Food, clothing, environment
The 12 basic needs
Introduction
Good food is priority nr.1 for all human beings to be a human being at all! Although we need enough every day for all eight billion of us, the quality is of course most important for healthy thinking, good social attitude, and a powerfull body for work, sport and to feel good anyway!
Almost all the surface of the earth has someting to do with food and clothing. But also water, air, materials as wood and stone for building houses and structures, and commodities for all our “equipment” to live in a modern world. Especially in our dialogue with nature all consumer-problems come together in the way we feed the world, what kind of materials we use for our clothes, the climate change, fuel and what next, commodities and new materials, and sustainability in the end.
3D Farming: Efficient-Organic-Dynamic
Worldwide more and more supermarkets are expanding their product range with more organic food. Because more and more consumers are becoming interested in healthy food and healthy lifestyles.
Basic principle of all questions about food and agriculture is of course the human being him/herself. The why how and what questions are: why am I living at all? How do I want to live this life, what do I need for my lifestyle? According to food the answers are to be found in quality quantity and price, the basic principles of all consumer-producer dialogue of trade. Especially quality is the most important question of the 21st century!
Looking to conventional, organic and biodynamic agriculture we can understand the differences in an earth- nature- or/and cosmic orientation. Which can also been seen as a learning process from materialism to holism. But also a path of integrating the three dimensions towards an efficient-organic-dynamic agriculture. Looking to the earth the environment and to the sun and the moon AND the planets around us. We could give it a name: call it 3D agriculture.
More and more consumers are also interested to co-finance shops and farms and especially the goods for the next month (stock in the shop) as a kind of subscription. We introduced that kind of financing already in 1980 to give the bank credits of Triodos Bank a sustainable basis, making consumer-questions visible and reliable.
Rest of the world
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Organic farming (Wikipedia)
Biodynamic farming (Demeter)
Agriculture in the 21st century
A WorldWatch discussion
06 202406 June 2024
06 202306 June 2023
World Bee Day – FAO and the Future of Agriculture
06 202206 June 2022
SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
More and more producers are now stepping into the future we want! Even the biggest companies (such as Shell and Tata Steel in the Netherlands) are now working constructively on sustainability to help in reaching responsible production and consumption. Dialogue and partnerships are the proven toolkits for the future!
During the World Economic Forum WEF in Davos many decisions were made to solve the climate crisis before 2030/2050 and solve all the problems in the world according to the Sustainable Development Goals. China will plant 70 billion trees for instance! But basis for the future of the world is of course the impact we can all make as stakeholders!
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06 202111 November 2021
COP 26 Climate Conference in Glasgow – Stepping Into The 21st Century.
The great conference about climate change took place in Glasgow, Scotland. While the first conference in Rio de Janeiro 1992 was about all possible information. In 2001 the Millennium Goals were the first results of a worldwide dialogue. And 2015 the UN Sustainable Development Goals presented us all world problems on a single “dashboard”! The COP26 conference on climate change was now the “hottest” item of all items.
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06 202105 May 2021
3D Farming Fast Forward – Efficient Organic Dynamic
Worldwide more and more supermarkets are expanding their product range with more organic food. Because more and more consumers are becoming interested in healthy food and healthy lifestyles, Albert Heijn (AH XXL), in the Netherlands, ALDI in Germany, Walmart in the USA and even more and more supermarkets in China are presenting wider product ranges than ever before! The UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) in progress! Note well that responsible consumption is mentioned first. That means once and for all that we are living now in an economy of question and answer, the essence of demand and supply!
Basic principle of all questions about food and agriculture is of course the human being him/herself. The why how and what questions are: why am I living at all? How do I want to live this life, what do I need for my lifestyle? According to food the answers are to be found in quality quantity and price, the basic principles of all consumer-producer dialogue of trade. Especially quality is the most important question of the 21st century!
Looking to conventional, organic and biodynamic agriculture we can understand the differences in an earth- nature- or/and cosmic orientation. Which can also been seen as a learning process from materialism to holism. But also a path of integrating the three dimensions towards an efficient-organic-dynamic agriculture. Looking to the earth the environment and to the sun and the moon AND the planets around us. Shall we call it 3D agriculture? Or price-quantity-quality oriented agriculture?
To substantiate all those questions more and more consumers are even interested to co-finance shops and farms and especially the goods for the next month (stock in the shop) as a kind of subscription. We introduced that kind of financing already in 1980 to give the bank credits of Triodos Bank a sustainable basis, making consumer-questions visible and reliable.
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- Demeter (Hallmark of the World Federation for BioDynamic Farming)
06 202004 April 2020
The Paris Climate Agreement And The Future We Choose
Christiana Figueres was the one who made the Paris Agreement fit for agreement by all stakeholders. She did all the talking to help everyone and every government to say YES to the agreement on stopping the climate crisis. Now she has written a bestselling book HOW we ourselves as consumers can help to fix the crisis in a most comprehensive way, through a more sustainable and responsible lifestyle. But Christana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac who was the architect of the UN agreement are both optimistic that we will be succesful as consumers, together with all our producers and governments.
