With global attention so recently focused on the international AIDS conference in Thailand, it’s easy to forget that malnutrition is an even bigger problem in many parts of the developing world--and one that’s made even worse by the scourge of AIDS.
Consider the case of Africa, where an estimated 28.5 million people are HIV-positive. Undernourishment is the continent’s most significant health problem, and it’s been made worse by the fact that AIDS has killed some 7 million African farmers. Growing enough food to meet everybody’s need would have been a big enough challenge before these deaths. It’s much more difficult in their aftermath.
The good news is that biotechnology offers solutions to the twin challenges of food and AIDS--and that many leaders are starting to see the connection.
At a summit of African leaders in July, UN secretary general Kofi Annan issued a bold declaration: “Let us generate a uniquely African Green Revolution--a revolution that is long overdue, a revolution that will help it in its quest for dignity and peace.”
The last Green Revolution, led by Norman Borlaug, transformed agricultural practices in the 1960s and 1970s, making it possible for farmers to keep up with a booming world population. Although many African farmers adopted new and more productive techniques, others were completely untouched by these developments. Their methods remain relatively primitive. The benefits of the Green Revolution, which include important advances in seeds, irrigation and fertilization, must be brought to them.
The benefits of the next Green Revolution--the one going on right now -- will perhaps be better understood as the Gene Revolution.
The advent of biotechnology and its genetically enhanced crops is transforming agriculture in countries like the United States, Canada, Argentina, and South Africa. Yields are up and production costs are down. There’s also less stress on the environment. When an acre of biotech soybeans in Brazil produces more food than an acre of non-biotech soybeans, it’s easy to see why local farmers would want to adopt it--and how their decision will help feed more people and reduce pressure to convert rainforests into farmland.
The same phenomenon would work in Africa, if only its political leaders would embrace biotechnology. So far, they haven’t been too trusting--in large part because they look to Europe for advice and counsel. Many European consumers, scientifically illiterate and insulated from the despair of malnourishment, remain skeptical of biotechnology.
To be sure, there are signs of hope. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has embraced biotechnology. The Southern African Development Community has recommended accepting aid in the form of genetically modified food (as long as it has been milled). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which traditionally has taken a strong interest in farmers in the developing world, has endorsed agricultural biotechnology.
I’m also encouraged by the ongoing activism of several energetic Africans, including Dr. Florence Wambugu of Africa Harvest, Professor Norah Olembo of the Africa Biotech Stakeholders Forum, Professor Jocelyn Webster of AfricaBio, and Joseph Wekundah of the Biotechnology Trust Africa. Their advocacy has been indispensable not only in winning hearts and minds on their native continent, but also in helping those of us who don’t live in Africa to understand both the magnitude of the plight as well as the significance of the opportunity.
The true potential of biotechnology goes far beyond putting food in people’s mouths. It also offers hope in the fight against AIDS. If we’re ever going to beat this disease--not just learn to live with it, not just contain it, but truly beat it--we’ll have to rely heavily on biotechnology. If and when a cure or a vaccine becomes available, I’m certain that biotechnology will have made its discovery possible.
And biotechnology may also provide the key to its dissemination. It is one thing to produce a single dose of medicine in a lab, and quite another to manufacture it in enormous quantities at a reasonable price. The embryonic science of pharmaceutical farming--also known as “pharming”--may make it possible for us to create special crops that do the job for us.
A couple of years ago, one African president called GM foods “toxic.” How ironic that this “toxic” technology may in fact restore the continent’s lifeblood. But it will only happen if we’re willing to let it.
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With global attention so recently focused on the international AIDS conference in Thailand, it’s easy to forget that malnutrition is an even bigger problem in many parts of the developing world--and one that’s made even worse by the scourge of AIDS.
