| Yesterday I wrote about a study that proved organic CAN feed the world using the current amount of land already dedicated to agriculture - and organic agriculture can even feed a population higher than the current one without increasing the landbase. Also, there isn't a nitrogen shortage to fertilize the crops grown on that land if we were to feed the entire world using organic methods. Some people pointed out that we'd need more labor if we were to go all-organic. Well, OK. Let's put that another way: organic farming provides jobs. The point is, we aren't going to starve to death due to lack of yield if we all go organic. We'll still need to find a way to fix the other problems in our world (war, poverty, education, women's rights, AIDS) but we WILL have enough food to eat.
Who doesn't want us to believe that organics can feed the world? All the people who would lose money if we went organic: oil companies, biotech companies, pesticide companies, and fertilizer companies. And who funds The Chicago Council on Global Affairs? Archer Daniels Midland, Kraft Foods, Monsanto, Caterpillar, BP, McDonalds... you get it.
The Chicago Council released a report funded by the Gates Foundation that outlined a plan to feed the world. They then presented that report in testimony at a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing earlier this year. In a Washington Times op ed (where I always get my news), they summarize the findings of the report, calling for a Second Green Revolution. On their side is Dick Lugar, who co-authored another Washington Times op-ed with Norman Borlaug (father of the first Green Revolution) who say we need higher yields and GMOs in the developing world if we are to fight hunger. Lugar has co-sponsored a bill that the Chicago Council sees as a vehicle to enact their plan, but now it seems that a new effort is afoot and Hillary Clinton is leading it (as her department will be the ones carrying out the bill).
To gain more support for their plan, the Chicago Council is hosting a breakfast with Secretary Tom Vilsack as a guest. They've also held a past event with Senator Dick Durbin.
Meanwhile, our government is entirely ignoring an alternative viewpoint to feeding the world, one presented by the IAASTD report (from the World Bank and UN), which specifically rejects GMOs as tools to help the developing world, saying they are poorly suited to meet the needs of poor and subsistence farmers. They call for agroecological approaches to farming as the best tool to feed the world. And, because the crop inputs used in the developed world are so expensive and thus often unavailable to poor farmers - the very people we are trying to help - those farmers achieve higher yields using organic (agroecological) methods. |
