<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><font><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">This is slightly at the margins of the interests and mission of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Working Group, but since I circulated Dr. Vandana Shiva's article earlier and a number of people sent me positive comments, I'm passing along this essay by James Gustave Speth entitled </span><b>"</b></font>5 Reasons Why Prioritizing Growth Is Bad
Policy<font><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">."<br><br></span></span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Speth quotes from a book by <span>historian J. R.
McNeill entitled </span><span>
<span><i>Something New Under the Sun</i> in which McNeill writes that t</span>he "growth fetish" solidified its hold on
imaginations and institutions in the twentieth century: <br><br>"Communism aspired
to become the universal creed of the twentieth century, but a more flexible and
seductive religion succeeded where communism failed: the quest for economic
growth. Capitalists, nationalists -- indeed almost everyone, communists
included -- worshiped at this same altar because economic growth disguised a
multitude of sins. ... Social, moral, and ecological ills were sustained in the
interest of economic growth; indeed, adherents to the faith proposed that only
more growth could resolve such ills. Economic growth became the indispensable
ideology of the state nearly everywhere."<br><br></span></span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span>In his essay, Speth suggests some alternatives.<br><br>
</span></span></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><font><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">CHUCK</span></font><br>
</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span><br></div><div><div dir="ltr"><i><font size="1"><span style="color:rgb(153,0,0)">============================<br>
CHUCK SEARCY<br>71 Tran Quoc Toan, Hanoi, Vietnam<br>Mobile: � � �+84 (0) 903 420 769<br>Email: � � � � <a href="mailto:chuckusvn@gmail.com" target="_blank">chuckusvn@gmail.com</a><br>Skype: �� � � chucksearcy<br>============================</span><br>
</font></i></div></div>
</div>