It kovetkezik egy erdekes es szokatlan szempont a tropusi mezogazdasagrol:
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To: Multiple recipients of list ANTHRO-L  >
Subject: CATTLE and RAINFORESTS
Here's a chance to send the same message to three of my
favorite listservers: ANTHRO-L (anthropology), SANET-MG
(sustainable agriculture), and CHIAPAS-L. Allow me to
recommend you all to each other. While I am at it, I will
also send it to my very favorite list, HARP. I am harping
here in the more usual sense, not in the musical sense which
would come first to mind with my harper friends.
I refer you to an article entitled "Animal Agriculture for the
Reforestation of Degraded Tropical Rainforests," by Ronald
Nigh. (CULTURE AND AGRICULTURE, the Bulletin of the Culture
and Agriculture Group of the American Anthropological
Association, Numbers 51-52, Spring-Summer 1995, pp. 2-6.)
Nigh's institutional affiliation is Centro de Investigaciones
y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social del Sureste, San
Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
Instead of summarizing, I will give some quotes.
"My view has moved from . . . seeing cattle as the principle
cause of tropical forest destruction . . . to the present
argument that livestock production is a key element in
tropical forest restoration!" (Author's own exclamation
point!)
On traditional animal management: "(The) Maya . . . managed
secondary vegetation . . . to increase wild animal density.
The temporary, artificial creation of early successional
vegetation associations - fields, grasslands, or forage
brushlands, - may . . . provide the overall strategy for
animal production."
On intensive grazing (citing Savory): " This method . . . has
allowed us to reduce the area of a ranch devoted to pasture to
one-third or even one-tenth of the area, while at the same
time increasing bioeconomic production in absolute terms.
This . . . has permitted the freeing up of lands, many of
which should never have been converted. . . ."
Early observations on degraded pastures sown with African
exotics: "pastures respond (under controlled grazing) by
diversifying; especially, we note a welcome increase in some
native legumes. . . . (under a recent mild drought) our
pastures held up and recovered much better than our neighbors
with uncontrolled grazing or no grazing at all."
On "enrichment planting" (citing Ramos and del Amo) and the
"natural ecosystem analogue approach" (citing Hart and
others): "It is possible both to speed the successional
process and to greatly increase the economic return at each
stage of succession, thus providing an important incentive for
forest regeneration. Production is achieved by substitution
of . . . more economically valuable species of the same
structure and behavior. . . ." Example: vanilla.
On aquatic resources: "The restoration of the tropical
ecosystem and the elimination of the use of agrotoxics allows
the recovery of important aquatic resource zones that formerly
supplied a rich harvest of fish, crustaceans, mollusks,
reptiles, amphibians, turtles and birds. Some of these were
managed intensively in the past."
Cattle production system: "Dual-purpose organic milk and meat
production is based on intensive, controlled grazing,
concentrated only on appropriate lands and combines the use of
cattle genetically selected for pasture-based tropical
systems." Specifically, the animal is "a Holstein Brahmin
(Sahiwal) F1 from New Zealand. . . adapted to a pure grazing
system . . . for organic milk production in the tropics."
Closing paragraph:
Tropical regions have been especially intractable to
modern technology. The complex ecology of the tropics
responds with particular vehemence to management methods
that view agriculture as an "industrial process" rather
than as a natural system. Organic methods, along with a
holistic approach to resource planning and marketing and
a respect for traditional knowledge provide a viable
strategy for the design of sustainable production systems
in tropical regions.
Some personal remarks:
Anthropologists: If you are not studying agriculture, you are
not leaving out the main thing. Contemporary culture IS
agriculture. Been that way for a long time.
"SUSTAGGIES" (as tagged by Michele Gale-Sinex): US and MEXICAN
farmers have a lot in common. Please PAY ATTENTION to what is
happening in Mexico.
To CHIAPAS-L: Thanks for being there, nursing the hopes of a
civil society.
The challenge in Chiapas and elsewhere is not just political,
economic and social. It is also cultural, and specifically,
it is AGRIcultural. All the goals listed in question 1 of the
CONSULTA will be useless without a sustainable agriculture.
