A symposium at the World Bank on Friday, featuring top
US experts on nutrition and agricultural resources, launched a major
public interest campaign to promote plant-based solutions to feeding the
world.
The experts were:
* T. Colin Campbell - Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell
University and Principal Investigator, China-Cornell-Oxford Diet and
Health Project
* Marc J. Cohen - Assistant to Director General of the Intl Food Policy
Research Institute
* Michael W. Fox - Senior Scholar of Bioethics, The Humane Society of
the United States;
* Robert J. A. Goodland - Environmental Adviser, World Bank
* David Pimentel - Professor of Ecology and Agricultural Sciences,
Cornell University
* Tjaart Schillhorn van Veen - Livestock Adviser, World Bank. The topics
covered included:
~~ Potential role of livestock in alleviating extreme
poverty and providing micronutrients
~~ Potential role of biotechnology in food production
~~ Lack of land, water, energy, and other resources to support
livestock-based solutions
~~ Likely health and environmental problems associated with livestock
solutions
~~ Likely social and political problems associated with livestock
solutions
~~ Resource, health, and environmental benefits of plant-based
solutions.
The consensus of participants was in favor of
plant-based solutions.
During the next two months, the Campaign will focus on
three objectives:
~ Preparation and distribution of a position paper
touting plant-based solutions to feeding the world
~ Presentation of plant-based solutions at pertinent symposia,
conferences, and hearings
~ Involvement of other public interest organizations in the process.
The Campaign was precipitated by projections that the
number of farm animals slaughtered annually will increase from the
current 43 billion to as many as 100 billion per year by 2020. This
massive increase would be met by exporting western-style factory farming
and pollution control technologies to developing countries. The
resulting drawdown of grain supplies would precipitate widespread
famine. Public health impacts would impose an intolerable burden on the
economies of developing nations. The impacts on soil, water quality and
quantity, and wildlife would threaten their fragile ecological
infrastructures. The associated contract farming would exploit
indigenous farmers creating a form of agricultural colonialism.
The Campaign is coordinated by FARM, a national
Washington-based public interest organization promoting plant-based
solutions to feeding the world
"Saving Our Planet, One Bite At a Time"
FARM - 1-888-ASK FARM, www.farmusa.org
Email: [email protected]
Go on to A Good
Example - Anonymous
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