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withstand a greater variety of
weather conditions. However, many
of these original strains have either
disappeared or are in extremely
short supply. Also, these strains
could not be easily and quickly mul–
tiplied for emergency use in case of
wholesale crop fai lures.
In light of the above, Dr. Gillman
suggested that contemporary plant–
ing practices, as well as the choice of
grain varieties, should now be
geared toward protecting the world
from the coming bad years - in–
stead of always shooting for the
"maximum yield in the good years
that luck might still provide." It is
not likely such precautions will be
taken, however. Present govern–
rnental policies actually encourage
the opposite - "planting to the hilt"
on every available acre with the
highest yielding var ieties available.
Monsoon Collapse
-
Biggest Threat of All?
While sorne scientists voiced con–
cero about negative weather trends
in "the granary" countries, others at
the symposium, such as Dr. Reid
Bryson, director of the Institute for
Environmental Studies at the Uni–
versity of Wisconsin. were troubled
over climatic alterations atfecting
the vast over-populated, yet under–
developed parts of the world.
These weather shifts are more of
a long-term nature and have been
under way for sorne time. Only now
are they beginning to produce dis–
cernible etfects. The major fear to
Dr. Bryson and sorne of his col–
leagues is that a pronounced change
in rain-bearing monsoon wind pat–
terns so essential to agriculture in
major parts of Africa, Asia and the
lndian subcontinent is now occur–
ring.
Essentially, the problems center
on the altered behavior of the north
circumpolar vortex wind system. In
recent years, the lower edge of the
system has remained further south
during the summer months, block–
ing the normal paths of vital rain–
bearing monsoons. A prime ex-
ample of this is in the portion of
West Africa which has recently been
in the grips of a prolonged drought.
The area's traditional summer mon–
soons have not been able to range
northward as deep into the arid sub–
Saha ran region as in the past.
Scores of thousands of the area's
nomadic tribesmen have perished
from the searing dry spells over the
past five or six years.
Moreover - and with far greater
consequences for the world food
picture - something appears to be
happening to the monsoons upon
which the lives of hundreds of mil–
lions of people in the India, Paki–
stan and Bangladesh area depend.
The vast ludian subcontinent area is
undergoing a marked cooling trend.
Here, too, life-giving monsoons are
apparently being thrown off course.
The freq uency of "severe
droughts per deca4e" in India is
picking up again, after a "grace
period" of over four decades - a
time in which, incidentally, India's
population has doubled. Thus, India
too seems to be settling back into
more "normal" patterns.
If the monsoons of the world are
suppressed, stressed Bryson, the re–
sults could be catastrophic, for " it is
largely in the monsoon lands that
the hungry half of the world lives."
As Bryson emphasized on an ear–
lier occasion, this potential food
crisis "is not merely something of
academic interest.
lt
is something
that
if
it continued will atfect the
whole human occupation of the
earth - like a billion people starv–
ing."
Relief from Where?
Mass worldwide famines could be
just around the comer. Trouble im–
mediately ahead could start with an
accelerated suppression of the mon–
soons on the lndian subcontinent,
making scores, perhaps hundreds of
millions, of people dependent upon
the few granary nations of the
world. The problem here is that em–
ergency relief supplies from granary
nations are simply no longer avail-
able in the amounts that would be
needed. The sale of U.S. wheat to
Russia almost wiped out U.S. re–
serves with one neat stroke!
Worse yet. what if droughts occur
in the granary nations - accom–
panied by the collapse of key life–
supporting grain crops? Should that
calamity strike. the populations in
both the producing as well as the
importing countries would then be
in peril!
Such is the critica! nature and
balance of world agriculture today.
Mass famines could indeed be right
on our doorstep!
" The Big Drought of 1975"
As far back as the early-to-mid-
1950's - when the United States
was in the midst of a severe drought
situation
the editor of this maga–
zine warned of the coming world
food crisis. Herbert W. Armstrong
quoted the late assistant chief of the
U.S. Weather Bureau (now. the
Weather Service),
l.
R. Tannehill.
who warncd in 1954 in the midd lc
of the previous U.S. drought cycle:
"What will we do when the great
drought of 1975 settles down upon
us?" Tannehill, at that time. accu–
rately foretold the good years we
have since experienced. as well as
pinpointing the
floods
which ravaged
widespread parts of America in the
1970's. (Tannehill's forecasts were
made in the September 1954 issue
of
Country Gentleman
magazine.)
But other predictioos made many
centuries earlier seem even more re–
markable.
One of the most emphatic pro–
phetic signs foreshadowing the end
of this age of man and the estab–
lishment of the long-overlooked
world-ruling kingdom of God was
that there would be "famines ... in
divers [widely scattered) places"
around the earth (Matthew 24:7).
We are now living on the very
brink of these momentous end-time
events.
Everything depends now on the
weather.
- Gene H. Hogberg