Book Review: The Stork And The Plow

Les Woodfin

1996

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 2nd quarter 1996, No. 343

A 300 page book written by Paul and Anne Ehrlich and Gretchen Daily. A Grosset/Putnam Book published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

This is an excellent book, presenting many details; more than should be necessary perhaps, concerning the problems of maintaining the food supply for an increasing population. The analysis of the problems demonstrate a more than adequate research effort, and is written in an easily understandable manner, by people with unquestionable knowledge of the subject. Other books written by the Ehrlichs in the past have also been excellent and indicate a long-time study of population trends and the resulting problems. Many important statements in the book should be of great interest to our educational institutions, the press, and all of Earth's people. Some samples follow:

"...As the twentieth century draws to a close, humanity faces the daunting prospect of supporting its population without inducing catastrophic and irreversible destruction to Earth's life support systems. "...population suddenly became a taboo subject, and long-established U.S. policies of giving family planning assistance to developing nations changed dramatically. A decade later, the public learned why: Reagan had entered into a secret agreement with the Vatican to do whatever he could to eliminate U.S. funding of international family planning programs and especially to eliminate any funding connected with abortions -- even where abortions were completely legal. "...the growing threat to the survival and well-being of future generations posed by unchecked population growth was completely ignored by both Ronald Reagan and the Pope. "...we and others have estimated that a global population of 1.5 to 2 billion people might be sustainable, enabling all to attain a higher quality of life than that of the average American or European today with a less destructive impact on life-support systems. "...It is still an open question whether man will be able to survive the exceedingly complex conditions he has created for himself. If he fails in this task, interplanetary archaeologists of the future will classify our planet as one in which a very long and stable period of small-scale hunting and gathering was followed by an apparently instantaneous efflorescence of technology and society leading rapidly to extinction."

The order of magnitude of the danger indicated here is such that this subject should be carefully investigated, even by those who find themselves unable to believe that so much danger could exist. The survival of the species is too important to take the chance that one's opinion could be incorrect.

Unfortunately, as great as the authors' knowledge is of the dangers of overpopulation, together with the time required to gain that knowledge, it is understandable that they have not had the time required to make a similar and equally careful scientific study of the present economic system. However, they do realize that many economic problems do exist which will be quite difficult to overcome in order to devise a sustainable future for humankind. Some samples of statements in the book which indicate the economic problems follow:

"...Birth rates ordinarily fall as economic status rises; certainly health and well-being improve. Yet, the U.S. is increasingly a nation where a relatively few rich people are getting richer and the mass of the population is getting poorer. "...It is important to remember, however, [in a discussion of water shortages] that water will always have the tendency to flow toward money and power, an important social constraint on carrying capacity. "...Unfortunately, the pesticide industry is a powerful, well financed, and well organized force in the United States, backing legislation designed to weaken public health standards for pesticide residues in food. The industry collectively contributes millions of dollars annually to members of Congress to promote its interests. [Note: What does this say about both Industry and Congress?] "...developing nations remitted in debt service alone $1.345 trillion to creditor nations between 1982 and 1990. Yet, at the start of the 1990s, debtor nations were collectively 61 percent deeper in debt than in 1982. "...External debt and other economic pressures spur government support of cash crop production for export at the expense of subsistence agriculture. "...Today much hunger is caused by maldistribution and maldistribution traces primarily to a shortage of buying power among the poor. "...Ultimately, the plow will win its race with the stork only with tremendous help from the system that divides up the pie; no more seconds and thirds for some, while others go hungry. The socio-economic inequities prevailing in agricultural systems worldwide at every level of organization are not only stifling production, they are also an important root cause of the degradation of the natural underpinnings of productivity. The socio-economic constraints on further expansion of food supplies are at least as daunting as the biophysical constraints, and failure to address either kind is guaranteed to perpetuate and intensify human suffering. "...Japan serves as a model of production possibilities if cost were not a factor. "...A substantial further expansion of the green revolution, therefore, would require a complex of political and economic changes, globally and nationally, to make green revolution technologies available to subsistence farmers who still lack access to them. "...people who live in festering third-world slums -- or are homeless in Chicago, Illinois, don't have their economic views expounded in FORBES magazine or on the editorial pages of the WALL STREET JOURNAL, which mindlessly view the world through rose-colored glasses as long as the rich are getting richer still. ...Our global civilization faces collapse if today's trends are permitted to continue. The laws of nature will not be repealed to permit either population size or consumption per person to grow forever. But people corporately plan as if those laws did not exist. "...One of the trends in the world that works against improving the lot of poor people -- that increases inequity -- is the expanding influence of the already super-powerful multinational corporations. A new global economic order is emerging under the influence of a few hundred of these giants. ...One very evident result is the failure of the new "global economy" to create jobs in sufficient numbers. By 2015 it is expected that the number of jobless men and women in developing nations will more than double to nearly 1.5 billion. "...Quoting Hans Magnus: '"More and more people are being permanently excluded from the economic system because it no longer pays to exploit them."' The basic problem facing the new global economy will be market saturation. Population growth and downward pressure on wages mean increasing numbers of poor people, which is not a long-term recipe for expansion of markets. Sooner or later, a system driven by spreading frenzied consumerism is bound to grind to a halt. "...At the most elementary level, poor people need more money to buy food. Equity is needed now as never before, because humanity has not previously exceeded the biophysical carrying capacity of Earth. ...The needed actions, -- amount to nearly total transformation of human activities. ...We propose some key actions here quite briefly; even so, they dismay even us."

The authors of this book are taking quite a chance when criticizing the actions of either big business or a "conservative" religious organization. They may find it becomes ever more difficult to have their books published, advertising for the books less available, and any mistake made may be used to "prove" their entire work to be faulty. Several environmental organizations are funded by big business which then is able to influence, or at least partly control the information that is published for the public.

People who have scratched and clawed their way to the top of very profitable organizations are not easily persuaded to change their methods for the benefit of future generations. For example, why are modern wars allowed to be so profitable? Further, if those top people were pushed out, there are thousands more standing in line to take their places. For the past few thousands of years many good people have been trying to make all of us be "reasonable" with our fellow man; now look at how far they have gotten. As long as an economic system is allowed to exist that rewards legal crime (and often illegal crime) it is highly improbable that any widespread environmental problems will be solved -- unless they can be made profitable. The only probable solution to environmental, as well as important economic problems then, would be the collapse of that economic system as a result of its own inefficiencies. When we look at the social turbulence now existing on this Continent it becomes obvious that such an economic collapse is now in progress.

The increasing debt with its increasing interest payments, crime, poverty and near poverty, maldistribution, homelessness and social dissatisfaction, all at the same time our technology is capable of producing plenty for all North Americans -- should make it quite clear that there are plenty of reasons to assume that an economic collapse is in process.

The first order of the day demands an unprecedented change in economic methods. A change demanded first by this economic deterioration, and second by the demands of environmental survival. We had better hope that the economic collapse comes first or there will be little of the earth's resources left for anyone.

Technocracy's prediction that there would be an economic collapse is yet to be proven correct. However, all of the major predictions of events preceding and indicating the approach of that collapse, have occurred. Any sincere environmental effort must include the support of Technocracy's Technological Social Design. Otherwise such efforts will be an exercise in futility.