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stricken with virulent, devastaling
forms of common disease. New–
castle's disease has been around for
a long time, but the exotic "hol"
type only became a problem a few
years ago. Now it has destroyed 25
percent of southern California's
poultry industry and threatens the
poultry industries of many nations.
Another example of such disease
explosions is corn blight. Twenty
percent of the American corn crop
was ruined by mutant Southern
Corn Leaf Blight in 1970.
In the Philippines. new types of
rice are failing lo stand up under
weatber and disease condilions
formerly shrugged off by older, less
produclive varieties.
Trapping Ourselves
Techniques thal multiply produc–
tion over the short run seem also to
multiply problems over the long
run. And wilh the present world sil–
uation, there is no apparent way out
of this trap. The methods used to
feed the world today are the same
methods that promise continuing
agricultura! disasters.
Scientific
American
reiterated this chilling
premise in their June 1971 issue:
"Hardy, high-yield varieties of ma–
jor crops are the success story of
modero ... genetics, but they may
carry the seeds of their own destruc–
tion."
The solution does not líe in agri–
cultural melhods. lt lies in agricul–
tura! attitudes. Man on occasion has
been capable of using natural sys–
tems well. He has more often
proven thal he is capable of using
them poorly. The solution then be–
comes a matter of altitudes
whether or not man is willing to
make the sacrifices necessary to
properly care for his life-support
system. Apparently, he's not willing.
The world is facing a crushing
hunger problem. Yet it is not sur–
prising that food production systems
in a selfishly oriented world are not
designed prima rily to feed the hun–
gry and maintain productivity for
future generalions. In the highly de–
veloped nations that provide most
of the world's food supplies, imme–
diale profit is the prirnary end!
Factory farming systems were devel-
oped lo produce as large a quantily
of saleable foodstuffs - of whatever
quality or lack of it - as possible,
in the cheapest way possible. Mod–
ern consumers demand thal lhe
farms do so.
But it is a fact Qf life thal you
can't gel somelhing for nothing.
Any time a system tries to get too
much output from too little input, it
is treading on dangerous ground.
Factory farms are pushing natural
productivity past its built-in lirnits.
This
is
the basic underlying cause of
the many problems affecting world–
wide industrialized farming today.
We demand more food for less
money and reap the natural relurns
of that selfish attitude. We want to
spend our money, instead, on tem–
porary pleasures that satiate our
senses. So we force the competitive
food producers to break the laws
governing natural production in or–
der for them to survive economi–
cally. Until we change this attitude
of greed, on the part of consumers
as well as producers, we will con–
tinue to face mounting problems in
maintaining our food supply.
o
What ls The
·SOLUTION?
AGRICULTURAL LEADERS world–
wide hove come face-to-face with a
dangerous, yet little understood, crisis.
Today farmlands are tired, overworked,
and depleted . Modern agricultura!
methods are producing a host of unex–
pected critica! problems.
WHY do we face this new crisis?
What is its solution? This booklet ex–
plores the problems and shows how
they can - and will - be solved.
See inside front cover for oddress of PLAIN TRUTH
office neorest you.
PLAIN TRUTH Morch 1973