THANKS TO RONALD NIGH, we have a fine piece of work which we
can discuss, dealing SPECIFICALLY with the agroecology of
Chiapas. Is there a Mexican or other agricultural scientist
who will come forward with an agroecological analysis of
extensive cattle production showing it to be technically
superior? Or an economist who will show that with all social
and environmental externalities taken into consideration,
intensive grazing is more costly (or less beneficial) than
extensive grazing? I'd like to see someone try.
HARPING ON to a conclusion:
The fabulous Latin American harper Alfredo Rolando Ortiz,
on his training cassette, plays two tunes, both very
charming, and then comments that the two tunes are
political symbols of two opposing parties. "So," he
says, "you must be careful to know who you are playing
for. So much for politics."
But Alfredo never tells us which means what.
So much for politics.
John Lozier
Adjunct Associate Professor of Agricultural Education
College of Agriculture and Forestry
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV
AND
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
California University of Pennsylvania
California, Pennsylvania
AND
** _____________________________________
***// / Harping for Harmony
\/// / John Lozier
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Laborfalvi Benke Tibor Tibor Benke
6198 Kathleen Avenue, apt. 117 Graduate Student (MA program)
Burnaby, B.C., Canada Department of Sociology
(604) 434-0822 and Anthropology
 Simon Fraser University
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Kedves Kornyeszek!
Tan a Balaton javitasara is lesznek itt otletek?
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ELECTRONIC EXTENSION OF THE 2nd INTL CONF ON ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT (1st SEPT.- 13 OCT. 1995).
The 2nd International Conference on Ecological Engineering for
Wastewater Treatment: Recycling the Resource (Waedenswil,
Switzerland; 18-20 Sept 1995) will focus on approaches and solutions for
wastewater problems that include a recycling loop for water, nutrients,
heat and other resources one might find in wastewater.
The organizers of this International Conference, in cooperation with
International Ecological Engineering Society (IEES), Ecotechnology
Network and UNU/ZERI (Zero Emissions Research Initiative at the United
Nations University) are happy to announce its electronic extension.
Selected parts of this Conference will be placed on the Internet, in a
forum called an electronic extension, for those who cannot attend in
person but wish to participate. Those who will be in Waedenswil are, of
course, also welcome to participate both before and after the dates of
the actual conference.
Electronic versions of selected plenary talks will be available in the
beginning of September, for discussion up to and during the conference.
Other plenary talks will be posted in the end of September, and
discussion of those will continue into October.
Also, the workshop "Aquaculture for wastewater treatment" will be on
the Internet. Abstracts of the papers will be posted in the beginning
of September, and discussion may go until the conference. Comments
and questions from the Internet participants will become a part of
the discussion in Waedenswil. Summaries of all the workshop papers
presented in the workshop will be sent out each day. Discussion on
the Internet will also be incorporated into the chairperson's final
report and will continue after the conference.
To receive more information on the electronic extension, including
titles of papers and abstracts, please send email to
 and write the message: REV ET-ATLAS SHORT
IMPORTANT:
All participants should join the mailing list ET-ATLAS where
instructions and announcements will be posted by the organizers. All
subscriber names in any of the mailing lists used during this electronic
extension will also be added to ET-ATLAS automatically and without prior
notice to the subscribers.
To join ET-ATLAS, please send an e-mail to  and
write the message:
SUBSCRIBE ET-ATLAS yourfirstname yourlastname organization
e.g.
subscribe et-atlas Carl Etnier, Stensund Ecological Ctr.
Please send any additional questions related to your participation to:
Mr. Eng-Leong Foo, 
*******************************************************************
Information about the Conference at Waedenswil:
For information about attending the Conference at Waedenswil,
Switzerland from September 18-22, 1995, please send email to
** Mr. Carl Etnier  >
or contact:.....
2nd International Conference on Ecological Engineering for Wastewater
Treatment, Postfach 335, Ingenieurschule Waedenswil, CH-8820 Waedenswil
Switzerland. Phone: +41 (0)1-789 9925 Fax: +41 (0)1-789 9950
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Laborfalvi Benke Tibor Tibor Benke
6198 Kathleen Avenue, apt. 117 Graduate Student (MA program)
Burnaby, B.C., Canada Department of Sociology
(604) 434-0822 and Anthropology
 Simon Fraser University
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