THE CART AND THE HORSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 233, 10 December 1943, Page 16

THE CART AND THE HORSE

Erosion, And Food For The Starving

A CORRESPONDENT who read }. O. H. Tripp’s article in a recent

se issue of "The Listener," suggests that students of erosion might be

interested in these comments by a contributor,

JORIAN

JENKS

to the

"New English Weekly"

HE recent United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture deserved a better Press than it got. Hot Springs was no doubt expected to yield hot news, failing which, the desired superheated atmosphere had to be created synthetically. In fact, the report of the conference-curiously and (one hopes) not too literally entitled, the "Final Act"-is an admirably comprehensive and lucid document, provided always that one is prepared to accept as valid and realistic the current department-store approach to the basic problem of food. This is the crucial question. It is answered indirectly by a perusal of the list . of international representatives assembled at Hot Springs. This galaxy of administrative, economic, financial

and commercial talent, it seems, did not include a single working farmer, peasant, field labourer, or fisherman. Is it unreasonable to suggest that a conference comprising even a leaven of these humble experts would have brought to»the notice of the world and its Press a fundamental truth which appears to have escaped the notice of the extremely intelligent and ‘ wellmeaning gentlemen who produced the Final Act? Upwards, Not Downwards This ‘truth is that all enduring civilisation is built upwards from the soil, and not downwards from human desires. No economic machinery, no "principles of mutual responsibility and co-ordinated action," however excellent in themselves, can by-pass this truth, the long-stand-ing neglect of which is a prime cause of the present world crisis. For the aggression which the Conference rightly condemns began long ago with the destructive impact of predatory human agencies upon the creative civilisation of Nature. War is simply its climateric phase. Let us be perfectly just. The Final Act does include, though well down on its list of findings and recommendations, a pregnant reference to what is undoubtedly the most menacing of all dynamic force at large in the world to-day. "Soil erosion has, in the past, destroyed or severely limited the utility of vast areas of land, and will in the future, unless, checked, constitute the greatest physical danger to the world’s food production." It goes on to recommend comprehensive physical measures to cope with soil erosion, including a timely advocacy of "balanced mixed rotational farming" tather than monoculture. It does not, however, refer to the man-made ecomomic causes of erosion. On the contrary, it re-states with almost painful clarity the view that industrial expansion and the revival of international trade must precede the long-term rehabilitation of agriculture. This is not merely putting the cart before the horse; it is giving the cart a good hearty shove in the wrong direction. For one of the very few forms of protection which the soil has had in the past consisted of those very "barriers to international trade" that the Conference is so anxious to see removed. An attempt to arrange the recommendatiohs of the Conference in order of priority yields the following programme: (1) Victory. It is implied that its attainment will involve devastatation on a grand scale, and will find the occupied countries in a state of destitution, (2) Emergency measures designed to stimulate production by every means possible, even if they "delay a return to production (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) policies which are desirable for technical, economic, or nutritional reasons." (3) An "expansion of the whole world economy to provide purchasing power sufficient to maintain an adequate diet for all." (4) Long-term measures for conserving fertility, improving nutrition, evolving sound systems of husbandry, and so on. Will Nature Wait? All of which is very sound and logical from the viewpoint of human desires, especially those of the leaders of the United Nations. But will Natufe suspend her judgment upon misdeeds of the human race until such time as the last item on the programme has been reached and we are at length able to appease her? The situation may not unfairly be described thus. We have a cart loaded with hungry, or at any rate, underfed human beings whom we desire to convey as rapidly as possible to the goal of Abundance, "freedom from fear and want," etc. But the horse is emaciated and is rapidly becoming exhausted. The Conference recommends (a), that the horse be flogged on for another mile or two, whatever the risk to his life (b), that he then be given artificial respiration by means of an elaborate apparatus, the component parts of which (full employment, adequate purchasing power and so on), have not yet been manufactured, and (c), that he then be ‘given such attention as can be spared. Must a practical man be accused of lack of humanitarian feelings if he suggests that the horse must come before the cart, that he must first be fed and rested, and that the longer political, military, economic, industrial, and financial considerations are permitted to delay this prime necessity, the more remote grows the possibility of the cart ever reaching its longed-for destination? Heaven send that the Final Act may not in fact prove final.