slash and burn is alive and well, yes, so are forest fires, grass fires, peat fires, oil fires, it doesn't make slash and burn for the production of biofuels okay. Slash and burn makes the problem of green house gas emissions from production of dedicated plantings worse than they already are and puts them well into the range beyond oil and gas.
Serious structural changes are necessary. Not just in Haiti, or third world countries in general, but across the spectrum, from Britain to Bangladesh, from Cameroon to Canada, from DC to Darfur.
We can learn to live within our various energy budgets, nothing new, we've been told to understand budgeting and abide by it since high school.
Recognize the need for, and develop the will to, recognize when we are being subsidized by environmental degradation, social inequity, and resource depletion.
We in the developed world are the more likely to have surpluses that can be sent where it is needed rather than the other way around. Coffee is not a surplus to a country where starvation has become a way of life. Fair trade pays enough for products so that third world countries can redirect their agriculture to firstly ensure food for it's own people.
Serious structural change can take many forms. Coming to terms with energy, and ethical limitations might allow us to look beyond them instead of forcing them into a large brick wall.+
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