FW: Why India needs transgenic crops

alex lantsberg wideye at ziplink.net
Tue Jul 30 21:08:27 PDT 2002


from what i understand cuba has an extensive organic farming program that has received raves from some of the food security folks in the bay area. i've also begun hearing about high productivity organic "biointensive" farming techniques that reportedly build rapidly soil health and have productivity as high or higher than industrialized programs. i don't know enough about ag to comment it, but it may be promising. the website is http://www.growbiointensive.org/

another thing to consider in the embrace of heavily industrialized ag is the attendant displacement of rural labor which flocks to the city. i don't know much about india, but i imagine its urban centers are poorly equipped to handle massive in migration from the countryside either infrastructure wise or with respect to their economies. that, on top of the destruction of the informal economies and social networks that help people survive in the countryside would be a triple whammy on a developing state.

in the "cities and the wealth of nations" (1984) jane jacobs has good discussion about the imported technology trap - whether in ag or industry. she's doesn't cite empirical data to prove or disprove her point, but my professors have never quibbled with her points. i'd quote something from here, but don't have a scanner and don't quite have the energy to retype a page. you can find the salient points in around page 89 in the hardcover.

alex



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