We conviently ignore that probably most of this is done by multinationals
to supply markets in the developed countries directly or is the result of
displacement from other lands now devoted to the "export market". We, who
have almost totally destroyed our own native forests and prairie are now
saying "No, no don't do that"?
Until we change the economic system that drives this behavior, nothing will
be done differently especially with the WTO, written by and for
multinationals, gaining ascendancy as the defacto world government
controlling member nation's economic, environmental and labor policies
thought lawsuits.
Hypocritically yours,
Mike Miller
.>To: MMiller
>From: Wiegand@lufa-sp.vdlufa.de
>Date: 27 Sep 99 03:20:56 -0600
>Subject: Re: Sustainable Meat Production--was "Is Dennis Av
>
>
>hello Pat:
>
>
>a) you needn't go to south america or asia to see forest area in
>decline
>
>report titled ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES: A
>PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF LOSS AND DEGRADATION, available from the
>National Biological Service (NBS), a research organization within
>the federal Department of Interior. We obtained the report over
>the Internet,[3] and its conclusions are stunning:
>
>** 90 percent of its ancient or "old-growth" forests have been
>lost.
>
>** 95-98 percent of the virgin forests in the lower 48 states had
>been destroyed by 1990; 99 percent of the virgin Eastern
>deciduous forests have been eliminated.
>
>** In the Northeast, 97 percent of Connecticut's coastline is
>developed; 95 percent of Maryland's natural barrier island
>beaches are gone; and almost all of Ohio's bottomland hardwood
>forests are gone.
>
>** In the South, 99.99 percent of Kentucky's native prairies have
>disappeared; 98 percent of the Southeast coastal plain's longleaf
>pine forests are gone; and 88 percent of southwest Florida's
>slash pine forests have been eliminated.
>
>** In the Midwest and Great Plains, 90 percent of the tallgrass
>prairie has disappeared, as has virtually all of the prairie in
>Michigan and Ohio, 72 percent of Minnesota's northern hardwood
>forests, and 86 percent of Minnesota's red and white pine forests.
>
>** In the West, 99 percent of California's native grassland is
>gone, as are up to 90 percent of western Montana's old growth
>forests and low-elevation grasslands; half of Colorado's wetlands
>and 90 percent of Hawaii's dry forests and grasslands are gone.[4]
>
>
>
>b) TIMBER SUPPLY: Only 12.3% of the United States' timber supply
>comes from your national forests.
>
>where do you think, you get the rest from ?
>
>deforestation is not due to growing lifestock feed, but for timber
>like mahogany...
>
>
>--------------
>Headline: "U.S. Punishes Mining Company Over Abuse"
>Source: San Francisco Chronicle
>Date: Thursday, November 2, 1995
>By Jim Mann, Los Angeles Times
>Page 4
>
>Washington
>
>In an unprecedented action against environmental abuse by
>American companies overseas, the Clinton administration yesterday
>cut off $100 million in federal insurance to a U.S. company whose
>gold and copper mining in Indonesia were said to be damaging
>tropical rain forests and rivers.
>
>The Overseas Private Investment Corp., the federal agency that
>provides political-risk insurance for U.S. firms operating
>abroad, terminated its guarantees for the Indonesian operations
>of Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. of New Orleans.
>
>It was the first time the agency had cut off insurance to any
>American company for environmental or human rights reasons.
>
>American businesses trying to start operations in new areas often
>say they need the agency's insurance more than any other help
>from the U.S. government. Political-risk insurance, which
>protects a company against the possibility that its assets
>overseas will be damaged or seized because of political upheaval,
>is often hard to obtain from private insurers.
>
>On Friday, President Clinto turned aside an appeal from
>Indonesian President Suharto, who urged the administration to
>preserve the insurance guarantees for Freeport-McMoran. The
>American company owns 80 percent of the Indonesian mining
>venture; the Indonesian government holds 9 percent, and private
>investors in Indonesia the remaining 11 percent.
>
>Freeport-McMoran said in a statement yesterday that it was
>"disturbed" by the government's action. It said that the agency
>"lacks a legal basis for cancelling the coverage" and that the
>dispute had been submitted to arbitration.
>
>The company also said it was in compliance with Indonesian
>environmental regulations and was "committed to the highest
>environmental standards in our mining operations."
>----
>
>but you are right, major importers of food, which becomes feed
>are european countries, because they have no CHEAP protein-rich
>feed like soy, copra, palmoil, cocos oil..
>
>and it's not the american, who are no. 1 in robbing forest, it's
>the asian countries. "nice" example japan: one meal, one pair of
>chopsticks gone. than pretty soon sums up to a lot of wood....
>
>
>Asian logging giants extend reach
>Rainforests are major targets
>August 18, 1996
>Copyright 1996 Associated Press
>
>KUCHING, Malaysia (AP) -- Flush with expertise and profits from
>felling local rainforests, Asian logging companies have begun
>stripping millions of acres of timberland around the world.
>
>Their reach extends from South Pacific islands to pristine forests
>in Latin America and Africa. According to an Associated Press
>survey, their operations are accelerating -- as is the opposition
>they face from indigenous people and environmentalists.
>
>With Malaysians and Indonesians at the forefront, Asian companies
>started moving out in the mid-1980s. They now dominate rainforest
>logging worldwide.
>
>Some of their concessions are already the size of small countries,
>and their sights are set on such riches as Brazil's Amazon
>forests.
>
>"What we are witnessing today is a relatively new trend of 'South-
>South colonialism,' whereby southern transnational companies are
>making heavy investments in other 'more backward' Third World
>countries," said Marcus Colchester of the Britain-based World
>Rainforest Movement.
>
>Companies contacted insist they are practicing sustainable logging
>that will not destroy forests. They project themselves as
>entrepreneurs from dynamic economies that less developed nations
>should emulate.
>
>But in a clash that appears to leave little middle ground,
>conservationists charge that many loggers operate like "robber
>barons," depleting an ecologically important resource at
>unconscionable rates and violating native rights.
>
>"That's not to say there aren't bad European and American
>companies, but Asians are the worst," said Jean-Paul Jeanreneaud
>of the Switzerland- based World Wide Fund for Nature. "They are
>more cavalier, less concerned about environmental and social
>issues. And they're all over the place."
>
>A study financed by the World Bank and the United Nations warned
>in early August that logging is endangering half of the world's
>remaining 5 billion acres of tropical forest. It said the rest is
>threatened by slash- and-burn farming techniques used by primitive
>peoples.
>
>Among recent findings by Associated Press reporters in Latin
>America, Asia and Africa:
>
>-- The next major targets for Asian loggers are the Amazon,
>probably the world's top timber source in the coming decade, and
>Africa, where European logging companies have tended to dominate.
>
>Asian companies have bought 8.6 million acres in the Brazilian
>Amazon. Purchases over the next two years could reach 22.2 million
>acres, or about 15 percent of the harvestable forest.
>
>"By the end of next year, the Amazon lumber industry will have a
>new face - - an Asian one," said Francisco Coelho, president of the
>Amazonas State Sawyers Syndicate.
>-----
>
>
>klaus
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