The danger of trying to assure safe food by imposing limits to pollution is also the danger implied in the assessment of the risks accompanying this pollution. This danger is described in a paragraph of the article : "Ethical Hazards of Risk Assessment" by Peter Montague : "But risk assessment is now embedded in our environmental laws at the federal and state levels in a way that guarantees that the "rights" of industrial poisoners will be protected by the apparatus of the state while citizens will be first disempowered and then physically harmed by the risk assessors' work. Risk assessors are now in the position of the conductors and engineers who kept the trains running on time to the death camps in Nazi Germany to minimize discomfort to their passengers --they are just doing a job, honorably and to the best of their ability, but the final result of every professional risk assessor's work is the destruction of the natural environment, one decision at a time, and the relentless spread of sickness throughout the human and wildlife populations." The complete article is presented at the ZERO web site. What could further happen when production continues close to the crisis limits of pollution? Because of the increasing sophistication and refinement of pollutants in their effects on genes and cells, any pollution beyond the crisis limit could wipe out the population in particular sections of a town, over a period that might shorten in time. These pollutants could also blind this population or deform them either mentally or physically otherwise, over the same period. Such pollution could be turned into leaks and become arms in fights between gangs, cartels or groups formed by different criteria than the previous two. "La guerre des boutons" serait devenue la guerre des ordures. There does not seem to be another theory, to pull producers away from the officially accepted levels of pollution and to assure safe food, according to the words of Klaus T�pfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme and formerly Germany's Environment Minister. In the "Newsweek" of September 27, 1999, an interview with Mr. T�pfer is presented on the last page, 76. He describes the ecological crisis as worsening globally. He ends his description with : "Postponing action is no longer an option". His answer to the question : "What kind of action is needed?" is : "We need much more comprehensive, integrated policymaking." "International Institutions, governments, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, the scientific community - they must learn to work more closely." These are the words of someone who does not know a solution to a problem. When a solution is known, policies are applied in practises, such as the management of the costs of living. All these organisations then automatically work closely to apply the solution globally, out of necessity.know the theory that offers a solution. In "Le Monde" of the week-end of 6 and 7 November, 1999 an article indicates that experiments in the European Union supported by the European Commission demonstrate that harvests deminish with 80 grammes per square meter, every time the number of diverse specimen is divided by two. The management of the costs of living would enhance biodiversity because every difference among produce could have a commercial value in maintaining the integrity of human nature. This consequence is further explained at the ZERO web site. WASHINGTON, DC, November 12, 1999 (ENS) - Renewable energy and energy efficiency are the common elements in four new projects approved in October by the U.S. Initiative on Joint Implementation. This agency works internationally to encourage the broader use of energy efficiency, new technologies, and sustainable development with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas production and preventing global warming. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999 Without a demand for products produced with these new technologies, the encouragement will lack for producers to apply these ecological technologies. - This was demonstrated in the case of "Van Leer's Vatenfabriek", in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. They had bought an invention to make plastics biodegradable to a certain degree. They could not sell the plastic made with it, because no utiliser wanted to pay the higher price to recover the investment made in the invention and to recover the costs to search for and to develop the tools and techniques to produce this biodegradable plastic. - Producers have no interests to apply ecological technologies or to search for them, as long as they cannot pass the costs of research and development on to the consumer. A sustained demand from consumers managing their costs of living will raise the interest of producers to apply and to search for ecological technologies. The first ones to offer products made with these new technologies would be able to conquer a large part of the market of these consumers. The capacity to deduct costs from taxable income makes the consumer able to assume, with his and her income, responsibility for the integrity of human nature of this and following generations. Consumers would share this accounting capacity with producers. The socio-economic power would be shared among the social power of income of producers, Yang and the economic power of expense of consumers, Yin. I asked the speakers at the conference "La securit� alimentaire" for their support of the "Bahia project". Would you be good to express your support for the "Bahia project" ? You can get to it at the ZERO web site : http://freezone.exmachina.net/ZERO, via the table of contents of the English text. "An ecological version of the free market economy" presents the essentials of the management of the costs of living. Brussels, November 25, 1999 W.A. de Bruyn With sincerity and its feeling, Wim A. de Bruyn Founder ZERO, association of consumers maintaining their integrity with their income 45 rue Alfred Giron B-1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel. : **32 (2) 648 56 95 e-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] ZERO web site : http://freezone.exmachina.net/ZERO
