16. Creating alliances between former competitors and/or non-traditional partners to leverage complementary strengths and solve problems.
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Editor's Notes
SummaryDescriptionEnglish: A graphical representation of data found in a table on World Population - Population Figures It can clearly be seen that the total world population was steadily rising during the period 1000AD to around 1700AD, though with major disruption from outbreaks of plague (most notably the Black Death from 1350 AD - 1400 AD). Please see notes regarding the source data and method u sed for p lotting the resulting population dips caused by both the Black Death and later plaguesPopulation grew at a faster rate from about 1700AD onwards, which coincided with the start of the Industrial Revolution There was then a sharp increase fro m the beginning of th e 20th century followed by a very dramatic acceleration in population growth from the middle of the 20th century (around 1950) onwards.It is interesting to note that at over 6.7 billion (see US Census data) World Population is approximately 3 times higher in 2009 than it was at appro ximately 2.3 billion or less (historic census) in 1939, despite the appauling loss of life in the World War II (an upper estima te of which is so me 72 million ).Date24 January 2009SourceOwn work, data from 3rd table in World Po pulation - Population Figures as presented 2009-0 1-24 toget her with data from US Census Historical Estimates AuthorBSPermission( Re using this file )See below.
We estimate that current demand for the Earth’s resources is 1.25 times what scientists believe our planet can sustain. And by the way, that’s with 6 billion people – not the 9 billion world population predicted by mid-century.
But the Living Planet Index doesn’t take into account the impact emerging economic superpowers like China and India and the role they are likely to have on global consumption of resources going forward. Once China catches up to US levels of consumption the overall demand on the Earth’s resources will equal 2 planets.
And if the rest of the world catches up with levels of consumption in the US, we will require 11 planets to meet our resource needs. We don’t have 11 planets.
Karen Van Bergen, Vice President of McDonald's Europe said, "When we were first alerted to this issue by Greenpeace, we immediately reached out to our suppliers, other NGOs and other companies to resolve this issue and take action. We are determined to do the right thing together with our suppliers and the Brazilian government, to protect the Amazon from further destruction." Greenpeace activists protest against US commodities giant Cargill, at its illegal soya export facility in the heart of the Amazon rainfores t, which supplies fast food company KFC with animal feed in Europe. They held up a banner saying ‘Cargill Out’, as rainf orest soya was being prepared for export. Big guys and little guys a nd what we have to eat , 20 June 2009 Author: Chris Knipp from Berkel ey, California The message of 'Food, Inc.' is that most of what Americ a ns now eat is produced by a handful of highly centralized mega-business es,and that this situation is detrimental to health, environment, even our very humanity. The ugly facts of animal mistreatment, food contaminati on, and government collusion are covered up by a secretive industry that wouldn't talk to the filmmakers or let the interiors of their chicken farms, cattle ranches, slaughterhouses, and meatpacking plants be filmed. Informed by the voices and outlook of bestseller authors Eric Schlosser ('Fast Food Nation') and Michael Pollen ('The Omnivore's Dilemma'), this new film is an exposé that offers some hope that things can be made better through grassroots efforts. True, Kenner points out, Monsanto, Smithfield, Perdue, et al. are rich and powerful. But so were the tobacco companies, and if Philip Morris and Reynolds could be fought successfully, so can the food industry. The fact that the vast Walmart is switching to organic foods because customers want them shows people vote effectively with their pocketbooks every time they buy a meal. Other documentaries have covered this ground before. The 2008 French documentary 'The World According to Monsanto' (2008) focused on how that company, with government support, monopolizes seed planting, and Deborah Koons' 2004 'The Future of Food' went over similar ground. Jennifer Abbott and Mark Achbar's sweeping 2003 film 'The Corporation' (2003) touched on Monsanto's monopoly too. In more general terms, the ominous, narration-free German documentary 'Our Daily Bread' (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2003) delivered 'Food, Inc.'s' message about dehumanized factory-style food production with a European focus. Richard Linklater's 2006 'Fast Food Nation' grew out of Schlosser's book about how bad and disgusting American fast food is and how it undermines the health. These are all good films, and there are and will be lots more. As this new film mentions, exploitation and malpractice in the meat industry were exposed as far back as Upton Sinclair's 1906 muckraking book, 'The Jungle.' 