Rainforest devil to environmental angel? Not quite, but...
Submitted by Dick Wanner on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 2:57pm.
Blairo "Chainsaw-Hands" Maggi is governor of the Brazilian state of Matto Grosso, one of that country's - and the world's - largest soybean growers, and the object of much venomous comment from environmentalists. When he became governor, deforestation projects that turnedrainforest into crop or grazing land accelerated significantly.
Maggi doesn't much like being advised on the environmental impact his operations have on the Amazonian and world climate. He especially doesn't like it when Brazilian-ownedsatellites peer down on his soybean acres from space.
But he recently called a meeting with growers, government officials and various NGOs to talk about global warming and to discuss how market-based tactics might help slow harvests in one of the world's biggest and mostenvironmentally sensitive forested regions.
Basically, he wants people from around the world to pay Brazilian farmers and ranchers to be stewards of the trees. And he wants to see more farmers and fewer ranchers. And he'd like to see more farmers and fewer ranchers. Maggi points out that only about 8 percent of Matto Grasso is given over to agriculture, and about a quarter of that acreage is taken up by ranchland that produces one cow per hectare per year.
Use that land for crops, he said, and farmers wouldn't need to clear more land for fields.
News of Maggi's conference appeared in a recent edition of The Economist. You can read the article here: http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13496075
Cooking for cash. Got milk? Cheese? Cream? Yogurt? Cup cheese? Here's a thought - send in your favorite cup cheese recipe to Anne Harnish for her June Dairy Month recipe contest, and if she doesn't print it I'll blog it. I'll also eat it. (This part of the deal is only open to people that I have never in my whole life actually met, talked to on the phone or communicated with by email.) Anne is giving out cash for winning recipes. If you've got a good recipe that uses real, genuine dairy products, you could maybe win some of that cash. Your recipe needs to be postmarked by June 16 to be considered. You can read more about the contest in our current issue.
Einstein lives! And he's a real bird. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G9fkvBzzQE
