Plastic pollution from traditional, petroleum-based plastic has become a global problem.
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Personal Remarks
Bioplastics is the little brother of biofuels / biodiesels.
In the US, biofuels and biodiesels were initially promoted for economic rather than for ecological reasons.
It was politically interesting in certain states to give money to US farmers instead of Middle-Eastern Oil Sheikhs.
Let me re-phrase this – it was electorally interesting for politicians to give a bit of the money allocated to “oil used for transport” to US farmers …. which to some extend could be perceived as a noble cause
However, one must read between the lines. We’re not talking about the small farmers here; we’re talking about Agro-Industrial concerns.
I invite you to watch the “Super Size Me 2” documentary that explains the “chicken industry maffia” in the US.
Smaller chicken farmers are exploited and kept just above the water by bigger agro-industrial concerns who control the money.
We must be careful that those practices doesn’t apply to other types of farming….which is probably already the case worldwide
Coming back to giving money to US farmers, the “biofuels and bioplastics” highways face two major dilemma …
- How do you make sure that the small farmer will benefit more than the agro-industrial concerns?
- How do you move from “intensive farming” to “sustainable farming”?
Sustainable farming means that we make agriculture more “human” (smaller scale) and less “industrial” (agro-indiustrial scale). You should read this article: Sustainable vs Intensive Farming
One of the major element of sustainable farming is to let the farmland and soils rest, one year every three of four years…. a bit like they did in the Middle-Ages.
Because Ladies and Gentlemen, our soils and farmlands are dying physically, biologically and chemically due to intensive agriculture.
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Local Starts in Super Bowl ad promoting bioplastics