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| The
Green Revolution, Peace, and Humanity |
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| Civilization
as it is known today could not have evolved, nor can it
survive, without an adequate food supply. Yet food is
something that is taken for granted by most world leaders
despite the fact that more than half of the population
of the world is hungry. Man seems to insist on ignoring
the lessons available from history. |
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| Man's
survival, from the time of Adam and Eve until the invention
of agriculture, must have been precarious because of his
inability to ensure his food supply. During the long,
obscure, dimly defined prehistoric period when man lived
as a wandering hunter and food gatherer, frequent food
shortages must have prevented the development of village
civilizations. Under these conditions the growth of human
population was also automatically limited by the limitations
of food supplies. |
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| In
the misty, hazy past, as the Mesolithic Age gave way to
the Neolithic, there suddenly appeared in widely separated
geographic areas the most highly successful group of inventors
and revolutionaries that the world has ever known. This
group of Neolithic men and women, and in all probability
largely the latter, domesticated all the major cereals,
legumes, and root crops, as well as all of the most important
animals that to this day remain man's principal source
of food. Apparently, nine thousand years ago, in the foothills
of the Zagros Mountains1, man had already become both
agriculturist and animal husbandry-man, which, in turn,
soon led to the specialization of labor and the development
of village life. Similar discoveries and developments
elsewhere soon laid the groundwork from which all modern
agriculture and animal industry and, indeed, all of the
world's subsequent civilizations have evolved. Despite
the tremendous value of their contributions, we know none
of these benefactors of mankind by name. In fact, it has
only been within the past century, and especially within
the last fifteen years - since the development of the
effective radio-carbon dating system - that we have begun
even vaguely to understand the timing of these epochal
events which have shaped the world's destiny. |
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invention of agriculture, however, did not permanently
emancipate man from the fear of food shortages, hunger,
and famine. Even in prehistoric times population growth
often must have threatened or exceeded man's ability to
produce enough food. Then, when droughts or outbreaks
of diseases and insect pests ravaged crops, famine resulted. |
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| That
such catastrophes occurred periodically in ancient times
is amply clear from numerous biblical references. Thus,
the Lord said: "I have smitten you with blasting
and mildew."2 "The seed is rotten under their
clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken
down; for the corn is withered... The beasts of the field
cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried
up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness."3 |
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| Plant
diseases, drought, desolation, despair were recurrent
catastrophes during the ages - and the ancient remedies:
supplications to supernatural spirits or gods. And yet,
the concept of the "ever-normal granary" appeared
in elementary form, as is clear from Pharaoh's dreams
and Joseph's interpretation of imminent famine and his
preparation for it, as indicated by this quotation from
Genesis: "...And the seven years of dearth began
to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth
was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was
bread..."4 For his time, Joseph was wise, with the
help of his God. |
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| But
today we should be far wiser; with the help of our Gods
and our science, we must not only increase our food supplies
but also insure them against biological and physical catastrophes
by international efforts to provide international granaries
of reserve food for use in case of need. And these food
reserves must be made available to all who need them -
and before famine strikes, not afterwards. Man can and
must prevent the tragedy of famine in the future instead
of merely trying with pious regret to salvage the human
wreckage of the famine, as he has so often done in the
past. We will be guilty of criminal negligence, without
extenuation, if we permit future famines. Humanity cannot
tolerate that guilt. |
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| Alfred
Nobel was also very conscious of the importance of food,
for he once wrote: "I would rather take care of the
stomachs of the living than the glory of the departed
in the form of monuments." |
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| The
destiny of world civilization depends upon providing a
decent standard of living for all mankind. The guiding
principles of the recipient of the 1969 Nobel Peace Prize,
the International Labor Organization, are expressed in
its charter words, "Universal and lasting peace can
be established only if it is based upon social justice.
If you desire peace, cultivate justice." This is
magnificent; no one can disagree with this lofty principle. |
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certainly, however, the first essential component of social
justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the
moral right of all who are born into this world. Yet today
fifty percent of the world's population goes hungry. Without
food, man can live at most but a few weeks; without it,
all other components of social justice are meaningless.
Therefore I feel that the aforementioned guiding principle
must be modified to read: If you desire peace, cultivate
justice, but at the same time cultivate the fields to
produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace. |
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| The
recognition that hunger and social strife are linked is
not new, for it is evidenced by the Old Testament passage,
"...and it shall come to pass, that when they shall
be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their
King and their God..."5 |
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| Perhaps
no one in recent times has more pungently expressed the
interrelationship of food and peace than Nobel Laureate
Lord John Boyd Orr6, the great crusader against hunger
and the first director-general of the Food and Agriculture
Organization, with his famous words, "You can't build
peace on empty stomachs." These simple words of wisdom
spoken twenty-one years ago are as valid today as when
they were spoken. They will become even more meaningful
in the future as world population skyrockets and as crowding,
social pressures, and stresses increase. To ignore Lord
Orr's admonition would result in worldwide disorders and
social chaos, for it is a fundamental biological law that
when the life of living organisms is threatened by shortage
of food they tend to swarm and use violence to obtain
their means of sustenance. |
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| It
is a sad fact that on this earth at this late date there
are still two worlds, "the privileged world"
and "the forgotten world". The privileged world
consists of the affluent, developed nations, comprising
twenty-five to thirty percent of the world population,
in which most of the people live in a luxury never before
experienced by man outside the Garden of Eden. The forgotten
world is made up primarily of the developing nations,
where most of the people, comprising more than fifty percent
of the total world population, live in poverty, with hunger
as a constant companion and fear of famine a continual
menace. |
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| When
the Nobel Peace Prize Committee designated me the recipient
of the 1970 award for my contribution to the "green
revolution", they were in effect, I believe, selecting
an individual to symbolize the vital role of agriculture
and food production in a world that is hungry, both for
bread and for peace. I am but one member of a vast
team made up of many organizations, officials, thousands
of scientists, and millions of farmers - mostly small
and humble - who for many years have been fighting a quiet,
oftentimes losing war on the food production front. |
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