As the pressure to re-assess modern farming methods grows, straws are appearing in the wind. The EU's commissioner for agriculture, Franz Fischler, said recently that environmentally-friendly farm production methods, which respect animal welfare, now need to be encouraged. But the developed world's problems with modern agricultural practices also have a global dimension. In the words of Chancellor Shroeder, western agriculture turns farms into factories and, as factories, farms become intensive users of fertilizers, pesticides, water and energy, a process which many now believe sows the seeds of their own destruction. A recent report, sponsored by the World Bank, found that many water sources are being polluted by the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and that productivity and, therefore inevitably, food supplies are at risk because of water scarcity and soil degradation.
Western agriculture is now under attack from many quarters.
George McRobie, one of the founders of the UK's Intermediate Technology Development Group, points to the energy-hungry machinery used on farms across the developed world and says that should ii ever appear in the same numbers on farms in poorer countries the consequences would be devastating. If we hook farmers in developing countries into a Western-style of agriculture, then they are doomed because it is not sustainable. The human cost of the spread of Western agricultural practices and its fallout is already being paid. Far from developing countries copying Western-style agriculture many now believe the West could usefully adopt the less intensive organic agriculture of traditional Third World farming systems. It is significant that one European country, Sweden, switched to organic agriculture several years ago and its farmers are showing that natural methods pay off.