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Blessed Are The Poor With SpiritConko and Prakash Article in Tech Central Stationby Gregory Conko and Dr. C.S. Prakash June 25, 2002 This year's UN-sponsored World Food Summit just concluded with a grim reminder that the goal of cutting world hunger in half by 2015 set six years ago at the first Food Summit still seems far out of reach. This time, however, delegates agreed to meet the challenge of achieving genuine food security with a very potent tool: agricultural biotechnology. Biotechnology holds the potential to increase food production, reduce the use of synthetic chemical pesticides, and actually make foods...

<p>JOHANNESBURG — U.S. AID Administrator Andrew Natsios accused environmental groups yesterday of endangering the lives of millions of famine-threatened Africans by encouraging their governments to reject genetically modified U.S. food aid.</p> <p>"They can play these games with Europeans, who have full stomachs, but it is revolting and despicable to see them do so when the lives of Africans are at stake," Mr. Natsios said in an interview.</p>

August 26, 2002 A Summit Misconceived Their hearts are in the right place... By Ronald Bailey Johannesburg, South Africa - The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is supposed to be aimed at eradicating global poverty, but many of the measures favored by negotiators and activists would increase poverty, not alleviate it. The problems are stark. Some 1.1 billion people lack safe drinking water; 2.2 billion are without adequate sanitation; 2.5 billion lack access to modern energy services; 11 million children under the age of five die each year in developing countries from preventable diseases; and despite an abundance...

August 27, 2002 Listening to the Poor What Western environmentalists could learn from real poor people By Ronald Bailey Johannesburg, South Africa - During a thirty-minute taxi ride to the National Exposition Center in Johannesburg - where the "civil society" Global Forum groups are holding sessions - I had a chance to talk with our driver Issac, a 60 year old black resident of Johannesburg. Issac is a twin and one of nine children. His father raised cattle in the Northern Province. I told him that I, too, grew up on a farm and thought it was very hard...