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an excellent response to nat geo
Posted: April 26 2014
Read National Geographic's piece, Feeding 9 Billion, HERE. (with some incredible photography)
Eric Holt-Gimenez of Food First responds HERE.
Feeding Nine Billion: Five Steps to the Wrong Solution
Eric Holt-Giménez | 04.25.2014
National Geographic‘s recent online slideshow featuring an article by global ecologist Jonathan Foley lays out a Five Step Plan to Feed the World that proposes to “blend the best” farming techniques of organic and local farms with those of high-tech and conventional farms. It is a collaborative proposition framed within an attractive media presentation that relies on much of the conventional wisdom expressed in food and agriculture policy circles today.
It is also wrong.
The five steps (freeze agriculture’s footprint, grow more on existing farms, use resources more efficiently, shift diets, reduce waste) are all good technological fixes, none of which are terribly complicated. So if they are so great, why aren’t we implementing them? Or even more disturbing, why is hunger still prevalent in places where they are implemented?
The answer is because the Five Step Plan is based on a number of hidden–and false–assumptions.
hudson, new york