NEWS: plant-based solutions

[Guest guest]

FOR RELEASE 11/1/99 CONTACT: David Pryor, 703-533-0184,

dvp

 

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUP LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN PROMOTING PLANT-BASED SOLUTIONS

TO FEEDING THE WORLD

 

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 Princi-pal Investigator, China-Cornell-Oxford Diet and

Health Project

* Marc J. Cohen - Assistant to Director General of the Int'l 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 na-tions. 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, http://www.farmusa.org