Green Options » opium

The High Price of Rubber & the Devastation of Southeast Asia

Lisa Wojnovich — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:00:02 +0000

Slash-and-burn agriculture may be bad for the environment, but in southeast Asia, the cure may be worse than the disease. Endorsed by multiple governments, at both the local and national levels, as well as numerous business interests, everyone from individual farmers to massive corporations has been replacing the traditional slash-and-burn, more technically known as swidden, method of farming with rubber plantations managed with European techniques. In the last 20 years, over 1.2 million acres of land in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar have been cleared and replanted with nothing but rubber trees. By 2050, this number is expected to double — possibly even triple.

What Peanut Butter Cost America

Kay Sexton — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:25:05 +0000

Apart from the $1 billion in lost production and sales, what has been the cost of the peanut butter recall?

The environmental impact will take years to unravel. The first level of harm is the weakened price for peanuts, which hits farmers hard, and the limited outlets that are now available to those who farm them – in Georgia, small farmers in particular are looking at little or no income for the next year, and then at a severely reduced marketplace. Peanuts are used in many more products than peanut butter and Reese’s Cups, but where they have been used as a filler or paste to give structure and mouth appeal to certain foods, alternative products like carnauba are now being used, meaning that a lot of the low-grade peanuts formerly bought by the food processing industry are going begging.

US Drug War Policies Spur Sales of Afghan Child Brides

Jennifer Lance — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:32:30 +0000

The US Government’s Drug War has spurred many social and environmental consequences throughout the world. Widespread aerial herbicide spraying aimed at eradication has caused environmental damage from Central America to Central Asia. Recently, I learned you can add the sale of child brides in Afghanistan to the list of social ills caused by the Drug War.

A bumper crop of Afghan opium was produced in 2007, which is expected to be repeated in 2008. Despite these record poppy crops, farmers are deeply in debt. The average Afghan poppy grower’s per capita income is about $300, and farmers have to borrow money for seeds, fertilizer, food, and basic necessities from traffickers. The farmers are unable to pay their debts when their crops are eradicated, or they are pressured by local governments and westerners to stop growing. Westerners don’t keep promises to provide free seeds for substitute crops, and creditors demand child wives in payment for debts. The growers’ daughters are called “opium flowers“, and moneylenders seek them out in case of crop failure or family emergency.