Warning: Sometimes 'green' is not so good

Bramantyo Prijosusilo ,  Ngawi ,  East Java   |  Fri, 08/01/2008 11:54 AM  |  Opinion

Indonesia must rise to the challenge of the current global food crisis by choosing between two different agricultural "ideologies". The first is to continue the process that began here in the early 1970s, ironically called the "Green Revolution". The irony of the name is that usually the word "green" signifies an adherence to the principles of ecology and sustainability, but there was nothing ecologically sound or sustainable in the so-called "Green Revolution."

The "Green Revolution" promoted the intensive use of manufactured chemicals and genetically modified seed for the goal of short-term food sufficiency. While some countries did reach a level of food self-sufficiency for some short years, the achievements were essentially hollow and unsustainable.

The heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides resulted in the swift degradation of the quality of agricultural soil and the severe polluting of waterways. The dependency on genetically modified seed succeeded in ruthlessly decreasing the wealth and diversity of the world's natural seed-banks.

Countries where there were naturally high levels of diversity in agriculture, including Indonesia, lost most of their indigenous seeds for their traditional crops. Traditional seed in Indonesia only survived in remote areas, out of reach of the pressure and intimidation from the New Order government that forced the "Green Revolution" upon the peasant population from the early 1970s.

With the current hype about new hybrid seeds and subsidized chemical fertilizers, it would appear that the dangerous path of continuing the "Green Revolution" is being seriously considered. The attraction of this short-term fix is that you can produce a lot of food quickly. If you are a politician who is going to face an election in five years, by the time the devastating environmental and social effects of the "Green Revolution" policy bite, it will be someone else's responsibility.

While the "Green Revolution" path is the choice of those who seek instant gratification, the wiser option is to blaze the trail of achieving food security through sustainable agriculture. This path does not promise instant gratification but in the long term, it does promise generations of healthy citizens, clean rivers and waterways, and healthy, fertile soil.

Although sustainable agriculture demands much more hard work, it is the only reasonable and responsible path to take. Moreover, the development of a nationwide sustainable agriculture program would also solve part of the problem of the global energy crisis. Even better, a well-thought out sustainable agriculture program would also solve the huge problem of waste management in our big and small cities.

Every big and small city in this country has at least one utterly disgusting mountain of rubbish in an open dump somewhere in its outskirts. Jakarta's waste is, as the historian and Indonesianist Anton Lucas puts it, "a stinking time bomb waiting to explode".

The truth is every large and small city in this country has this very same nasty stink. The humble "little people" have so far been the environmental heroes in the attempts to tackle this rotten problem. In 2004 when Lucas published his observations of Jakarta's rubbish in the Inside Indonesia magazine, the lowly rubbish sorters (pemulung) were making more than US$10 a day. The pemulung -- the pariahs of our society -- have long known that waste management creates wealth.

Husein Halim, a Yogyakarta recycler, said pemulung sell all types of waste except garden waste. Pig farms buy food scraps, and recycling industries buy used plastic, paper and metal. Even old medicines are sold to unscrupulous dealers who repackage them and sell them to the ill but poor.

However, with sustainable agriculture and renewable, alternative energy in mind, all organic waste including garden waste can be composted to make organic fertilizer. The natural decomposing process that produces organic fertilizer also releases methane, a flammable gas, and thus an alternative energy source.

Apart from the scarcity of indigenous natural seeds, one of the main problems faced by farmers who want to convert to sustainable agriculture here is the fact that organic fertilizers are not widely available. An intelligent and serious effort to manage society's waste would swiftly solve the question of organic fertilizer availability, and create independent, sustainable energy sources for communities as well.

Furthermore, a widespread effort to reuse, recycle, and manage waste intelligently would develop a culture of nurture and care. An atmosphere of care would birth miracles in relations between members of our society and between humanity and nature.

So what is stopping us from following the dictates of common sense to manage our waste in a more beneficial way, especially now that there is a food and energy crisis? Is not the fact that solving the question of food security in a sustainable way immediately opens the opportunity to partly solve the problem of the energy crisis too beautiful to ignore?

We can imagine this solution in two ways. First, we can imagine huge composting and biofuel installations in each city, channeling gas to thousands of households and gas stations where modified automobiles can fill up their tanks. These installations would also be producing many truckloads of fertilizer for agricultural use in countryside.

Alternatively, we can imagine smaller plants, where individuals and communities have smaller versions of these installations and distribute their gas and fertilizer in smaller operations. To be sustainable and practical, the first option needs serious investment and organization.

The second, smaller alternative needs better social cohesion. If people want to be nasty to their neighbors, a mischievous spoonful of washing detergent can severely damage a natural biogas installation by hampering the work of the bacteria essential in the decomposing process. If this happens, someone has to go in and clean out the waste-decomposing tank and that is not an enjoyable task to do.

This type of vandalism has ruined at least one biogas installation in the Sleman regency of Yogyakarta, which highlights the point that to be able to use our waste effectively and wisely, we must become better people. The truth is that we should want for others what we would like for ourselves.

The writer is an artist and former journalist. He can be reached at bramn4bi@yahoo.com

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