Global Crisis on Our Plate
Julian Cribb, Adjunct professor of science communication at the University of Technology, Sydney
In The Australian (April 28, 2008)

 

Full text: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23581600-25192,00.html

 

Can farmers save the world? They might just be the only ones who can, says Julian Cribb in this editorial. "Most people think of farmers as the people 'out there' who grow food and, occasionally, gripe about the weather," writes Cribb, adjunct professor of science communication at the University of Technology, Sydney, and editor of www.sciencealert.com.au. The farmer of the 21st century, however, he writes, "may be the person who rescues civilisation."

Growing awareness of a global food crisis coincides with the recent release of the report by the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), which was the product of four years of work by more than 400 scientific experts to gauge the scope of the challenges presented by the unequal distribution of food and control of the world's dwindling natural resources. It is clear, writes Julian  that "the world's two billion farmers are the guardians of much of what is left of the natural landscape, holding in their hands the fate of thousands of threatened species as well as the world's remaining forests."

Meeting these challenges, Cribb says, will require "nothing less than the reshaping of the way humanity produces food, feeds itself and manages Earth's natural resources, a system mired in 7000 years of cultural tradition and contemporary economic and political power.... Farmers will not simply have to feed the world - a task requiring a doubling in the already immense global food supply - but also restore its forests, cleanse its waters, protect its wild species, improve its soils and absorb a substantial percentage of the carbon we all emit as we go about our lives."

Out of Calamity, Conservation
M.S. Swaminathan, UNESCO chair in ecotechnology
In The World in 2007, a publication of the Economist (April 02, 2007)

 

Full text: http://unescoscience.blogspot.com/2007/04/out-of-calamity-conservation.html

 

In this article, M.S. Swaminathan suggests that the rich world and the poor world need different strategies to preserve biodiversity. He proposes two different approaches: "don’t ecology," which involves regulations and restrictions and is best suited for developed countries; and “do ecology,” which involves activities that create an economic stake in conservation and is most appropriate for developing countries. Swaminathan cites two recent examples that show the potential of “do ecology” to preserve biodiversity in the developing world. An example of “do ecology” happened as a result of the December 2004 Asian tsunami. When the tsunami spared villages where mangrove forests had been preserved, residents realized the value of their mangroves, which they now call “life-savers.” Swaminathan argues that “do ecology” comes out of ecological disaster or economic opportunity, not preaching. In low-income countries, it makes the most sense to promote this kind of conservation, because it offers tangible ecological and economic benefits.

The Environmental Crisis, and Solutions to That Crisis
Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director
In IFPRI Forum (March 02, 2007)

 

Full text: http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/newsletters/IFPRIForum/200703/IF18Steiner.asp

 

Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, was interviewed in the March 2007 International Food Policy Research Institute’s Forum publication: "Sustainable agriculture and sustainable management of nature-based assets are not only compatible but a prerequisite for maintaining yields into a century where there will be soon nine billion mouths to feed... So we must bury the myth that environmental sustainability and agricultural production are somehow at loggerheads—we must grasp the fundamental facts that sustainable development requires sustainable management of farmers' fields but also of the wider environment so that they coexist in more intelligent and mutually supportive ways."