Fund Science for Farmers
Madison, Wisconsin Obesity and hunger coexist in the United States. Farmers in China rebel against low prices and high taxes. India raises excess grain but leaves its people malnourished in protein. Consumers rebel against genetically modified foods in Europe, where pesticide and fertilizer use is ubiquitous and uncontroversial.
These are a few of the visible issues that swirl around world agriculture today. More profound but less visible an issue is world food security.
World population will grow in the next 30 years to 9 billion.
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Since 1960, as world population doubled, agriculture has performed a small miracle. For the first time in human history, increasing food production came not primarily from using more land for crops but from advances in science. Any future increases in production will likewise depend upon wise investments in science.
Philanthropic dollars are trickling in from the Gates, Rockefeller, Kellogg and McKnight foundations, to name a few that work to improve nutrition by funding agricultural research.
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Should we be promoting, as many are, adoption by developing countries of industrialized methods that are failing at home?
I say no. We should apply programs that empower the people of developing countries to better feed themselves. Instead of food aid in crises, we should invest for the long haul in research that equips them to make decisions about agriculture that fit within their societies, environments and economies.
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Technologies used in agriculture, including genetics and genomics, are controversial. Today we understand the environmental damage caused by some of the very methods that were seen as solutions back then. And today we in the developed world lack the political will to invest in agricultural development for developing countries.
For all of these reasons, we must look to philanthropic foundations and others of vision and means to step up to this challenge. With their resources and broad commitment to a better quality of life throughout the world, they can provide the leadership and money that will again draw public interest and, in time, governmental commitment to investment in agricultural advances in the poorer nations.
These nations need strong public institutions for agriculture and significant additional investments in research.
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History shows the political consequences of hunger, disease and starvation in the human family. The scale of disaster that could result from agricultures failure in the less developed countries would far exceed anything we have experienced.
(By Robert M. Goodman, The Times, 2001).
13 Discuss the following questions in groups:
o Is there any connection between economic situation in the country and its social problems? Give examples.
o Does the political system have any influence on the social welfare policy and social programs of the country?
o What is the role of the governments of developing countries and the world community in solving social problems these countries face? What actions should they implement to improve the situation? What fields of life should be paid more attention to?
14 Use the information below and think which of these actions should be done by international communities or organizations and which by national governments? Back up your opinion.
| International Communities and Organizations | National Governments |
o To restore peace to countries engulfed by military and civil conflicts
o To tackle the AIDS crisis
o To stem the spread of malaria and tuberculosis
o To invest in human and physical capital
o To reduce poverty
o To improve access to education and health services
o To improve the infrastructure
o To use technological advances
o To endorse free market access for poor countries to industrial countries markets
o To phase out trade barriers
o To reduce agricultural subsidies
15 Use additional sources (newspapers, magazines or Internet resources) to find the information about the events and foundations mentioned in the article To Feed a Growing World Family, Fund Science for Farmers: