BIODIVERSITY

Puerto Rico – a land of inspiring beauty, the “isla del encanto”, birthplace of dedicated leaders in the struggle to protect and value the environment. Carmelo Ruiz Marrero of the  Puerto Rico’s Biosecurity Project and Arturo Massol of Casa Pueblo de Adjuntas, son of Goldman Prize winner Alexis Massol Gonzalez (http://www.goldmanprize.org/2002/islands ), stand out in the crowd. Although they focus on different aspects of the same issue, the message is the uniform: biodiversity isn’t an alternative, it is a necessity and as such it needs to be protected.

Carmelo Ruiz takes a rare step back, tracing the history of seeds and agriculture. He concludes on a positive note, recognizing the growing strength of social movements challenging a basic tenet of agro-industry –seed ownership, and rejecting the transformation of farmers into a rural proletariat cultivating huge expanses of single crops. 

ISLA invited Dr. Massol to respond to the Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady who recently dedicated her column to the gas pipeline project set to slice through the middle of the island. To those familiar with O’Grady’s writing, there were no surprise -she is a hearty proponent of the pipeline and all things Fortuno. Given the potential impact of the pipeline and the limited U.S. press coverage, Dr. Massol’s response fill in the gaps, while revealing the deceptive nature of O’Grady’s argument.

Karen Crump
ISLA

 

El gran juego del ajedrez botánico

Carmelo Ruiz Marrero

ALAI AMLATINA, 20/04/2012.- Por todo el planeta hay candentes debates en
torno a la semilla, la cual es la base de la cadena alimenticia humana.
Los debates no son solamente en torno a las polémicas semillas
transgénicas. Son además acerca de la apropiación y privatización de las
semillas, transgénicas o no, mediante leyes y tratados de propiedad
intelectual, y el poder creciente de corporaciones transnacionales como
Monsanto y Syngenta que parecen encaminadas a formar monopolios
virtuales sobre éstas. Los intentos de los poderosos por apropiarse de
las semillas no tienen nada de nuevo, como veremos a continuación.

A lo largo de la historia las naciones e imperios siempre han tenido sus
programas agrícolas, que con el pasar de los siglos aumentaron en  (mas)

The Grand Botanical Chess Game

From Puerto Rican social ecologist Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero:

All over the world, debates on the future of food and agriculture are dominated by one supreme subject: the seed. Its importance cannot possibly be overstated. Seed is, after all, the beginning of the human food chain. In the words of University of Wisconsin professor Jack R. Kloppenburg: “As both food and means of production, seed sits at a critical nexus where contemporary struggles over the technical, social and environmental conditions of production and consumption converge and are made manifest.”

Current debates on seed center around its appropriation and privatization through intellectual property laws and treaties, and around the growing power of corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta, which are bent on creating virtual monopolies over all seed germplasm. As we’ll see, attempts to take over the seed are not new at all (continue)

Link to Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s article in ISLA, page 113,

http://isla.lmi.net/2.12%20files/CBN%203_2.12.pdf

 

Respuesta comunitaria al Plan Fortuño de gasificar a Puerto Rico

Por Arturo Massol-Deyá, Ph.D.
Casa Pueblo, PUERTO RICO

La mayoría en y fuera de Puerto Rico entiende que la dependencia a combustibles fósiles que la isla importa provoca una tendencia alcista e insostenible de los costos energéticos. Igualmente reconocemos el efecto adverso de las emisiones producidas por las termoeléctricas sobre nuestra salud y el ambiente. También convergen múltiples sectores de la sociedad puertorriqueña que nuestra condición política con los EEUU impone limitaciones en la importación de mercancías precisamente por las leyes de cabotaje y el Acta Jones.

Donde existe un desfase entre la administración del gobernador republicano Luis Fortuño y el país está en sus propuestas, visión y los estilos antidemocráticos carentes de transparencia. (mas)

 

A Community-Based Response to Governor Fortuño's Plan to Gasify Puerto Rico

By Arturo Massol-Deyá, Ph.D.
Casa Pueblo, PUERTO RICO

Rising energy costs and the questionable sustainability of Puerto Rico’s dependence on imported fossil fuel is broadly recognized on the island. Furthermore, there is widespread awareness that thermoelectric emissions are detrimental to public health and the environment, and Puerto Ricans across-the-board recognize that U.S. maritime restrictions under the Jones Act effectively limit imports, fueling rising energy costs and exacerbating supply issues. Though there is general agreement on the energy problem, a formidable gap exists between the public’s viewpoint and the proposals, vision, lack of transparency and undemocratic style of Republican governor, Luis Fortuño.

Governor Fortuño is actively promoting the construction of a gas pipeline across 92 miles of a 100 mile wide island, from a privately owned liquefied natural gas terminal located on the south-west, EcoElectrica, to the north where it will fuel three power plants. These power plants combined scarcely produce 22% of the country’s energy needs. This is the governor’s plan for resolving the country’s energy crisis. (continue)