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06 202001 January 2020
Climate Change Strategies In The Making
From New York to Santiago de Chile to Madrid to Glasgow. A sailing trip around the world for Greta Thunberg, promoting climate against economic growth only, quality of life against quantity only. She was Person of the Year 2019 in Time Magazine, proudly on the frontpage! But the COP 25 conference in Madrid did not go so well, and no decisions were made yet. But the will to change strategies was strong and most voices sounded loud and clear to take the necessary decisions in favour of the climate and a maximum rise of temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius. We will hopefully see that at the COP 26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland 9 – 19 November.
But the most important decisions have to be made by ourselves, as consumers! We are free to choose, but also 100% responsible for all decisions we make. To buy or not to buy is our daily mantra: to find all necessary information, to discuss all relevant arguments, to take the best possible decisions about quality, quantity and price. It is all about the quality of life, for all people and for the planet! Only when we ask the best questions, we can hope to get the best answers. Working from an economy of supply and demand, towards an economy of question and answer!
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10 201910 October 2019
Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Summit – From Goals to Actions
The UN Climate Summit in New York was about action instead of debate alone. Especially inspiring were the protestmarches of schoolkids around the world to call for action! Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old “viking” schoolgirl from Sweden, presented a short keynote speech spiraling from astonishment to angriness about all the thinking in terms of economic growth alone. She called for action towards sustainability, fairness for all, and especially for action NOW. Because we are running out of time if all scientists are correct in their forecasts. Not only for the next generation, but for all generations to come! Even for ourselves, when we (hopefully) come back in a next life …
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06 201903 March 2019
The Whole World’s a Stage and Every Human Being a Mere Player! (Shakespeare in the Earth Theatre?)
In February it was the premiere of the Rotterdam Academy of City Astronauts going on tour through the Netherlands. A highly interesting experience on how astronauts are looking at the earth as a stage on which we live together with 7.000.000.001 consumers. And how fragile she is! And how important it will be to reach at least the SDGs in 2030. Especially when we observe the world as astronauts we can get the right feeling about the urgency and the best possible overview of all problems and possibilities.
Thanks to the great storytelling of initiator Marjolein van Heemstra the bigger picture of human development becomes very real and highly motivating! And who wants to see the Earth from the astronauts perspective themselves a visit to the unique Earth Theatre in Kerkrade (Netherlands) is recommended.
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06 201601 January – March 2016
Paris Climate Conference COP 21
In december all countries of the world decided in Paris to work together in managing the climate change within 1.5 degrees raising of the average temperature. An euforic finish of years and years of conferencing debating and calculating! After twenty years of thinking and twenty years of talking the next twenty years will now be about working and implementing the new techniques and organizations to fulfill that promise.
In January and February two big events in the Netherlands were organized to discuss about the future of food. Bio1000 and Food Otherwise (Voedsel Anders) at Wageningen University with more than 900 people! About he quality of food, about true price and about more and more dialogue in the chain from farm to fork. About the essential steps towards agriculture as being part not of industry or technique but of nature itself. Organic and especially biodynamic agriculture have proved to be the most innovative road into the 21st century.
In March the whole world was watching all shifts in the geopolitical relations, war and peace, Europe in stress, and the United States where elections get more attention than ever in the world! Especially Bernie Sanders is favourite for the youth willing to participate for a better future.
This winter season showed us a lot of interesting startups since the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030 in September in New York. More people than ever are now active to work on all options. The words “Yes We Can” are now heard around the world. Enough work to do, lots of problems ahead but the trend in motivating each other is now that by trial and error another world is possible!
Read more:
- United Nations Conference on Climate Change COP21
- Food Otherwise Conference 2016 (Voedsel Anders)
- True Price
06 201511 November 2015
Sustainability Through the Eyes of Astronauts – Unique 3D Earth Theatre
This month a unique theatre was opened in the Netherlands! Looking to the Earth through the eyes of the astronauts of the International Space Station ISS. To experience the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals for our magnificent but also fragile planet! And explore the possibilities of new designs to save the climate and our future in the other exposition halls!
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06 201408 August 2014
Greenpeace ice-breaker – back from breaking the ice in an international conflict
The “Arctic Sunrise” and the whole crew came back to her home shipyard in Amsterdam! With tears in our eyes we watched the ship slowly entering the harbour of Amsterdam with some small boats escorting her and a loud hello from the ship and an even louder welcome from the quay! Director of Greenpeace International Kumi Naidoo gave a warm welcome speech for the crew who had broken the ice for the international talks about drilling oil in the Arctic Sea. A very important action because the whole world is asking to preserve the area as a part of the Earth where nature can help us solve our pollution- biodiversity- and climateproblems.
