Prince Charles--Sustainable Ag Can Feed the
World Not GE Crops

THE GUARDIAN (UK)

Low-tech beats GM, says prince

Charles backs revolutionary system to aid starving
Special report: GM debate

John Vidal
Tuesday January 16, 2001

Prince Charles yesterday reignited the GM debate by endorsing a
revolutionary agricultural system that claims to prove that the 800m
facing hunger in developing countries can grow far more food by
adopting simple farming techniques than by going down the hi-tech
GM route favoured by Tony Blair and US corporations.

Addressing a conference at St James's Palace on the benefits of
"sustainable" agriculture, the prince said: "Arguments for hi-tech
agriculture are increasingly accepted without question, and their
possible long term consequences on the environment and economies
are not being given sufficient attention.

"One of the most commonly raised arguments raised by those in favour of
GMs is that they are necessary to 'feed the world'. But where people are
starving, lack of food is rarely the underlying cause. There is a need to
create sustainable livelihoods. I would argue for a more balanced
approach. Sustainable agriculture provides a pointer to what can be
achieved."

The prince, representatives of large corporations, charities and
academies around the world heard that almost 9m poor farmers
in more than 50 developing countries were witnessing 50 to 150%
yield increases with huge environmental and social benefits.

"Sustainable agriculture" has been developed largely over the past
decade and aims to save water, regenerate soils by using manures,
forgo deep ploughing to prevent erosion, reclaim unproductive land,
and minimise the use of pesticides and fertilisers. It is close to organic
agriculture which the prince has long favoured.

The usual claim for GM foods is that they increase yields between 5 to
10%, but, say critics, hi-tech farming may undermine small farmers who
mostly save their own seeds and cannot afford the new technology.

Leading GM companies and governments have highlighted the growing
global food crisis and tried to promote the controversial technology by
claiming it could "feed the world". Last year, Mr Blair said that GM foods
could "bring benefits for mankind".

The research by Essex University, funded by the Department for
International Development, Greenpeace and Bread For the World,
collated data from more than 200 projects growing food on more than
29.8m hectares (75m acres), and found "astonishing" results.

"We set out to see if farmers can improve food production with cheap,
low-cost, locally available technologies and inputs, and whether they
can do this without causing further environmental damage," said Jules Pretty,
director of the University of Essex centre for environment and society.

"We found that for 4.42m small farmers practising sustainable
agriculture on 3.58m hectares average food production per household
increased 73%. For the 146,000 farmers on 542,000 hectares cultivating
crops like potato and cassava the increase was 150%; and on larger
farms total production increased by 46%."

The research showed that almost all the projects made better use of
local natural resources and involved people working together as groups.
"It seems to work best in the poorest areas," said Prof Pretty. "We can
start to see real improvements."
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'Feeding the world?'
Jules Pretty on the myths and realities of sustainable farming's quiet
revolution http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/article2.htm

'Strange fruit' - Jules Petty on sustainable agriculture
http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/235.htm