EDITORIAL:
China's rice revolution
t's enough to make the chemical companies cry in their
soup. If other countries get wind of this, what will happen
to their profits? And then there are the big agribusiness
giants like Monsanto that want to sell their patented seeds.
They must be having a bad day, too.
The terrible news is that an agricultural experiment in
growing rice without fungicides or other chemicals has
succeeded beautifully in China, according to an article in
the current issue of Nature. In a very large-scale test
involving tens of thousands of farmers, agricultural
scientists were able to double the yield of rice just by
planting two different strains in strips next to each
other.
It's called utilizing biodiversity, and it's a mainstay of
organic farming. The idea is that the resistance to disease
of one type of crop will protect another crop nearby. Now
China has shown that it works not just in little garden plots
but in large-scale agriculture, too.
It's a simple method that can quickly be adopted all over
China--and all over the world, for that matter. It doesn't
require the purchase of costly chemicals or seeds. It doesn't
force the farmer into an endless cycle of borrowing before
each harvest.
The New York Times of Aug. 22 called it a "stunning new
result from what has become one of the largest agricultural
experiments ever."
This is a real "green revolution"--unlike the
corporate-driven one several decades ago that drove so many
small farmers in the Third World into bankruptcy.
The question to be asked is, Why didn't anyone do this
sooner? These methods of gardening have been around for a
long time. Organic farmers swear by them. Why hasn't the
government of a huge agricultural country like the United
States carried out a similar large-scale experiment? Why was
it left to China to do it?
Without knowing all the details on how this experiment
came about, one thing stands out very clearly. The United
States is a capitalist country where the agribusiness
companies, including large chemical corporations, dictate
agricultural policy. China, on the other hand, is still
primarily a planned economy, despite some capitalist inroads.
The governing Communist Party is not a capitalist party like
the Republicans or Democrats. It is driven not by profit
motives but by the desire to feed China's 1.3 billion people
as efficiently as possible.
This experiment didn't take place in India or Indonesia or
the Philippines or Louisiana. It took place in China. Think
about it.
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