Eco-Economics

My travels abroad in various advanced countries and especially my interactions and involvement with many restless innovative thinkers, intellectuals, and creative activists made me realize aspects of eco-economics. The energy-conscious economy in these countries has made many of them realize more intensely that the present economic system is so maneuvered as to make the consumer the first and the last victim of economic production goals. By alienating knowledge from real-life situations of individuals through present schooled education systems, the economic system has created assets for monopoly and polarization in the distribution network, thus annihilating the consumer sovereignty in this weird game.

The entire exchange in Nature is in energy equivalent units. This energy exchange has its transactions in terms of quantas of photons at atomic and molecular level, as A.T.P., A.D.P., A.M.P. in biochemical and biogenic levels, as calories and kilocalories in our food and fossil fuel system, as watts and as horsepower in animal energy system. All these again are related with each other as atomic, chemical, bio-chemical, heat, electrical and mechanical energy in terms of energy equivalence.

Thus one human day table work is about 860 kilocalories which is equivalent to one unit of energy (KWh), which is the same as the energy expended by a drought bullock in 45 minutes of it's normal work, which is again the energy ensemble in 200 gm of any dry matter produced in the process of photosynthesis. Nature's food or fuel chains or thunder storm lightning or the potential energy of any mass or kinetic energy of waterfall, all are transactions in energy equivalent units.

Let us now take couple of illustrations to understand how and why the present money-market system has created various dilemmas in development where riches can be achieved if at all by only a few and the majority will be paupers. The present agenda of development cannot create prosperity and abundance for fuller and better consumption by each one among the masses. The only outcome is increasing pollution and degradation of nature's resources.

To make my statement more explicit, let us study the beguiling nature of present economics in which price-line is determined by the demand and supply mechanisms. The exchange unit in the system is mostly paper money or virtual money in the share markets in which all types of credits are extended and honored. No price is assigned to the natural resources. For example, the most energy-rich resource is the rainwater, which is brought to us by evaporating the ocean water. The energy invested is about 900K cals per one and a half liter of water-equivalent of one unit of electrical energy (this energy is conserved as potential energy at a height which is converted to electrical energy in hydroelectric plants). By the process of greening in forests and ponds, nature recovers this investment as two and a half kg. of dry matter, which has energy equivalent to two and a half coal units, the dry matter produced by photosynthesis is in the form of carbohydrates. Now, in one kg of carbohydrate, 600 milliliter of water is chemically bound. So, nature accumulates about 8000 Kcal of solar energy as additive regeneration for each one and a half liter of water used in the process of photosynthesis. This is what pumps out entropy from the neighborhood by greening and increases the carrying capacity of the entire eco-system.

So whoever uses one liter of water must participate in creating dry biomass worth 200 gms. the calorific value of which is about 720 kilocalories as against the energy expended 600 kg. calories in bringing that rainwater in one's neighborhood. Thus alone, one is helping nature's process of additive regeneration.

Moreover water is the fundamental base of our entire living system. But in the present urban, industrial and commercial farming system there is so much of exploitation of this really top value natural resource that entropy is increasing day by day against nature's scheme of pumping out entropy by using water as universal base for greening. Our Ten Guntha (1000 sq. meter) Sun Ensemble Ventures achieve this, assuredly as in nature's scheme of greening in rain forest.

Let us take couple of illustrations to see why the present money market system has created various dilemmas in development where riches can be achieved by only a few and the majority will be poor or pauper.

Our every day water heating system in bathrooms, our polyhouse technologies, our use of L.P.G. fuel gas, or even our spoonful of sugar or tea powder if calculated in energy terms will easily convince us how we are getting bankrupt in our precious energy resource as nowhere there is any assurance of additive regeneration of energy. Energy currency unit exchange system will only guarantee this process, which we will be discussing further.

Our venture techniracies in grapes provide ready at hand data to implement the Natueco Culture venture and test it.

