combining
kenaf with AgroResidues such as rice straw, wheat straw, sugar cane bagasse
and/ or forest wastes but they can also involve other crops.

Some suggested modules include but are not limited to: a kenaf plantation;
low tech livestock feed; a kenaf separation plant (core from stem fiber);
fuel briquettes; ecologically sound field and tree crop production of
foodstuffs (such as sweet sorghum and Leucaena nitrogen-fixing trees);
ecologically sound food processing ; nonwood paper; building materials;
reforestation center; reclamation center; sustainable logging and certified
forest products; production of organic fertilizers and soil amendments; the
SAMEI(TM)  Strategy for natural cosmetics/ perfume industry development;
canewood products from bamboo, rattan, florals and handicrafts; aquaculture
projects; bagged silage system; feed pelletizing plant; kenaf remediation
products; kenaf fabrics; essential oils; industrial plant derived oils; and
Integrated Farming systems.
 
The EAF-L list has two agendas.

Agenda One - Establishing Rural AgroIndustrial Centers (RAICs) based on
EcoAgroForestry by forming consortiums of local people and internationals.
By combining local resources, international technical expertises, suppliers
and investments in the development of the RAICs, I am proposing 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 alone 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 training to be provided to them and their developing into
entrepreneurs 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. Most important, of
course, is that they will belong to a community and be enabled to contribute
to that community. Additionally, each child is expected to bring another
child off the streets and be responsible for their development.

If you are involved in rural development, are an equipment supplier, an
investor, an entrepreneur, a landowner or just care about sustainable
development, I would like to invite you to participate in a lively
discussion of how ecologically sound entrepreneurship  can meet the need for
sustainable development.  Business is the contributor to governments. The
taxes come from businesses and indivudals, but the individuals get their
money in wages from corporations (or government via corporations).
Corporations also give to foundations who support nonprofit groups as do
individuals (via their income source, ultimately businesses).  

There is only one source of resources on this planet and it is the
difference between what it costs to produce a product and what the product
can be sold for. This differential is thus the only source of the resources
needed to regreen the EarthHome, create sustainable communities and enable
LifeKind (us) to continue to live on the EarthHome.

We can work together. Business does not have to be destructive, as many
green businesses already are witness to. EcoAgroForestry is designed to be a
win-win scenario for all. As I tell people, there is no (Noah's) Ark today.
Some of my environmentalist friends act like when the Global Warming kicks
in, they will be saved because they recycled or they used soyink or
whatever.  There are no boats coming to pick up the worthy and allow the
unworthy to die.  We will all die or live together on this planet.  Why not
work together and maybe we can all live. That is why we must all work together.

I look forward to your contributions.  Dr. Carol Cross

Carol Cross, PhD  EcoAgroForestry  Founder (501) 367-6127 (Ph)            
2801 Olive, #35A, Suite 113                (501) 367-8736(FAX)            
Pine Bluff, AR 71611                        Email: [email-masked]         
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!