Environment

Sri Lanka is in the midst of arguably the worst economic crisis during its 74-year post-independence era, with its political and social stability strained to almost breaking point. One facet of this crisis is shown in the Sri Lankan agriculture sector, which is trying to recover from the self-inflicted wounds of a misguided policy of overnight conversion to exclusively organic agriculture (EOA). The author analyzes the background that led to such an ambitious, but unrealistic, venture and describes its wide-ranging repercussions, which have put the country’s food security and farmer livelihoods under serious threat.

As the world’s third largest economy, Japan is Asia’s biggest packaging waste producer. Due to its comprehensive waste management system, Japan ranks high in the plastic management index, but plastic reduction and reuse remain a challenge. Places like Kamikatsu, working towards a zero waste economy, show the way.

The ETC group reviews the process of technology assessment (TA) – an inclusive corrective to policymaking on new and emerging technologies. It involves people’s informed views on long-term common good, to replace top-down and opaque decision-making processes by power players.

Sagari Ramdas shows how agribusiness use big tech and big data to fulfil their ‘sustainability goals’ from indigenous Adivasi farmers of Andhra Pradesh, India. It turns out to be a case of exploitation in the name of sustainability.

Even with unprecedented global investment and effort by some of the world’s most expert professional genetic engineers trained in the task of taming SARS-COV2, it is clear that just one virus continues to surprise and outwit humans’ best attempts to control biology and that social divisions are increasing as a consequence. Here we explore what other technologies would-be molecular manipulators are developing as part of their ongoing mission for human mastery.