New EcoAgroForestry Mailing List

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    ECOAGROFORESTRY LIST EAF-L NOW OPEN FOR SUBSCRIBERS
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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 mark 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 eaf-l-request@eaf.com 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: 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!

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