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and leu organic 'manar has been re–
lumed to the soil, whole rese"'es of
humus (<><ganic matenel on the soil)
have been mined away. " they write.
The amount and kind of organic mate
rial in the soil determines soil structure
whlch. in turn. dictates thi way in
which water moves through it.
lf
the
structure of the soil does not allow ade–
quate circulat ion of water (and the nutri·
anta
rt
containsj planta cennot absorb
these nutrients, no manar how abu,...
dant thoy might be. Chemical fertilizors
break down soil structure and can
ac–
tually promote erosion .
Tragic Losa ol Topsoil
Fenile topsoil is now
a
disappeañng
resourco
in the
United States. Noted
ecologist
Barry
Commoner estirnates
rhet the organic contonr of Modwestem
soils has declined
by
about
50
percent
on the last century. while e 1970 Na–
tional Academy ol Science repon claims
that the nation has lost ebout one third
of
ns
topsoil. Where topsoil was once
severa! leet thick
in
the nchest areas
of
the Com
Belt,
it
is
now only seven
onches deep.
As
the soil declines in quality, the use
of fenilizers increases. Arid areas ol Cali–
fornta, Texas and Ari:zona. once show.
case
O)Uimples ol how larm technology
can "rnake the desen bloom," are now
sufferjng production declines. These
"declines" are the result ol over-cultiva–
toon.
over-irrigation and over-leniJiza.
toon.
Farmers
are eneouraged. however.
by
the USDA and agñchomical pro–
ducers to use more lenilizers to keep
yields high.
In sorne portions of Texas's Rio
Grande Valloy, Allaby and Alfan repon,
fertilizar application retes heve reached
800
pounds an acre.
As
many cñtics of
corporate farming techniques have
potnted out, such enormous doses of
fertohl8r make soil uonecessary; crops
could just as easily be grown hydro–
ponicelly (In nutrient-laden water). Soil
becomes nothing more than
a
means by
which to prop plants up.
The Efficiency Myth
In the na
me
of elfocoency, hybñd grain
hes replaced
tr.~ditional
seed stocks.
This " efliciency" is largely a myth, how–
ever.•.. This is panicularly true in
re–
gard to protein. Quality has lrequently
dateriorated considerably, showing up
in daclining protein levels. What do de·
clining levels of protein in corn mean to
the ,..st of the lood economy? For one
rhong, ot means that livestock fed this
corn must be given diet supplements of
protei,...rich fish meal and soybean
meal. There is nothing "eflicient" about
iooding protein. (The systom is more
than inellicient, however: much ol our
lishmaal has come from the coastal
waters of Peru. a country where protein
delioencies are rampant among the
populatoon. Sorne research indicates
thet the United States importa enough
f.sh protein to alleviate one-half the pro–
tein shonage in all of South Americe.)
This "efficient" replacoment ol hy·
brid for natural seed stocks has o:esulted
in increased dependence on herbicides,
fungicides. rodenticides and in·
sectieodes. Cotton and com, in panicu-
18r . cannot survive without the
(Ccntinued on p11ge
12,
col. 3)
WEEK ENDINO MAR.CH 8,
197~
Nuclear Blackmail
forFood?
"Lifeboat"
Theory Stlrs
Anger
in
India
by
Norman Cousins
NEW DELHI -A shon distance out–
sido New Delhi,
1
saw a long file of
protest rnarchers walking slowly in the
direction of the capital Most
of
them
were
young adults. They wera identified
by their placards
as
teachers. students,
farmers. shopkeepars and eommercial
workers. One of the placards said:
"Hungry Paople Are Human. Too."
Anothar sign: " ls India Going to Be
Thrown on the Rubbish Heap?"
1
learned that the reeson lor the
march was
the
increas1ng discusskm in
the lndoan press aver repons thet West·
ern nations, including the United
States. are getting ready to tum their
backs on lndia's need for mammoth
lood supplies. The repons suggest that
Westarn policymakers feel thare's no
way ol preventing mass lamine and that
no
emount ol aid could solve the basic
problem.
The person whose name has been lre–
quently linked with thos harcl-ll'ñe ap–
proach to the developing nations is
Garrett Hardin, prolassor ol biology at
the Univarsity ol California. According
to the raports. Prol. Hardin believes that
the Westem nations should resist eflons
to help famine-threatened countñes. He
uses the lifeboat analogy .
lf
the
survivors take more than a certain
number on board. averyone will go
down.
Prof. Hardin's ideas and the shocked
reaction of the young people walking
toward New Oelhi se"'ed to dramatiza
Whet ls rapidly becoming the most im–
ponant issue before contemporary
civ·
ilizetooo. The anitudes of the rich and
the
poor
towerd one another are sening
the stage for what could become the
most decisiva showdown in history.
