From: matus [matus@snet.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 9:19 PM
To: matus@snet.net
Subject: MFD List - Paper, plastic or propaganda? AND Without
technology, millions starve

(This is a group of two articles relating to technology, the human
condition, and the continuing improvement of the medial average persons
life.  Fewer people are starving to death every year in proportion to the
population and more and more people are living longer healthier lives.
Anti-technology protests hinder the spread of wealth to the world with
propaganda and scare tactics. The second article is a Nobel prize winners
comments on technology and the human condition. - Mike)

Paper, plastic or propaganda?
----------
Center for Consumer Freedom
by staff
   A group calling itself the "GE Free Markets Coalition" (which
   attacks both freedom and markets) will "take action" against
   Safeway and Shaw's stores throughout the United States, and
   "demand that these stores remove" all genetically improved
   products from their shelves. (03/06/02)

http://www.free-market.net/rd/828889947.html

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/headline_detail.cfm?HEADLINE_ID=1331

Paper, Plastic, or Propaganda?
A group calling itself the "GE Free Markets Coalition" (which attacks both
freedom and markets) released a hit list of "supermarket campaign targets"
for 2002. The coalition, which includes Greenpeace, the Institute for Social
Ecology, NorthWest RAGE, the Organic Consumers Association, and other top
anti-consumer groups, will "take action" against Safeway and Shaw's stores
throughout the United States beginning March 12, and "demand that these
stores remove" all genetically improved products from their shelves.

In recent months, Greenpeace, RAGE, and other anti-biotech groups have
descended on stores, harassed customers, and vandalized products with
stickers linking the foods to toxic waste. And activists with the Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi-connected anti-biotech front group Mothers for Natural Law have
joined an effort to require labels on all biotech foods sold in Oregon.

Luckily, some people have a more responsible view of biotech. The European
Union has called genetically improved foods "even safer" than others, and
the head of the World Health Organization says biotech can save lives. Now,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, who saved hundreds of thousands
of lives by spearheading the biotech Green Revolution, says "biotechnology
is going to help us... There's little or no starvation in Pakistan and India
today, and if you travel through China you won't see emaciated people... we
are producing more food on less land than we were in 1940 -- all of this due
to technology."

     ----------------------------------------

http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/aganswers/2002/2-26_Nobel_Winner.html

Nobel winner: Without technology, millions starve

Advances in agricultural technology, from chemical fertilizers to
genetically modified crops, are the keys to feeding more than 6 billion
people worldwide while preserving vast expanses of uncultivated land for
other purposes, a renowned geneticist says.

Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug said such limitations as availability of water
and natural plant nutrients makes biotechnology and improved crop production
methods that much more important in stabilizing agricultural land and
battling starvation.

Borlaug offered his views on agriculture, global crop production and risk
taking during a recent presentation at Ohio State University.

Borlaug is an agricultural geneticist. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in
1970 for his contributions to the "Green Revolution," a food production
movement of the 1960s that helped lift many countries out of starvation
through the introduction of high-yielding wheat varieties. He's lived in
food-deprived countries for more than 55 years.

Feeding the world has been possible because of agricultural technology,
Borlaug said. Increased use of irrigation has made it possible to grow crops
in areas that might not have been able to sustain them. Borlaug applauded
the use of organic fertilizers but said they cannot replace chemical
fertilizers.

"Cereals, such as rice, maize and wheat make up 70 percent of the world's
food supply," he said. "In reality, 99 percent of all edible dry matter
comes from the land but only 1 percent of Earth's water can be used to
support that production.

"And when it comes to organic fertilizers, I say without qualification, use
all there is, but don't let anyone tell you that we can feed 6.2 billion
people without the use of chemical nitrogen."

Nearly 80 million tons of nitrogen is consumed annually through synthetic
applications. To maintain that amount through organic sources -- livestock
manure, for example U.S. cattle numbers would need to increase from 1.5
billion head to 10 billion head, Borlaug said.

Because of improved crop production techniques, China, India and Pakistan
have increased grain production as much as sevenfold since the 1960s,
Borlaug said. Global grain production has jumped 23 percent in the past 50
years, from 650 million tons to more than 1 billion tons.

"These improvements in yield are due to high-yielding varieties, agronomic
practices, weed control, fertilizers and seeding dates, combined with
economic policies that farmers have adopted and put into practice," Borlaug
said. "Plus, we are producing more food on less land than we were in 1940 --
all of this due to technology."

Genetically modified crops, commonly known as GMOs, will continue to play an
important part in crop production, Borlaug said.

"I'm convinced biotechnology is going to help us," he said. "There's fear,
but biotechnology has been going on since the beginning of time. Mother
Nature was crossing plant genes long before scientific man and agricultural
man began doing it. If you like to eat spaghetti, you are eating a GMO that
Mother Nature made. It's a natural cross of two wild wheat plants."

Agricultural land used for transgenic crop production has increased
thirtyfold over the past five years. The United States leads the world in
transgenic crop production, followed by Argentina, Canada and China, and use
of such crops has boosted yields and reduced costs.

With world population expected to reach 7.6 billion people by 2020 and the
demand for grain production likely to increase 40 percent to 50 percent,
agricultural technology advances should not be ignored, Borlaug said.

"There's always fear when you change," he said. "We did everything that the
book told us not to do, and when we moved all that wheat to India in the
1960s, they were saying that we were mad and insane, playing with the lives
of millions.

"There's little or no starvation in Pakistan and India today, and if you
travel through China you won't see emaciated people. You don't know what's
going to happen when you change something, but you have to change it to try
to improve it."

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