Tale of two approaches

Bhutan is now famous for the term GNH or 'gross natural happiness' coined by its ruler. Called the poster child of sustainable development, more than 95 per cent of its population has access to clean water and electricity and live in perfect harmony with nature. With 80 per cent of its land forested, Bhutan is the only country that is near carbon neutral and food secure. To add to its happiness basket, Bhutan has decided to become the first country in the world to turn its agriculture completely organic, banning the sales of pesticides and herbicides and relying on its own animals and farm waste for fertilisers. Being predominantly a Buddhist country, living in harmony with nature is part of its spiritual and cultural heritage. The government expects to grow organic food for its 1.2 million people and export the surplus.  

Elsewhere across the globe there is a contrasting phenomenon spreading wings. Called "land grabbing," this practice can put strain on land and water resources in impoverished countries where the land, and water, is being "grabbed" for commercial-scale agriculture. A new study by the University of Virginia and the Polytechnic University of Milan, and currently published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the first global quantitative assessment of the water-grabbing phenomenon, which has intensified in the last four years largely in response to a 2007-08 increase in world food prices. Countries most active in foreign land acquisition are located in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. Overall, about 60 percent of the total grabbed water is appropriated, through land grabbing, by companies in the United States, United Arab Emirates, India, United Kingdom, Egypt, China and Israel.

Instead of looking at ways to optimize on resource use and conserve them for tomorrow, this speaks of short-term outlook of exploitation. Any doubts, which brings happiness – plunder or harmony with nature?