We have found that at the most 200 cu. ft. of good soil is needed to make one guntha [100 sq. meter] grape plantation. With new techniracies of soil building in nature's ways of greening with mixed biota, one acre of fertile land is now no less than 2 lakh Rupees. That is ten gunha soil, well prepared in one year's time, is worth 50 thousand Rupees. Our venture in grapes on water requirements also clearly indicated that for one acre (40 guntha ) of area plantation four thousand liters of water per day, is enough to get good crop. This water comes to1000 liters of water for Ten Guntha in one day. The dry matter production by grapes in ten guntha is 2.5 tons in 100 days. So if once the soil in ten gunthas is built, it will be producing this much dry matter. One fifth of it will ultimately be recycled back to the soil by prosumer society producing various crops and exchanging them among them.

When I made all these calculation I realized that with the concept of 'Natueco Culture' we can follow nature's path to create any level of abundance and wealth by linking human mind for net working neighborhood resources. I then argued what are the external inputs needed if any in nature, and one of it was best of latest science that has evolved with new potential to give viable new techniracies through our new sociology of science and education. The other external input is water, because nature also has to carry rain water from oceans to the land and has to establish hydraulic cycle. I took the prosperity of higher middle class life and living as a criterion. Any middle class urban family of five needs one thousand liters of water per day. Moreover they have daily access of five to ten units of clean energy. So these should be the Equity base as the First Resource Right of the last person.

When this Equity right of 1000 liters of water per family per day is given, then the daily family waste water of 1000 liters produced, will build up biomass of ten tons of dry matter per year in Ten Guntha plots, through the principles of Natueco Culture. These ten tons may be grains, pulses, oils, spices, alcohol, commercial resins, cash crops as groundnuts, sugar cane, bamboos, timber wood, geo-fibers and so many commodities. One must remember that fresh weight is different than dry weight of it. The cost of water provision if any will be returned in energy terms and not in money terms, as one liter alcohol, as one liter petrol or one kg of dry wood or as minimum one unit of electrical energy. It is quite possible to provide one unit of clean energy electricity to rural population against an exchange of one kg. of any dry matter. Reports of such successful exchange experiments by Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore are available. These can be further studied, modified, improved and carried as new techniracies to the masses.

With the above analysis of economic energy market system, one can now evaluate how the present style of living in all the so-called advanced countries and affluent societies is but an energy-wasting living. In our new approach of home farming, a new human resource base is created through investment of the latest of science and knowledge amongst the masses unto the last human, through the strategy of dispersed optimized multi-tier canopy management.

With the minimum of water and biomass infrastructure as defined in our discussion, we will be reaping a high middle class standard of living by harvesting the sun over ten thousand sq. ft. We have termed this phase `Home Farming' which can be done in villages or cities.

Farming signifies production primarily for self-consumption and also for sale in the market. But with our new dialogue with nature in Natueco Culture, the small habitat and rural economy will flourish to such an extent that a healthy shift in marketing operations will take place. The money market model will gradually dwindle and the new Eco-economic Energy Model of market will evolve.

These new horizons in the marketing mechanisms can change the entire pattern of production in the rural agricultural system. Agriculture will gradually become more of Sagriculture (sun, science, sharing, and sovereignty - four S-agriculture) and the society will become more of a prosumer society. So no farming will be done, as is done today, of crash crops and mono-crops. Today the farmers are forced to sell their primary or raw commodities to the market or to the large-scale co-operative processing industries (sugar, milk-products, oil-extraction, spinning, ginning, textile, etc.). By keeping the producers completely ignorant of the ways of processing and preserving of their produce, the producers are made victims of the game of trading and marketing and are often forced to make distress sales. The Home-Farming system is going to re-establish the lost sovereignty of the producer along with that of the consumer.

Along with the establishment of the Home Farming, the next phase of technological transformation that will enhance the carrying capacity of the neighborhood ecosystem is foreseen through Natueco Culture and Ten-Guntha Sun-Ensembled Ventures.