'Food, Inc.' is a populist and practical film that speaks with the voices of farmers, advocates, and journalists, and focuses on food, what's wrong with it, and what we can do about it. Kenner offers lots of practical information and appeals to everyday people. The film goes back to the Fifties to show how the rise of fast food contributed to centralized, less diverse American food production. MacDonald's now much of the chicken, beef, potatoes, and many other foods produced in the country. The film explains that only a handful of companies control not only most of the beef, pork, chicken, and corn produced in the US but most other food products as well. Moreover not only is corn the major feed given to food animals, but a surprising amount of the tens of thousands of products sold at today's supermarket -- that packaged junk racked in the center of the store that Atkins and now Pollen have told us to avoid, are also derived from corn. Because of the way certain food products have government support, hamburgers are cheaper than fresh vegetables. Kenner focuses on a low-income Orozcos who both work and feel forced to rely on fast food meals because they fill them and their kids more economically than fresh produce bought at the market. The new industry has developed chickens that grow bigger faster with more breast meat. They're kept in closed dark pens. The story is the same for all these poor mass produced critters, crammed together in great numbers, filled with antibiotics, deformed, suffering, ankle deep in their own excrement, brutally killed. The film has good footage of the big southern meat producer, Smithfield, showing how the new mega-food industry feeds off of exploited low-wage illegal immigrants who it treats as expendable, just like the animals. An important spokesman in 'Food, Inc.' is an organic farmer (you could just say a stubbornly old-fashioned one) called Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, who's also an author, though the movie doesn't mention his books. His cattle are grass-fed and watching them, we realize that's the way nature meant them to be. They roams free, living a healthy life, trimming back the grass while fertilizing it so it will grow back. Cattle weren't meant to live on corn, and doing so has led to infection. The industry solution to such problems is not to change back to earlier methods, but to add more chemicals. They're doing crazy things like adding bleach to hamburger filler to keep the burgers from being poison. It's hard to keep a balance in such a documentary but Kenner tries. That Hispanic family is important. Slow food and organics have been a thing of the rich, as their dilemma illustrates. There could be more focus on everyday people and their difficult daily choices. The Walmart story is important too: Walmart customers are everyday people. It's easy enough for well heeled families to buy boutique produce at farmer's markets. Average Joes don't always have the time or the money for that. Also important is Barbara Kowalcyk, who works in Washington with her mother as an advocate for stricter laws. Her 2 1/2-year-old son Kevin died in 12 days from a virulent form of E. coli after eating a hamburger on vacation. She wants not sympathy but control of an indifferent industry. Carole Morison is another vivid voice: she is a southern chicken farmer who lost her contract with Perdue for refusing to switch to dark enclosed tunnel chicken coops, the latest in a series of enforced "improvements" that lead to more production at the cost of more cruelty. She also explains how the farmers in thrall to these big companies are kept in debt like indentured servants. Armed with witty, clear graphics and ironically bright color, 'Food, Inc.' has a chance of gaining more converts to "slow," organic, local food and opponents to crooked food regulation and monopolistic industry. This seems one of the most balanced and humane treatments of the subject yet.
Radical collaboration best describes the precompetitive nature of sustainability. “ Competitors” are not only companies with competing business interests. The word can also be used to describe businesses and certain NGOs with competing interests. But just as the precompetitive nature of sustainability has brought together business rivals to work on important environmental and social issues, it has also brought companies together with NGOs who may not have always seen eye-to-eye in the past.
Radical collaboration best describes the precompetitive nature of sustainability. “ Competitors” are not only companies with competing business interests. The word can also be used to describe businesses and certain NGOs with competing interests. But just as the precompetitive nature of sustainability has brought together business rivals to work on important environmental and social issues, it has also brought companies together with NGOs who may not have always seen eye-to-eye in the past.
FastCompany #47 Good Guide BY Danielle Sacks February 17, 2010 Image courtesy of Good Guide Horizon Organic Milk has a worse environmental track record than Nesquik Strawberry Milk? Nature's Gate Baby Soothing Shampoo is more toxic than Suave for Kids 2 in 1 Shampoo? These and other shocking facts about the products around us -- from household cleaners to toys to food -- are being drilled into consumers thanks to GoodGuide, a startup founded by Dara O'Rourke, a professor of environmental and labor policy at the University of California, Berkeley. O'Rourke set out to sift through the health, environmental, and social profiles of everyday products and the companies that manufacture them, distilling hundreds of pieces of data into a simple 10-point rating system accessible on goodguide.com and a bar-cod e-scanning iPhone app. So far, his team has rated 75,000. "Our goal is to first inform the public," says O'Rourke, "but ultimately it's to improve the products -- reduce toxic chemicals, sweatshop labor, carbon and water impact -- and change company behavior." It's working: Companies such as Clorox, Method, and SC Johnson are looking for help with their ratings, so GoodGuide is launching a Manufacturer's Portal with data it collects on supply chains. :// www.fastcompany.com/mic/201 0/profile/good-guide
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