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Author: COLIN BETTLES, Farmonline.com FOR the first time in the history of our planet, one billion people are starving and another two million are undernourished. The starvation and malnourishment is occurring at horrific levels in third world Africa, while Asia is also suffering greatly from the lack of basic life elements. The advancement and enrichment of modern agricultural production techniques offers sustainable solutions to these problems. The practical knowledge and know-how needed to stimulate agricultural output in the areas at greatest risk, is immediately ascertainable from a number of willing sources. The World Bank estimates it will cost about $10 billion per year to make a significant dent in the problem. Governments around the world, including ours in Australia, have made repeated public commitments to increase foreign aid and assistance programs to help achieve these critical goals. Between them, these Governments can afford to kick in the $10b now. However, for reasons known only to those in charge, political inertia continues to entangle the solution, while the starvation...

Author: JACQUI FATKA IN light of ongoing debates on global food security, agricultural sustainability and climate change, it is important to recognise the benefits biotechnology brings to world agricultural production. According to several research summaries released by PG Economics, those impacts are significant. Biotech crops have contributed to significantly reducing the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices. In 2007, this was equivalent to removing 14.2 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or removing nearly 6.3 million cars from the road for one year. The greenhouse gas emission reductions are derived from two principle sources: reduced fuel use from less-frequent herbicide or insecticide applications and reduced energy usage in soil cultivation from the use of no-till and reduced-till farming systems. From 1996 to 2007, pesticide spraying was reduced by 359 million kilograms, which is equivalent to 125 per cent of the annual volume of pesticide active ingredient applied to arable crops in the European Union. The fuel savings associated with making fewer spray runs...