THE HANDSTAND

june 2005

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk

General Enquiries sam@i-sis.org.uk Website/Mailing List press-release@i-sis.org.uk ISIS Director m.w.ho@i- sis.org.uk

ISIS Press Release: plus Conference Programme and special attendance offer if prior to July 1st.
The international panel of speakers will reveal the wealth of existing knowledge for making our food systems sustainable, as well as the structural and policy changes necessary for implementing the knowledge.

A gathering of some of the world's top talents in science, politics and economics to focus on sustainable food systems, to provide food security for all and ameliorate the worst excesses of global warming

Sustainable World is a Global Initiative launched by the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) and the Independent Science Panel (ISP) on 6 April 2005 ( http://www.i- sis.org.uk/SustainableWorldInitiativeF.php ).

Sustainable World Global Initiative Update

World crops yields have been falling for three successive years as temperatures soar, and water and oil - on which industrial monoculture are heavily dependent - are both rapidly diminishing. The day of reckoning has come for the "environmental bubble economy" built on the unsustainable exploitation of our natural resources. The task of turning our food production system sustainable must be addressed at "war-time" speed.

Unfortunately, our elected representatives are committed to the neo-liberal economic model that created the "bubble-economy" in the first place. They lack the wisdom and the political will to make the structural and policy changes necessary for implementing the wealth of existing knowledge that not only could make our food production system sustainable, but would also ameliorate the worst excesses of global warming and provide food security for all.

The Sustainable World Global Initiative, launched by the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) and the Independent Science Panel (ISP) on 6 April 2005, presents a unique opportunity for prominent scientists across the disciplines to join forces with all sectors of civil society in a bid to make our food production system sustainable. Since our launch, the experts are predicting that global warming is set to do far worse damage to global food production than "even the gloomiest of previous forecasts."¹

Please join us now if you haven’t yet done so, by signing up as a sponsor here:
http://www.i- sis.org.uk/SustainableWorldInitiativeF.php
We need the widest representation from civil society.

We are convening a special ISP group on Sustainable Agriculture (ISP-SA) plus a task force of sponsoring organizations and individuals who will make direct input into a comprehensive report on sustainable agriculture at the end of a year. The report will include a series of recommendations for government and inter- governmental agencies on the social, economic and political policy and structural changes needed to implement a sustainable food production system. It will form the basis of a concerted worldwide campaign.

The Independent Science Panel (ISP) membership was 19 strong at launch. The three new members are: economist Martin Khor (director of Third World Network based in Penang, Malaysia) a famous spokesperson and commentator at the World Trade Organisation; soil scientist Dr. Ingrid Hartman (resource management researcher at Humboldt University, Germany), member of many important international committees and networks; and agronomist and farmer Dr. Per Kølster (board member of Practical Ecology, Denmark). A nomination has just been received for Dr. Bruce Pearce, research scientist at Elm Farm to join the ISP, and nominations are awaited from the New Economics Foundation and HDRA Organics. These are major research organisations that have a great deal to offer the ISP.

Some important sponsoring organisations came on board at the last minute, among them, The Soil Association and the New Economics Foundation (both UK), and Yoko Civilization Research Institute (Japan), making a total of 15 so far. An original sponsoring organisation, Fondation pour une Terre Humaine, Switzerland, has become a partner for the initiative, and is offering us funding on a three- year rolling basis. Also since the launch, the Weston A. Price Foundation based in the United States - a highly regarded whole foods organisation - has joined us, as has Konphalindo (the National Consortium for Forests and Nature Conservation in Indonesia). Konphalindo is one of the pioneers in advocating the precautionary principle in genetic engineering and appropriate regulatory framework for biosafety; it also advocates and facilitates the movement for sustainable agriculture through education, workshops and publication.

Dr. Caroline Lucas Member of European Parliament - a prominent spokesperson against globalisation and other issues - is among the 13 new individual sponsors, many of whom organic farmers.

Our launch was reproduced in the Handstand, an online magazine (www.handstand.org), and in straightgoods.com, said to be "Canada’s leading independent online newsmagazine".

International Conference
July 14th - 15th 2005
Second Announcement

Some of the world's top talents in science, politics and economics will focus on sustainable food systems, to provide food security and health for all and ameliorate global warming

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher - Mae-Wan Ho - Michael Meacher MP - Martin Khor - Alan Simpson MP - Caroline Lucas MEP - David Woodward - David Hywel Davis - Margi Lenartsson - Erkki Lähde - Peter Bunyard - Ingrid Hartman - Hira Jhamtani - Hannu Hyvönen

Times and venues *note changes from first announcement* :
14 July (16:00h – 19:00h; Atlee Suite, House of Commons, Westminster, London
Conference dinner (19:30 to 22:00; RAF Club, 128 Piccadilly W1J 7PJ)
15 July (9:00h - 17:00h; Small Meeting House, Friend's House, 173 Euston Road, London, opposite Euston tube station)
Registration
Register online: http://www.i- sis.org.uk/Swreg.php
For more information : Peter Saunders: 44- (0)20-7848-2218 or Rhea Gala: 44-(0)1994- 231-623

We are extending the special offer for all other attendees registering before July 1

There will be a 20% surcharge for those registering after July 1

Registration Fees for the conference are waived for Friends of ISIS, and half-price for Sustainable World sponsors.

