The Generator

US starts bulldozing suburbs

Sunday, 28 June 2009 00:41 Giovanni Ebono

Picture from the UK Telegraph Fifty cities in the US have been earmarked for radical reconstruction as part of a plan to revitalise America's rust belt. The plan involves the bulldozing of sprawling suburbs in economically depressed cities to revitalise community, reduce transport and infrastructure requirements and ensure food security. The plan was developed for Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, which is one of the poorest cities in the US. It is expected that the target cities will be redesigned as a cluster of small cities surrounded by countryside.

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 June 2009 01:21 )

China sacrifices forests for food

Sunday, 28 June 2009 01:07 Giovanni Ebono

Guardian pic Chinese Minister for Land and Resources, Lu Xinshe, has announced that the regime is struggling to maintain the 120million hectares of arable land required to feed China's population because of urban and industrial sprawl. "We will not plan any new large scale projects to return farmland to its natural state, beyond those that have already been planned," he said. China has bought vast tracts of arable land in poor nations. There are now estimated to be one million Chinese farmers in Africa, alone.

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 June 2009 01:24 )

Irrigators fight for public image

Sunday, 28 June 2009 01:12 Giovanni Ebono

Image from The Land Irrigators in the Murray Darling river basin have begun hitting back against their widespread depiction in the media as the cause of the destruction of the Murray River. Olympian Stephanie Rice, sponsored by SunRice, has joined a group called Water4Food to promote the value of irrigation in securing our food supply. Ex-president of the National Farmers Federation, Peter Corish told the lobby group's national conference that irrigators are being treated like common criminals. He said he is not opposed to the government's buy back scheme or moves to increase water efficiency, but he thinks that farmers need to rebuild their image.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 June 2009 01:17 )

Is a green economy possible?

Thursday, 25 June 2009 11:05 Giovanni Ebono

There is lots of talk about a Green New Deal in the US and Europe and the expectation is that government's can steer industry into a sustainable mode of production that will reverse the alarming trends leading to food and water shortages, global warming, acidification of the oceans and the deforestation of the globe. While this is exactly what environmentalists have been fighting for over the last three decades many worry that it is too little too late, or that the problem is more fundamental than any one realises.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 June 2009 11:07 ) Read more...

Coal more important than food: NSW

Sunday, 07 June 2009 05:47 Giovanni Ebono

The NSW Premier, Nathan Rees and Primary Industry Minister Ian MacDonald have both claimed that mining is more important than farming to the state of NSW. The government has based the statement on the relative export value. NSW exported $12.6 billion worth of minerals, largely coal, and only $5.6 billion worth of food. Pam Allan headed up the working group to determine the terms of reference for an inquiry into whether coal miners should be allowed to undercut the rich farmlands of NSW's Liverpool Plains. The Generator put it to her that food was a more fundamental human need than energy. She described that as a “radical green stance that made discussion impossible” and then refused to discuss the matter any further.

Industry Minister backs Rees