Green Revolution and free trade
Embassy | Ottawa | March 28th, 2007
EDITORIAL
Green Revolution and Free trade
Hiding behind the controversy over the Gates and Rockefeller foundations plan to re-introduce a "Green Revolution" into Africa is the real problem with food production in developing countries: Free trade.
This new version of the Green Revolution, despite its unfortunate resuscitation of a bankrupt name, may offer some technological improvement if it can stay away from genetically-modified seeds, chemical fertilizers and high energy-based agriculture.
But technological improvement is not the key issue in developing world food production. The problem is still to be found in the kind of free trade agreements that the West relentlessly imposes on developing countries, allowing us to swamp local producers with our cheap over-production while subsidizing our own farmers.
Hunger will increase as long as we support and protect our agriculture and force the developing world to do the opposite.