Programme

July 14

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher

President of Sustainable World Global Initiative, Head of Environment Protection Authority, Ethiopia, chief spokesperson for the African Union on biosafety and the protection of plant genetic resources.

Sustainable World, a Global Initiative for Food Sovereignty and Food Security

Mae-Wan Ho

Director of Sustainable World , pioneer of a new physics of organisms and sustainable systems, well known critic of GM crops and genetic determinism

Sustainable Food Systems for Sustainable Development

Michael Meacher

Member of Parliament, UK, ex-Environment Minister negotiating the Biosafety Protocol, Kyoto Protocol and other important international treaties, champion of green issues and independent science, Sustainable World sponsor

Policies for Food and Sustainable Systems, National and Global

Martin Khor

Director of Third World Network, Malaysia, Sustainable World partner, prominent spokesperson for the Third World at the World Trade Organisation

How Globalisation Stands in the Way of a Sustainable World

Alan Simpson

Member of Parliament, UK, leading voice in debates about a sustainable future, from ending fuel poverty to food justice, voted “Environmental Politician of the Year”, Sustainable World sponsor

Food and Energy Security: Local Systems, Global Solidarity

July 15

Caroline Lucas

Member of European Parliament, prominent spokesperson against GMOs and globalisation and champion of important green issues, Sustainable World sponsor

How the European Union Can Pave the Way to a Sustainable World

David Woodward

Director of Global and National Economies Programme at New Economics Foundation, UK, Sustainable World sponsor

The New Economics and Sustainable Food Systems

David Hywel Davies

Distinguished, much published physician, specialising in child development, cardiology and nutrition, Weston A. Price Foundation, Sustainable World sponsor

Foods, Sustainable Agriculture, and Coronary Disease of the Young

Erkki Lähde

Finland's foremost forester, Union of Ecoforestry, Finland, Sustainable World sponsor

Multiple Uses of Forests; Experience in Finland

Margi Lennartsson

ISP member, chief scientist of HDRA Organics, UK, Sustainable World sponsor

Sustainable Organic Agriculture for Britain and the Third World

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher

(see above)

Organic Agriculture as a National Strategy for Food Security

Ingrid Hartman

Humboldt University, Germany, Member of UN Steering Committee of Nutrition, the African Ecological Economic Society and German-Ethiopian Association for the promotion of cultural exchange and academic and economic collaborations

Soil, Climate, Productivity and Environmental Justice

Peter Bunyard

Science editor and a founding editor of The Ecologist , author of numerous books and articles and much sought-after speaker on climate change and nuclear energy, Fellow of the Linnean Society

Saving the Amazon Rainforest and Sustainable Use

Hira Jhamtani

Board member of Konphalindo, Indonesia, Sustainable World sponsor, pioneer in advocating the precautionary principle in genetic engineering and appropriate regulatory framework for biosafety, also advocates and facilitates sustainable agriculture

Water Conservation and Seed Saving for Sustainable Agriculture in Indonesia

Hannu Hyvönen

Northern Heritage, Finland, Sustainable World sponsor

The Importance of Seed Heritage

http://www.indsp.org/

Announcing an Important Scientific Publication

Sustainable Systems as Organisms?

The authors Mae-Wan Ho and Robert Ulanowicz present a new conceptual model for understanding sustainable systems as organisms that is opposed to the dominant model of unlimited growth. It is a breakthrough to understanding energy relationships in living systems that updates the ecological approach of Eugene and Howard Odum.

"It is the most important scientific paper I have written in my life so far," says Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, " and I owe it to my co-author Robert Ulanowicz."

Abstract

Schrödinger (1944) marvelled at how the organism is able to use metabolic energy to maintain and even increase its organisation, which could not be understood in terms of classical statistical thermodynamics. Ho (1993, 1998a) outlined a novel "thermodynamics of organized complexity" based on a nested dynamical structure that enables the organism to maintain its organisation and simultaneously achieve non-equilibrium and equilibrium energy transfer at maximum efficiency. This thermodynamic model of the organism is reminiscent of the dynamical structure of steady state ecosystems identified by Ulanowicz (1983, 2003).

The healthy organism excels in maintaining its organisation and keeping away from thermodynamic equilibrium – death by another name – and in reproducing and providing for future generations. In those respects, it is the ideal sustainable system. We propose therefore to explore the common features between organisms and ecosystems, to see how far we can analyse sustainable systems in agriculture, ecology and economics as organisms, and to extract indicators of the system’s health or sustainability.

We find that looking at sustainable systems as organisms provides fresh insights on sustainability, and offers diagnostic criteria for sustainability that reflect the system’s health.

In the case of ecosystems, those diagnostic criteria of health translate into properties such as biodiversity and productivity, the richness of cycles, the efficiency of energy use and minimum dissipation. In the case of economic systems, they translate into space-time differentiation or organised heterogeneity, local autonomy and sufficiency at appropriate levels, reciprocity and equality of exchange, and most of all, balancing the exploitation of natural resources – real input into the system - against the ability of the ecosystem to regenerate itself.

Get the full paper here: http://www.i- sis.org.uk/onlinestore/papers1.php#229