IFCNR's Weekly Blog - Autumn 2009

NORMAN BORLAUG - THE MAN WHO SAVED MORE LIVES THAN ANY PERSON IN HISTORY: 1914-2009

Norman Borlaug died at his home in Dallas Texas on Saturday September 13th. He is mourned by people who care about people and the Earth because of his work to feed the human race.

During an era when such celebrated figures as butterfly biologist Paul Erhlich and World Watch Institute's Lester Brown predicted global starvation and the end to the world's ability to feed its growing population, Borlaug turned a deaf ear to those doomsayers and set his sights on melding science with agriculture to meet the Earth's food needs. He not only succeeded but exceeded his goal.

Armed with a hearty high-yield, disease resistant, dwarf miracle wheat he developed through his field studies during the 1950's at the Rockefeller Foundation's International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center in Mexico, Borglaug taught farmers barely scraping out a living in the most populated yet least arable regions of the world how to grow a bounty that not only fed family and friends but also provided a surplus for profitable sales to others.

The results of the good works by "the Apostle of Wheat" saw India's wheat production jump from 12.3 million tons in the late 1960s and early '70s to 73.5 million tons last year. The results were equally impressive in other areas of the globe that listened to Borlaugs message. Mexico, a nation that imported 60 percent of its wheat in the 1940s, became self sufficient in 1956. In 1954, the U.S. pasta industry faced a national disaster as three-quarters of the U.S. durum wheat crop was destroyed by a rust epidemic. Borlaug's new rust-resistant strains ended that threat. Borlaug's "green revolution" saw Pakistan's food production go from famine to self sufficient by 1968. India's farmers reached that plateau by 1974.

Borlaug's pioneer efforts in agriculture saw an Earth that in 1960 produced 692 million tons of grain to feed 2.2 billion people progress to the point where thirty years later it supplied 1.9 billion tons for 5.6 million putting only one percent more land under the plow.

Today, thanks to Dr. Borlaug many believe the era of nature-caused famines is over. Food shortages and famines whether they are in North Korea or Zimbabwe can be traced to politics and politicians. Norman Borlaug taught the world, and the Third World in specific, how to grow food to feed all people.

Borlaugs work with cereals such as wheat and rice led to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. The Nobel Institute credited Dr. Borlaug with saving "hundreds of millions of lives."

In 1986 he founded the World Food Prize, considered the "Nobel Prize" of food and agriculture. His 63-year career carried him to over 100 countries where it is estimated that he lectured before more than 500,000 students and interested citizens.

Norman Borlaug was an outspoken advocate of agricultural biotechnology and critic of pundits, bureaucrats and self-styled "environmentalists" he called "greenies" who decried the importance of applying science to agriculture and whose influence over the media and politicians would drive less renowned scientists who publicly embrace genetically engineered crops into unemployment.

Dr. Norman Borlaug was 95. He will be remembered as "the man who fed the world."

UK WARNS EU OF FEED SHORTAGE DUE TO GM POLICIES

Soy is the staple crop of much of the world's livestock feed. The European Union, thanks to intense lobbying and propaganda campaigns by critics, maintains a stout skepticism about the merits of genetically modified crops. That resistance to GM crops may soon translate, according to the British government, into a real problem for EU livestock growers.

Britain recognizes that the world soy producers are quick to adapt to new strains that may increase production or fend off pests and disease or thrive under less than ideal conditions. As quick as science is to develop new strains, the mechanism for approving their import into the EU is equally stodgy. Worse, for livestock growers, is the fact that major soy growing nations are moving away from conventional non-GM (aka EU okayed) soy towards the more lucrative GM varieties.

The U.S. soy crop is about 90 percent GM. Argentina's soy is also mostly genetically engineered. Brazilian soy is projected to be 80 percent GM by next year.

Britain is worried that their livestock industry will suffer from a lack of soy-based feed due to the inability of the EU approval bureaucracy to react in a timely manner to new agricultural developments in soy crops. A two to three year wait for approval will see retail prices of roasts, chops, steaks, poultry and eggs rise significantly as feed prices rise astronomically.

