Alternative livelihoods such as ecotourism and fish farming could provide an alternative to intensive crop farming, while better management of crops and irrigation and the adoption of alternative energy sources such as solar power would all contribute to environmental sustainability.

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Huge stock trading volume spikes in the last couple of days have been a boon not only to the exchanges but to the new crop of alternative trading sites that have been trying to siphon market share away from them.

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In America, alternative tournaments are already beginning to crop up, like one in South Carolina called the Pro's 10s Circuit.

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Supposedly, compensation for the loss of this profitable crop is to come through alternative development schemes.

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Experts also say the potential savings here may be offset by higher prices somewhere else as farmers use their more crop land to experiment with alternative fuel crops.

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He tried growing pumpkins one year, looking for an alternative, but found tobacco is the best cash crop he can grow.

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The method might be the key to the widescale production of fuel from algae, which is thought to be the better option over making it from land-based crops such as soya and corn, since the yields are much greater and there is no competition with food-crop production, and provide a real alternative to a globalized world that is utterly dependent on supplies of imported crude oil.

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The problem with the current crop of voice-activated devices and software tools is that they only provide an alternative to what is currently available.

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