8 People’s Economy and Ecodesign- Proutist Economic Development

The purpose of this presentation is to give some practical examples of how people's economy might function in the future.

P R Sarkar said: "In drafting the economic plan of a particular region, local engineers, economists, scientists, professionals, technicians, farmers, industrial labourers, intellectuals and other specialists should be consulted ... "

The above quote of Sarkar includes a wide range of skilled persons in the drafting of an economic plan - not just economists. Why? Because people's economy is mostly about community design. And design requires people with diverse skills - such as practical, technical, creative, analytical and synthetic thinkers and doers

People's economy can be seen in the development of urban agriculture in Cuba over the past decade. The Green Team with the  Australian Conservation Foundation also promotes this concept.  The ‘teikei’ cooperatives in Japan are another example.  Teikei are agreements set up between groups of farmers and city households where farmers sell organic produce directly to the households and the households give an advance guarantee that they will buy what the farmers produce.  Recently the idea of Teikei has taken off in Europe and the United States where it is known as “Community Supported Agriculture”. There are now more than 1000 CSA farms in the United States. 

A prolific example of people's economy is the green pharmacy concept which has been developed in Cuba and in projects in Brazil. The Future Vision Eco-village in Brazil operates on the slogan "prosperity through bio-economics". It is a community development project that demonstrates Prout's economic principles in action. See the website at: www.visaofuturo.org.br.  In Cuba, the green pharmacy concept has been integrated into the country's health system.

The ZERI foundation is another excellent example of economic design in harmony with nature. The philosophy of this group is that the wastes from one enterprise should become the input to another. Thus there is no leakage of waste outside the local area - everything is recycled. The ZERI idea is to cluster enterprises that have the possibility to form a closed cycle. ZERI have several projects operating in Columbia.

One of ZERI's Columbian projects is to increase the efficiency and decrease the waste from a coffee plantation. Typically coffee waste is difficult to deal with because it is not easily bio-degradable due to high caffeine content. However the group has found a means to treat the waste and increase grower's revenue at the same time.

The system employs the recycling of nutrients and wastes within a coffee plantation. The coffee waste is used to grow shiitake mushrooms which fetch a high price in the market. The mushrooms have a capacity to break down the coffee waste and make it digestible for cows and pigs. Cows provide milk and pigs provide meat for the grower who also has two products to sell. In addition, manure from the animals fuels a biogas digester which provides the heat to support the mushrooms.

ZERI have other projects in South America. For example, it works with universities and student to develop a pollution and waste free method to recover the aluminium foil from drink cartons. As well, ZERI and Paolo Lugari have been instrumental in reafforestation projects in Columbia.  See the website at: www.zeri.org.

The idealised ZERI economy is one in which the only new inputs are various forms of energy, such as sunlight or wind energy; and the only excess output is heat. Everything else is recycled within the economy.  So, internally there is a self-sufficient balanced economy.

An important new concept spreading around the world is "resource productivity". It is to be compared with labour productivity. The industrial revolution of the 19th century was all about increasing labour productivity by combining workers with machines. The increase in labour productivity has been phenomenal. It is not hard to imagine a day when very few workers could provide most of human needs. Recently, the information revolution has increased and diversified information.  But our use of natural resources is still very wasteful. A recent book, "Natural Capitalism", declares that the second industrial revolution is about to take place and it will dramatically increase resource productivity.  This is a resource revolution.

Resource taxes to ensure efficient use of resources at the point of production would help to accelerate an increase in resource productivity and would increase the value of natural resources relative to labour. It is sensible to suggest that this, in turn, would make labour relatively cheaper and so help to lower unemployment.