Agriculture and Science in Saskatchewan

Vision and Reality for the Future Drew L. Kershen Earl Sneed Centennial Professor of Law University of Oklahoma, College of Law Copyright 2009, Drew L. Kershen, all rights reserved

The Visions

WDR 2008: Agriculture for Development p. 1: “Using agriculture as the basis for economic growth in the agriculture-based countries requires a productivity revolution in smallholder farming.” p. 15: “Revolutionary advances in biotechnology offer potentially large benefits to poor producers and poor consumers. But today’s investments in biotechnology concentrated in the private sector and driven by commercial interests have had limited impacts on smallholder productivity in the developing world – the exception Bt cotton in China and India.”

Royal Society of Chemistry: The Vital Ingredient (2009) p. 4: “Historically the increases in production of all major crops have come from higher yields as a consequence of improved varieties, better farming practices, and the application of new technologies such as agrochemicals and, more recently, agricultural biotechnology. Major opportunities exist for the chemical sciences in addressing sustainable crop production.” p. 4: “Modern biotechnology should be used … Regulation in this contentious area must be based on an evaluation of risk, using sound science, and not on socio-political fear of new technology.”

National Research Council: Emerging Technologies to Benefit Farmers in SSA and SA (2009) p. 7: Box 1.1 The most serious constraints in SSA and SA (among 15 listed) – “Need for biotechnology and other new technologies to increase productivity.” p. 46: “It is obvious that many of the approaches to crop improvement for the poor discussed in this report could be transgenic approaches. … To benefit the poor, there needs to be a dramatic alteration of the barriers that have prevented the development and release of such crops in the developing world.” p. 104: “In spite of all those challenges, it would be short-sighted to continue trying to solve crop production constraints and breeding inefficiencies decade after decade without using transgenics.”

IAASTD: Agriculture at a Crossroads (2008) Key Findings: –# 7: “An increase and strengthening of AKST [towards] [incorporating] agroecological sciences will contribute to addressing environmental issues while maintaining and increasing productivity.” –# 10: “Many of the challenges facing agriculture currently and in the future will require more innovative and integrated applications of existing knowledge, science and technology (formal, traditional and community-based), as well as new approaches for agricultural and natural resource management.”

IAASTD: Agriculture at a Crossroads (2008) p. 33: “The ecological footprint of industrial agriculture is already too large to be ignored and projected increases in future global environmental changes could make the footprint even larger. … Policies that promote sustainable agricultural practices (e.g. using market and other types of incentives to reward environmental services) stimulate more technology innovation, such as agroecological approaches and organic farming to alleviate poverty and improve food security.”

IAASTD: Agriculture at a Crossroads (2008) Civil Society Statement – A new era of agriculture begins today (April 15, 2008). “The [IAASTD] report reflects a growing consensus among the global scientific community and most governments that the old paradigm of industrial, energy- intensive and toxic agriculture is a concept of the past. The key message of the report is that small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods provide the way forward …” Benedict Haerlin (Greenpeace, EU): “The modern way of farming is biodiverse and labour intensive and works with nature, not against it.”

The Reality: Food Challenges Demand –Population –Dietary Preferences –Poverty –Malnutrition –Food Safety –Nutrition Rural Development –Ag productivity –Economic growth –Governance Supply –Land expansion –Intensification –Water –New Pests –Climate Change –Environmental Impact Agriculture –R & D –Infrastructure & Education –Trade

Matching the Vision to the Reality – Which Vision? Sustainable Intensive Agriculture –Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT, “We need science to come back to farming.” Agroecology – Alexander Hissting, Greenpeace Germany, saying his organization is not opposed to plants developed using directed mutagenesis, but will not promote it. “It is not going in the direction we favour for sustainable agriculture – the future of agriculture in not industrial agriculture, but local, small-scale agriculture.”

Science in Farming: Saskatchewan

Science in Farming: Nutrition, Health & Safety

Agroecology in Farming: Biodiverse and Labour Intensive

Farmers in Farming: Farmers Count Green Revolution –Semi-dwarf plants –Fertilizer –Irrigation Hybrid Seeds –Yield v Cost Biotechnology –Farmer choice Canadian farmers 11 m poor-resource

Consumers in Farming: Consumers eat “Without the resulting rise in average yields – globally for cereal grains from about 0.75t/ha in 1900 to 2.7t/ha in 2000 – it would not have been possible to support the unprecedented numbers of people with diets whose adequacy is unmatched in history. … 2.4 billion people – that is, some 40% of the world’s population of 6 billion – could not be fed in their countries even by the most intensive, but always nitrogen-limited, traditional farming.” V. Smil, Enriching the Earth at p. 204 (MIT Press, 2001).

Denmark: The Bichel Committee 1999 An Assessment of total restructuring of agriculture for organic production – Preface –“The analysis shows that total restructuring for organic production would be a drastic change and would lead to considerable restrictions on production compared with the present situation.” –“The analysis shows that compulsory restructuring for 100% organic production in Denmark within the current framework would hardly be possible.” –Significant drop in production; significant increase in price premiums paid to farmers.

Technology in the Seed

Thank you for the honor to present the Harry Toop Memorial Science for Saskatchewan Lecture. I look forward to questions, comments, and discussion.