Alternatives to soy feed are also more expensive and less efficient. Toss shipping price rises due to the transportation sector hoping to cover the risk of shipping grain that might be rejected because of unapproved GM content and the future could be less than favorable for the EU meat industry.

Britain has plenty of good reasons to urge the EU to address the issue this autumn.

UK PHILANTHROPY CHIPS IN MILLIONS IN CASH FOR THIRD WORLD BIOTECH

Britain cares. It cares enough to pledge US$150 million over five years to help agriculturally poor nations develop genetically tailored crops to feed their people. A large chunk of the funds will go towards developing drought resistant corn for Africa. Another of the funded projects will put the finishing developmental touches on golden rice laden with beta carotene. It's aimed at preventing childhood blindness and, literally millions of needless deaths, due to vitamin A deficiency in nations with rice-based diets.

The irony behind the humanitarian pledge is the fact that Britain does not allow a single GM crop to be grown in the United Kingdom. That's a hard fact particularly at a time when a new strain of potato blight threatens to devastate UK's potato crop.

No scientific evidence exists suggesting that GM foods are unsafe. Plenty of anti-GM activists abound in Britain making agricultural genetic engineering highly controversial. Unfortunately, for British consumers and farmers alike, it appears that the issue of GM acceptance throughout the UK and the European Union in general could serve as a case study of the tyranny of the minority.

MONSANTO RESPONDS TO CLAIMS OF ITS BEING A WATER BULLY

Is Monsanto a water bully on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai? An article floating about the Internet by Fred Pearce claims the agricultural research firm is hogging the majority of the island's irrigation water for its crop studies in Hawaii. Tired and frustrated by such unfounded claims, Monsanto fired back at its critic.

According to Monsanto the facts ignored in the article entitled "Fred Pearce's Greenwash: Monsanto? Sustainable? Water bully, I'd say--" are:

A key fact that leads one to believe that Mr. Pearce's attempt to label Monsanto an agricultural water bully is anything but objective journalism rests with Monsanto's research into a maize crop engineered to require less water than conventional varieties.

Mr. Pearce apparently failed to interview anyone at Monsanto and also failed to fact-check his article. He missed some significant information, according to Monsanto.

Monsanto's crop research and seed production on Molokai stretches across 50 percent of the islands farmable land yet it consumes only 25 percent of available irrigation water leaving fully 75 percent for Hawaiian homesteaders and other non-Hawaiian farming concerns. During a drought period on the island, non-Hawaiian concerns were directed by the State government to reduce water usage by 20 percent. Hawaiian farmers were exempt. Monsanto complied with the result that non-Hawaiian water consumption dropped by 32 percent.

Mr. Pearce's claim that Monsanto lobbied to tap into a new aquifer was disputed by the company who said that no such aquifer exists. Monsanto further took its critic to task for his failure to mention Monsanto's offer to fund improvements to increase the efficiency of the Island's irrigation system.

Fred Pearce is a prolific writer and author of a number of books on the environment and the issue of water globally. He's received quite a few awards for his work.

Monsanto is one of the world's largest agricultural scientific research firms. Its scientists are renowned for success in developing crops that increase production, fend off disease, and reduce the need for chemical pesticides.

Given the publics diminishing faith in the credibility of the media coupled with the media's eagerness to publish virtually any negative story aimed at global corporations particularly charges of anti-environmental infractions, it would be very interesting to take each of Mr. Pearce's claims, bundle them with Mr. Pearce as well as with the author of the Monsanto rebuttal, a camera crew and a panel of individuals whose claim to fame is that they are parents who work 9-to-5 jobs to pay their bills and have no affiliation with the media or any other global giant and fly the entire lot to Molokai. The result would be a "reality TV" special would be called "FACT CHECK: WHO'S TELLING THE TRUTH?"