True Cost Meme

2013/04/102013/04/10

John Robb: The Future of Food — Total Transparency & The Beginning of True Cost Economics

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, Liberation Technology, True Cost Meme

Here's How to Build a More Resilient Food System…

By John Robb

Want to get a glimpse of the future of food?

This is the page from Gulf Wild program. When you buy a fish that has a Gulf Wild ID number on it, you can find out everything about it.

Simply enter this ID number on their website or (cell phone) and it will provide you with:

The bio and history of the fisherman who caught the fish.
What the fish is, where the fish was caught (with a map) down to 10 miles, and when it was caught.
Info on fishing practices (e.g. was it caught as part of a sustainable fisheries program?).

NOTE: Canada has a similar program called “This Fish”

I believe we're going to see programs like this for all of the food (and an increasing number of products) we buy, from meats to vegetables.

Why? Info like this is addicting. Once you get it, you want it on everything.

Fortunately, it's also really easy to put a service like this together for local producers, and that's a good thing.

Here's why: This type of insight would positively differentiate fresh, high quality local produce from the generic products of indefinite age, quality, and origin we get from the global industrial system.

That would be a good thing, since it would help make local food more plentiful and that makes us ALL more resilient.

Resiliently Yours,
JOHN ROBB

2010/06/26

The “True Cost” of the World Cup

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 07 Other Atrocities, Corporations, True Cost, True Cost Meme, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

The costs of hosting the World Cup in South Africa were said to be justified by the economic growth that the event was supposed to generate. Expenses are expected to surpass original estimates by 757 percent. The expected growth in infrastructure and small local businesses has not come close to offsetting the funds that have been diverted from long-term priorities such as healthcare and education. FIFA and international corporate sponsors such as McDonald's and Coca Cola are the biggest beneficiaries of the event with much of the local South African population unable to even attend the matches.

By Liepollo Lebohang PhekoAlterNet June 22, 2010

When South Africa was announced as the host for FIFA's premier event, justifications of the cost were made on the basis that it would grow the local economy, provide opportunities for small and local business, act as a buffer against the economic meltdown, that it would contribute to the urban regeneration programs of the major cities particularly Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town and bring smaller cities closer to the center of economic and social activity. It was vaunted in fact as a great expression of the so called Rainbow Nation to bridge social, economic and political interests.

Here is the reality: The trade unions have been instructed not to strike for the duration of the World Cup even though some of the concerns are from exploited construction workers who helped build the stadiums; the matches are not accessible to most local people due to relative remoteness and prohibitive cost; an unofficial ‘blind eye' has been turned to human trafficking and the victimization of sex workers leading up to World Cup; and while welcoming the world with open arms, South Africa's sometimes shameful behavior towards other Africans is rearing its head with reports of renewed hostility towards Mozambicans, Senegalese, Zimbabwean and Somali refugees, professionals and business people. Frankly the government was asking a lot from a small leather soccer ball to resolve the country's complex social dilemmas.

Soccer is historically the sport of the black working class majority and it is this majority who have greatest need of any benefits derived from this event. Unemployment stands at over 40% and youth unemployment stands at nearly 70%.

The almost R800 billion (US$107 billion) set aside for infrastructure development in roads, airports, highways and stadiums, is many times the amount spent on the World Cups by Korea and Japan (2002) or Germany (2006). Despite a comparatively positive economic environment, return on investment for those countries has been negligible. Today's climate is much less favorable for South Africa. The total cost of South Africa's hosting the World Cup still remains to be seen.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

2009/09/092009/09/10

Event Report: 9 Sep 09 GMU N Va Economic Liberty Series

Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Policies, Reform, True Cost Meme

Mr. Rockwell is a very gracious and well-spoken person. He delivered a prepared speech that will be posted online by the Ludwig von Mises Institute at some point. Our bottom line up front: the hard-core Libertarians are a one-trick-pony with an obsessive focus on one thing and one thing only: all against the State. Sadly, despite a great deal of hand waving about Austrian economists, there is not much in the way of economic reflection visible, and the gentlemen was specifically unable to address a question about a natural alliance between the Libertarians armed with scarcity-centered Austrian economics, and the Greens, armed with Ecological Economics, Natural Capitalism, and “true cost” accounting; nor was he able to engage with a subsequent question on a natural alliance with those interested in Evolutionary Living.

Mr. Rockwell, who served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Ron Paul and is now Chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute at a time when it is experiencing extraordinary growth and drawing a great deal of attention, sought to do several things with his planned remarks:

Continue reading “Event Report: 9 Sep 09 GMU N Va Economic Liberty Series”

2009/08/312009/08/31

Journal: True Cost of Hybrids, Dumb Government

03 Economy, 05 Energy, Commerce, Earth Intelligence, Government, True Cost Meme

Steve Gorman

Sun Aug 30, 2009

As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods. . . . . . . .Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed.

Phi Beta Iota: The peresistent refusal of the White House and Congress in particular, all governments in general, to create strategic centers that can provide unclassified decision-support in the context of a strategic analytic model that embraces “true cost” accounting and “cross-policy cost harmonization” means that the USA in particular, and all governments generally, are “dumb” and are therefore in automatic betrayal of the public trust. Current references: Intelligence for Everyone; Fixing the White House; Human Intelligence; The Ultimate Hack.

2009/07/232010/05/13

The “true cost” meme as established by Paul Hawken and other leaders in ecological economics (such as Herman Daly) is an analytic concept that is embraced by Phi Beta Iota and should be clearly understood by all who wish to associate with or claim affiliation with Phi Beta Iota.

Exxon, to take one example, did not “earn” $40 billion in profits in 2007. It externalized $12 in costs for every $3 gallon of gasoline it sold in the USA (and equivalent amounts everywhere else). In other words, Exxon's leadership oversaw the theft of $40 billion in just one year of Earth resources and services, including clean air and water, stealing this money from the public commonwealth and future generations. Since changes to the Earth that used to take 10,000 years now take three years, the public urgently needs to achieve a World Brain and EarthGameTM so as to “get a grip” on “true costs” at every level in every clime and place.

War is a form of theft as well–its steals blood, treasure, and spirit from the commonwealth of nations, while enriching the few at the expense of the money. General Smedley Butler, in his time the most decorated Marine in hitory, has denounced the use of the military as “enforcers” for banks that make bad investments and corporations that aspire to loot emerging communities that lack the ability to resist organized predators. Here also public intelligence in the public interst is the ethical, legal, non-violent means of confronting, resisting, and ultimately vanquishing those who seek to destroy and deprive.

Phi Beta Iota explicitly and passionately subscribes to the principles of non-violence as so ably represented by Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela, among others. Public intelligence in the public interest is how we ethically, legally, and peacefully achieve “truth & reconciliation” among all individuals, groups, and organizations.

The related memes of “biomimicry,” “green to gold,” “cradle to cradle,” “zero waste,” and “sustainable design” are helpful in crafting solutions, but the immediate and continuing public intelligence challenge–the challenge that Phi Beta Iota and its affiliated human minds strives to address–is the credible, documented, replicable calculation of the “true cost” of each and every product and service on the planet.

Examples of “true cost” include, for a designer cotton blouse with high-tech color designs:

hundreds if not thousands of liters of water (e.g. from Bangladesh in growing cotton)
toxic chemicals in the coloration and cleansing
sweatshop labor including child disease and mortality
tax avoidance