I think we should invite a plant physiologist to come to ETHOS to explain why we should not focus on getting people to grow their own fuel. Plants are living things. In the first place they are not very efficient at all in catching the energy in sun light. But what they do catch they put mostly into metabolism and reproduction. Like us animals. That is why we eat seeds. They are loaded with energy that the plant put there for their young to use until the little ones can photosynthesize for themselves. Mammals use the mother's milk Plants use their seeds. (Some animals, not mammals, use eggs for reproduction. So we eat eggs.)
If you are rural and poor and have a little land and sufficient water, you will almost certainly want to grow food itself rather than fire wood. no? Fire wood is very demanding of land area. You can be clever and minimize it. This species that species. but it is land expensive. Because the part of the plant you burn for fuel is not important to the plant, except to support its leaves. so the plant puts minimal energy there. If growing fuel wood is going to be taken seriously, it should be a government task. Local or national government. Centralize it. Do it big and well on land that individual families don't need to grow food itself. do it on land that is difficult to use for other things. On the sides of hills. someplace useless. someplace rocky. Make it a campaign in the Global Alliance's "enabling environment". Funny, but the problem is that people cook so much. What we need are more species of plants and animals that produce parts that we could find nourishing and tasty and desirable without cooking at all. Damn it. Why do we have to heat up food so much? Maybe soak the food in some liquid like fruit juice or spices some natural acid for all day and then serve it. I know cooking has a very significant role in make food culturally and physiologically acceptable. But If only we could find more foods that were good for us, culturally and physiologically, but eaten raw. That would be real stove progress. I personally like to eat almost all vegetables raw. even beans and corn. I don't know if I am throwing away a lot of their nutrition, though. Bob Lange Maasai stoves and solar.
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