12/01/06 Turnaround

Turnaround One environmentalist has seen the green in a different shade. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back right after this to explain. Patrick Moore looks at the world in a little different shade of green these days. Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace, has decided there is more to caring for the environment than protests. Mr. Moore says he decided it might be better to be for something than against three or four things everyday of your life. This turnaround in philosophy led Moore too quit Greenpeace and its mindset of telling others what they should stop doing to form Greenspirit Strategies which embraces the idea of sustaining natural resources and agribusiness. He says he realized that "6.5 billion people wake up every morning with real needs for food, energy and materials." It is so refreshing to hear this rhetoric instead of you shouldn't, you can't, you will not, we won't let you! To feed, clothe and shelter the world's population someone must produce, and to produce, natural resources will be used, but not abused. American ranchers and farmers learned this lesson long ago and don't need radical environmentalists with personal agendas confronting them, but constructive ideas to conserve resources and still produce needed commodities will always have a better chance to be considered. Welcome aboard Patrick Moore. Possibly, other extreme, confrontational environmentalists will see the different shade of green and recognize the need for producer-environmentalist. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Farmer Stockman November 2006