Roben Heilbroner, in "An lnquiry into
the Humen Prospect," loresees the
pos–
sibility of atomic blackmail by hungry
nations.
now
c:Oming into possession of
nuclear secret.s. il they don' t get a largar
share of theworld's weahh
That issue is nota místy, dostant pros.
pect but is already taking shape. as was
evidenced by the protest marchers near
New Oolhi. lt was not ditficult to under–
stand their feelings.
11
was not that they
believed they were
lfntltled
to help from
the outside world, but thet they were
now
beong told. in eflect, that they are
not worth helping . They were protesting
lofeboat enalogies and a notion that
sorne
people have the right to decide
whether others shall live.
1
left the protesters and drove back to
my New Delhi hotel with its well-ap–
pointed lobby and ,lounges. The dining
room
was
filted with the hum of polite
conversation. At the far
s.de
of the room
was the rodsserie. wjth lts exot1c meats
and lowls being roasted on open spits.
Food
vs.
Fodder–
Grim Choices
LieAhead
by
Robert Ginskey
In an increasingly hungry world, at·
tention ís inevitably focus.d on animals
and their relation to man's lood sup–
ply.
Agricultura! animals consume
p~
dígious ambunts of lood but return only
about a fraction in the form of meat;
milk, and eggs.
As
a result, food expens
are quick to point out that anilnals and
animal
products
are almost always a lux–
ury ..,... a luxury for which humans. in
lean times atleast. paya dear price.
Cena
in animals actually compete with
man for the available food supply. The
pig , for example, consumes grain which
humans can eat directly. In marked con–
rrast to the pig, however, cattle have a
unique ability to digest cellulose, a sub–
atenea widely available in grass. but
non-dígastoble by man. Thos
means
that
cettle and other ruminants cen produce
human food lrom lorage, and yet not
compete with man for
food.
nor in many
cases for the land upon which the for–
age ís grown. For this reason. there is a
lt wasn't necessary to iuxtapose
the
pro–
test walk against the kind of lile being
lived in the cities ol the Western world.
Within India itsell all the combustible
contrastswere in full vlew.
The greatest danger with the
Hardi~
approech applies not to India but to the
West. For Hardinism can become
a
wild
infection in the moral consciousness.
11
it is possible to
r.~tionalize
lening large
numbers of Asians stante,
it
will be no
time at all before we apply the same
reascining to people at home. Once we
dlscover how easy it is to shore without
flinching at lamine in Calcutta or Dacca.
it should be no trick to go unblinking at
the dlsease-ñdden tenements in Harlem
or Detroit or the squalor of the sllacks in
Appalachoa. O
growing cell in scientific circles to retum
cante to
the
pastura - whera thoy are
most afficient - and drastically scale'
down feedlot operations in which the
animals are fed prodigious amounts ol
inoreasing ly mo re expensive feed
grains.
"Let 'em eat grass... wrote an agñcul–
tural development expon recently in the
Christian Science Monitor.
He decñed
the
40
million tons of grain and
5
mil–
lion tons of soybeans and other high
protein concentrares fed to U.S. canJe
in 1974.
Biggest Luxury - Peta
Dr.
J .
Thomas Reíd, Haad of the De–
panment ol Animal Science end Proles–
sor
of Nutrition. Comell University,
reponed
10
fellow delegares at the
American Association for the Advance–
ment ol Science that by the year
2025,
the only animal p<otein avaolable toman
míght be fish and the meat and milk
produced by ruminan)s and other herb–
ívoros feeding largely
0n
grass. Other
anirnals,
such
as the pig, will simply be
tooexpensive to raise.
As world lood shortages become
more acute, stressed Dr. Reid, even
pats may
become
more difficult to jus–
tify.
" In the U.S.A. , there are over
71
millíon household dogs and cats," Reíd
told reponers at an AAAS news conler–
ence. "and they consume as much en–
ergy
as
4 7
miliion people require."
(Other scientists estímate the dog and
cet population
10
be upwards of
100
million.)
Such pets compete directly with
•people lor food. have a birth rate seven
times higher than humana, and cost
ovar
t2.5
billion par year just for the
food to
leed
them - s.x times that
spant on beby
lood.
Raid coocludes that
in
coming years.
sorne dilfocult. il not traumatoc decisions
must be made by all ol mankínd, espe–
cially those accustomed to high levels of
animal protein eonsumption - not to
mention pet lovers.
As
food becomes an ever more pr&–
cious commoclity, the role of anirnals in
man's food chain and oven in his every–
day
lile seerns destinecl to radia.lly
chenge. The debate over food versus
fodder is only beginning. O
11