Oceans of Opportunity

Capitalism and sustainability are not, by definition, at odds. This is my mantra and I am sticking with it. The reason they have long seemed to be in conflict is that, in a world that once was large and full of seemingly infinite resources, environmental and human costs that don't appear on balance sheets could be invisibly passed along.

In a shrinking world with greater transparency, this is no longer the case. From decimated rainforests to the Pacific garbage patch, these hidden costs are being made visible, largely through new social media tools.

Does this mean capitalism must shrivel up and die in the sunlight while paternalistic governments clean up the mess made by the Evil Corporations? I say no!

Every problem contains the seeds of its own solution, and where there are potential solutions there are opportunities to create value. Where value might once have meant opening up the wilderness to access resources, it may now mean creating better ways to use those resources or developing new resources that can withstand more rigorous scrutiny.

A great example of this new paradigm can be found in this recent Wall Street Journal article, Entrepreneurs Wade into the `Dead Zone' . Dead zones are oxygen-deprived areas of the ocean caused by farm runoff. Nitrogen-rich chemical fertilizer flows into rivers and down to the sea, where nitrogen-loving algae feast and thrive and die and rot, creating vast regions where nothing can live. That's right - factory farms in, say, Iowa contribute to dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe once upon a time ADM or Cargill could plead ignorance of the environmental cost of farm runoff, but not now.

This is a big problem, in large part caused by the ways in which the U.S. subsidizes agriculture.

Energy companies have long sought ways to use algae to generate energy, primarily with algae stocks raised onshore. Calif.-based startup LiveFuels has a different idea: Using farmed fish to consume the algae produced by runoff and then harvesting the fish for oil that could, among other uses, be turned into bio-diesel fuel.

Now, THAT's what I'm talking about.

I know, this approach is not without problems - and wouldn't it be better to simply ban chemical fertilizer in the first place? Yeah, and with the lobbying power of agri-business in this country - lots of luck! Let's talk sometime in the next century.

If startups like LiveFuels can create a new industry that will generate food, fuel, vitamin supplements, and fertilizers in a more environmentally gentle way than has ever been done before - while cleaning up the mess created by Old Industry, I'm all for it.

What do you think?