Bickering will never feed the world
John Gapper | Saturday, 21 June 2008
LONG-running feuds often go quiet for a while but it takes only one incident to make them flare up again. So it is with the argument between exponents of organic farming and those who prefer technology-intensive, industrialised agriculture.
The latest provocation is the global food crisis, which has led to prices of crops such as maize and rice rising sharply, consumers in developed countries feeling the pinch in supermarkets and millions of people in the developing world facing starvation.
The rapid increase in demand for food is the biggest cause of the price spiral. Biofuels have started to compete with the food industry for resources such as sugar cane and maize and, in China and Asia, a middle class is emerging that want meat from grain-fed animals.
The consensus is that the world must boost agricultural production to meet higher demand. Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, called at a recent UN summit in Rome for a 50 per cent increase in global food output by 2030.
There the consensus ends. Later Monsanto, the US seed company that became a b
The latest provocation is the global food crisis, which has led to prices of crops such as maize and rice rising sharply, consumers in developed countries feeling the pinch in supermarkets and millions of people in the developing world facing starvation.
The rapid increase in demand for food is the biggest cause of the price spiral. Biofuels have started to compete with the food industry for resources such as sugar cane and maize and, in China and Asia, a middle class is emerging that want meat from grain-fed animals.
The consensus is that the world must boost agricultural production to meet higher demand. Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, called at a recent UN summit in Rome for a 50 per cent increase in global food output by 2030.
There the consensus ends. Later Monsanto, the US seed company that became a b