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Green Activists Are "Keeping Africa Poor"
Times Online ^ | September 8, 2008 | Mark Henderson

Posted on 09/09/2008 3:01:09 PM PDT by all the best

Western do-gooders are impoverishing Africa by promoting traditional farming at the expense of modern scientific agriculture, according to Britain's former chief scientist.

Anti-science attitudes among aid agencies, poverty campaigners and green activists are denying the continent access to technology that could improve millions of lives, Professor Sir David King will say today.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Europe and America are turning African countries against sophisticated farming methods, including GM crops, in favour of indigenous and organic approaches that cannot deliver the continent's much needed “green revolution”, he believes. Speaking before a keynote lecture tonight to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he is president, Sir David said that the slow pace of African development was linked directly to Western influence. “I'm going to suggest, and I believe this very strongly, that a big part has been played in the impoverishment of that continent by the focus on nontechnological agricultural techniques, on techniques of farming that pertain to the history of that continent rather than techniques that pertain to modern technological capability. Why has that continent not joined Asia in the big green revolutions that have taken place over the past few decades? The suffering within that continent, I believe, is largely driven by attitudes developed in the West which are somewhat anti-science, anti-technology - attitudes that lead towards organic farming, for example, attitudes that lead against the use of genetic technology for crops that could deal with increased salinity in the water, that can deal with flooding for rice crops, that can deal with drought resistance.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4699096.ece

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; environment; farming; greens; poverty

1 posted on 09/09/2008 3:02:21 PM PDT by all the best
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To: all the best

Hey, they’re just ‘respecting African traditions’, aren’t they? Can’t have somebody actually making money at something, now.


2 posted on 09/09/2008 3:04:43 PM PDT by Post Toasties (It's not a smear if it's true.)
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To: all the best
Earlier thread.


3 posted on 09/09/2008 3:05:52 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Without the second, the rest are just politicians' BS.)
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To: all the best; All

So, liberal “feel good” activities produce the exact opposite of what they were intended to do...

My Word, That is a Surprise! </s>


4 posted on 09/09/2008 3:12:00 PM PDT by Lost Dutchman ("Weep for the future Na'Toth, Weep for us all." (G'Kar-Babylon 5))
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To: all the best

Eco-fascists murdered millions of women, children and babies in Third World countries after banning DDT.

Killing a few million more from starvation won’t bother these Marxists. Besides, lynching blacks is now frowned on, so the racists need to find more subtle means of killing them.


5 posted on 09/09/2008 3:24:49 PM PDT by sergeantdave (We are entering the Age of the Idiot)
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To: all the best

I have listened to a few “volunteers” talk about their African visits to teach farming. I have been impressed that the number one and two issues are affordability and sustainability. Technology comes later. Technology seems to me more in line with large farms producing large crops, rather than the average subsistence farm.


6 posted on 09/09/2008 4:10:16 PM PDT by wita (truthspeaks@freerepublic.com)
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To: wita

This article is a bunch of hooey. Many African farmers and beaurocrats (can’t spell today) want improved technology from GMOs to improved irrigation and tractors. A major problem is “Who Pays?” for the technology, for the maintenance, for the training? In some countries the best is kept from the people, but that is often a local decision. Think Rhodesia.


7 posted on 09/09/2008 4:51:12 PM PDT by rusty millet
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To: rusty millet
Think Rhodesia.

Isn't that the present day Garden of Eden, Zimbabwe? Things sure improved when they got rid of those colonializing whiteys.

8 posted on 09/09/2008 7:10:44 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government)
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