Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Guest Post -- On the Production Focus
Here's my pet story on the production focus: suppose the biodiesel initiative takes off. So every village starts growing Jatropha trees and there will be these small rural economies that "produce" oil. If this is cost-effective (and it seems to be, according to a recent report from Coimbatore), we will have moved away from oil being dug up to oil being produced. The notion of oil as a natural resource changes quite drastically here. No more bombing to get oil, because oil becomes like wine, and that means nurturing communities to get at the natural resource.
This idea of producing natural resources can solve the water-harvesting issue as well. Coke and Pepsi should be asked to "produce" their water (using desalination, the idea originates here: digging up natural resources should not be an option. Such a move would focus on production, but will also generate employment. However, as Atanu says, the employment is a side effect of the focus on production.
This is not a new notion, BTW. We have done this with the paper industry, they have to "produce" their raw material from captive plantations. We are now planning to farm fish, because there is a shortage of fish in the ocean. If production of natural resources works for these industries, why not apply the same to oil and water, which are getting scarce?
The interesting point here is the idea of production being extended to natural resources, which are usually considered a pre-conditions for economic activity. More generally, the notion of a passive entity (a resource) is replaced with the notion of an active process. This move is in line with developments in physics (particles considered as processes)and biology the dynamic systems view). The difference here is that it is not a theoretical shift, but a practical one.
By Sanjay. Comments?
This idea of producing natural resources can solve the water-harvesting issue as well. Coke and Pepsi should be asked to "produce" their water (using desalination, the idea originates here: digging up natural resources should not be an option. Such a move would focus on production, but will also generate employment. However, as Atanu says, the employment is a side effect of the focus on production.
This is not a new notion, BTW. We have done this with the paper industry, they have to "produce" their raw material from captive plantations. We are now planning to farm fish, because there is a shortage of fish in the ocean. If production of natural resources works for these industries, why not apply the same to oil and water, which are getting scarce?
The interesting point here is the idea of production being extended to natural resources, which are usually considered a pre-conditions for economic activity. More generally, the notion of a passive entity (a resource) is replaced with the notion of an active process. This move is in line with developments in physics (particles considered as processes)and biology the dynamic systems view). The difference here is that it is not a theoretical shift, but a practical one.
By Sanjay. Comments?
