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POSTPON/NG WORLD HUNGER
/
COVER STORY
Can
We Learn to Feed
theWorld in Time?
Worldwide famine is being temporarily arrested.
This is largely because of what is called the "green
revolution" in agriculture. Has this revolution bought
us enough time to learn how to free the world
I
MPENDJNG
worldwide disaster from
starvation has been temporarily
averted. Man has through newly
developed agcicultucal technology pur–
chased a few short years in which he
hopcs to learn how permanently to
feed the world.
But the question arises, will we
learn in time? Are scientists directing
their research into tbe right arcas? To
fail is to invite worldwide disaster. To
succeed - that would be Jike living in
a whole new world - a Utopía, if
you picase!
Food for Everyone?
To a starving Pakistani, today's
"green rcvolution" may mean his only
link with life. His three-acre plot now
produces two or three times as much
grain.
For the first time in his life he has,
temporarily, enough food for his fam–
ily and a small "cash crop" as well.
The American or European housc–
wife may know as little as the Pakis–
tani about the "green revolution"
itself. Yet, she too may unknowingly
depend upon it.
What do Pakistani farmers and
American or European housewives
have in common? BasicaJly, it is the
need for food .
PLAIN TRUTH
June
1972
from
hunger?
by
Jerry Gentry
Supplying this fundamental human
need for food is what the "greco revo–
lution" is all about.
How a Few Precious
Additional Years Were Bought
The world's present reprieve f rom
disaster by starvation had its inception
sorne two decades ago in Mexico and
the Philippines. There, researchers dis–
covered and developed high-yield
strains of wheat and rice.
Dr. Norman Borlaug, famed Nobel
Peace Prize winner and acclaimed
"father of the green revolution,"
developed, through genetic manipula–
tion, strains of high-yield "dwarf"
wheat. The price paid for these high–
yield varieties is increased demand for
artificial fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation
and machinery.
These new "miracle" crops have
given man a few extra years to try to
discover the fundamental laws of agri–
culture so that he can uLtimately cut
back on the growing use of artifi–
cial fertilizers, pesticidcs and heavy
machinery. Dr. Borlaug's work contin–
ues at the International Maize and
Wheat Improvement Center at Sonora,
Mexico. Others are feverishly working
elsewhere.
High-yield grains havc made a sig-
nificaot but temporary contributioo
toward feeding the world
in
a number
of ways:
Starvation is tcmporarily wardcd off.
In Dr. Borlaug's words, "The grcen
revolution has won a temporary success
in man's war against hunger and de–
pdvation: it has bought us sorne time
... perhaps two or threc dccades"
(Ecology Today,
May,
1971).
Underdcveloped natioos, especially
those in Asia, are becoming agricul–
turally self-sufficient. Pakistan and
India are notable examples.
Former subsistence farmers are brought
into the economk system. For the (irst
time, t11ey sell thcir grain for money
to buy other necessities. Local and na–
tional cconomics are boosted.
The "green revolution" is no per–
manent panacea to the world's food
problems. On the contrary, a new set
of agricultura! probJems have arisco.
Sorne of thcse are very serious.
New Science Generates
New ProbJems
By far the most fundamental
ot
these new problems lies in the nature
of the crops themselves.
At the annual meeting of the Amer–
'ican Society of Agronomy, Jack R.
Harlan, University of Illinois Agron–
omist, issued a warning about the pos–
sibility of sudden and unexpected
large-scale crop failures.
The narrow genetic base of many
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