initiatives should have wider publicity than they sometimes receive. It tends to be taken for granted that global agribusiness and particularly the producers of the chemical-based fertilisers that contributed to the success of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s have also been major contributors to the environmental and food scarcity problems we now face.
While it may be true that improved scientific knowledge since those days has identified the downsides and longer term consequences of those agricultural techniques many of us have become very suspicious of all global enterprises involved in agriculture.
A skeptical approach to new scientific innovations from large multinational companies may be understandable but in the long run it may be counter-productive in making us too risk averse, stifling the openness to innovation we may need to tackle the huge problems facing the world.
One such problem is the FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) estimate that we need to increase food production by 70% to feed the nine billion people expected to be inhabiting the planet by 2050.
How that can be done without tearing up even more forest, parkland and natural habitats for agriculture is a serious problem.
There are some suggested solutions, such as using biotechnology in plant breeding, protection of plants with integrated pest management techniques using new-generation low-chem biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers. Properly used such products can potentially increase crop yields by 24% and reduce yield losses by 40-80%.
While it may be true that improved scientific knowledge since those days has identified the downsides and longer term consequences of those agricultural techniques many of us have become very suspicious of all global enterprises involved in agriculture.
A skeptical approach to new scientific innovations from large multinational companies may be understandable but in the long run it may be counter-productive in making us too risk averse, stifling the openness to innovation we may need to tackle the huge problems facing the world.
One such problem is the FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) estimate that we need to increase food production by 70% to feed the nine billion people expected to be inhabiting the planet by 2050.
How that can be done without tearing up even more forest, parkland and natural habitats for agriculture is a serious problem.
There are some suggested solutions, such as using biotechnology in plant breeding, protection of plants with integrated pest management techniques using new-generation low-chem biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers. Properly used such products can potentially increase crop yields by 24% and reduce yield losses by 40-80%.