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06 200908 August 2009
From Theory to Praxis! Trial and Error towards Good Governance
Thinking and talking are over, try-outs and start-ups in all possible directions are now filling up the news! Good governance in the making: for consumers and civil society, producers, professionals in marketing and trade, bankers, politicians and all their organizations as well! Fair Trade changed their name into World Fair Trade Organization WFTO, an important step to be better recognised on a worldwide scale! Teacher-training in Consumer Education will be financed for the next three years, by the EU/Brussels, the Ministry for Education in Norway and many others. The Consumer Citizen Network based at Hedmark University in Hamar, Norway, is from now on called: the Partnership for Education and Research in Responsible Living: PERL. Our organization is very glad to be one of the more than hundred partners again!
The UN Food and Agricultural Organization FAO in Rome have released their report, announcing that biological agriculture is efficient to feed the world. In the Netherlands the book Gaia Logica was released about the basics of sustainability by professor Kees Zoeteman. It describes all the “layers” of the biosphere we’re living in, in time and in space, based on the oldest and most modern knowledge of mankind. Wouter van Dieren, member of the Club of Rome, says it already in his foreword: after Fridjof Capra’s Tao of Physica this book will be a worldwide bestseller
12 200810 October 2008
Homework to do … And The Buss About Bees …
There’s a lot of homework to be done by everybody and all organizations worldwide! The new standards for Corporate Social Responsibility ISO 26000 are discussed in Santiago (Chili) and will be published in 2010. UN/UNEP and Global Reporting Initiative GRI are working together about new guidelines for financial institutions and climatechange. The debates for the next 4 years of US policy will start next month and be revealed in the State of the Union in January 2009 which in this globalizing world will still be an important indicator of the direction the world will sail, although… the whole world is now on board ship !!!
Consumer organizations discussed at the OECD conference in Paris this month about consumer education. Consumers International in London welcomed their new Director General Mr Joost Martens, bringing a lot of experience from all corners of the world during his work for Oxfam. The European consumers organization BEUC in Brussels started with masterclasses for professionalizing staffmembers of consumer associations in media presentation, lobbying, consumer law, and management.. For all participants (including us) also a great challenge to go for more international networking to exchange experiences!
In the greatest workshop of all called “world” we see debates become more and more dialogues! But if it is biofuel versus food, solar versus nuclear energy, or biodiversity versus gmo, dialogues are going towards the bottom of the problems towards full transparancy! And thanks to internet, thanks to modern journalists as moderators, and thanks to consumers/citizens working in civil society organizations all discussion have become worldwide discussions! Also the discussion about the bees…
The Buzz about Bees …
Even de problem about the vanishing bees (30-70%) in the western industrialised world called colonial collapse disorder CCD was on CNN television this month! And even Prince Charles is fighting for their survival in a worldwide action to save the bees from GMO crops, see www.mellifera.de . In the same way that agriculture had to turn into an efficient but now also more organic and dynamic direction – or let’s call it allround – agriculture in this 21st century, also the beekeepers have to upgrade their working methods and not use their honey-bees as working bees alone anymore! Because organic beekeepers don’t have these problems! Their bees have a stronger immunity against diseases because they can live their own lives (more natural materials, normal distance between honeycombs, etc) and be as almost as productive. See also the website of organic consumers in the USA www.organicconsumers.org/bees. As consumers we should therefore ask more and more for honey delivered by bees kept on a more natural way, called organic honey. And pay the right price for the work that bees and beekeepers do for us! It is now or never to bee or not to bee! Also for our own survival because our agriculture is depending on their buzzzzzzy work! See article below.
Mellifera e.V. – Centre for Organic Beekeeping
Mellifera e.V. is an independent non-profit-making association. Since 1985 we have been pioneering and developing sustainable ecological concepts for beekeeping. With research projects, seminars and publicity Mellifera e.V. is heading the discussion on beekeeping matters including the care and management of colonies and dealing with illnesses. Our Centre is running the Fischermühle apiary with approx. 150 hives for research and training purposes. Mellifera e.V. introduces lay people to the fascinating world of bees, informs about their endangerment and makes sure there is a public political debate about the future of beekeeping.
Fascinating topics in the beekeeping center Fischermühle On a world-wide level apiculture is caught in an existential crisis the true proportions of which are covered up by drugs and the feeding of sugar. The causes are manyfold. Without measures of the beekeeper most bee colonies would be destined to die. In Germany wild bees do not survive any more. Many other pollinating insects are threatened or already extinct. Keeping bees has become a challenge, in many respects taking the beekeeper to his limits.
The conventional measures of the beekeeper are often a strain on the bees. Mellifera e.V. is interested in an appropriate way of keeping bees, not only in an organic approach to combating illnesses. We link holistic perspectives and working closely with the bees with practical concepts and scientific work. The Centre offers a place to meet for non-dogmatic exchange and professional further training. Mellifera e.V. works with a net of partner organisations caring for bees and other pollinating insects.
There is no way back to ’the good old times’. It is necessary for all social forces to work together on as large a scale as possible and to carry a common responsibility for the bees. You as an individual can also help. You are warmly invited to participate.
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The Buzz About Bees
The breathtaking book of Jurgen Tautz / University Wurzburg / Germany / is now also available in English!
The Buzz about Bees / ISBN 978-3-540-78727 / $ 40,-