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...estimated 99% of U.S. beef cattle that live out their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and soybeans. In the past few decades, the growth of these concentrated animal-feeding operations has resulted in millions of acres of grassland being abandoned or converted - along with vast swaths of forest - into profitable cropland for livestock feed. "Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, transportation," says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. "Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint...
...carbon-neutral but carbon-negative." Collins goes even further. "With proper management, pastoralists, ranchers and farmers could achieve a 2% increase in soil-carbon levels on existing agricultural, grazing and desert lands over the next two decades," he estimates. Some researchers hypothesize that just a 1% increase (over, admittedly, vast acreages) could be enough to capture the total equivalent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions...
...Still, the opportunity that the agreement opens up for Southeast Asia is huge. According to HSBC, the China-ASEAN free-trade area will encompass 1.9 billion people and a combined GDP of $6 trillion. To capitalize on this vast market, economists advise Southeast Asian companies to specialize in niche goods and services that China cannot duplicate - and to do it fast. "Given the shifting nature of China's comparative advantage, Asian countries may best re-orientate their economies towards sectors that cannot be easily replicated by China," wrote Kit Wei Zheng, a Singapore-based economist with Citigroup...
...Crude palm oil from Malaysia, which produces 45% of the global supply, is one commodity for which China has a vast appetite, yet cannot produce, according to research analyst Mark Matthews of Macquarie Securities. Low-grade electronics manufacturers in Thailand and Malaysia also stand to be beneficiaries. "These two markets are well positioned to take China's place at the lower end of the production network," says HSBC's Wong. (See the best pictures of the week...
...Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression, farmers who fled West out of the prairies found a paradise of citrus groves in Southern California: miles upon miles of navel and Valencia oranges, planted in a vast swath of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which stretch from East Los Angeles to the Arizona and Nevada borders. Starting in the 1970s, that area, now known as the Inland Empire, became a mecca for a new kind of homesteader: young families lured by cheap land and an easy commute to L.A. By 2008, it was home to 4.1 million people...