Kal Marx - Norman Borlaug - Jacob Bronowski TV - Jeremy Rifkin - David Attenborough & BBC Horizon TV - Allan Savory - Arthur Keith - Howard Rheingold - Bertrand Russell - Jeremy Grantham - Jane Goodall - Thomas Jefferson - Samuel Johnson - US Department of Agriculture - Leonard Weinstein - Paul Foot - Monsanto - Home 2009 - The Future of Food 2004 - H2O: The Molecule that Made Us TV -
All progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but also of robbing the soil.
All progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given time is progress towards ruining the more long-lasting sources of that fertility. Karl Marx
There are no miracles in agricultural production. Norman Borlaug
It’s usually called the agricultural revolution. But I think it’s something much wider – the biological revolution. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 2/13: The Harvest of the Seasons, BBC 1973
It became necessary for man to settle. ibid.
Agriculture creates a technology from which all physics, all science, takes off. (Evolution & Agriculture & Humanity) ibid.
The most powerful invention in all agriculture is of course the plough. ibid.
At the heart of the terraced culture is the system of irrigation. ibid.
What is a city? It is a community which lives on a base of agriculture. ibid.
The ten largest antitrust law firms in the United States have gone into the federal courts charging Monsanto with creating a global conspiracy in violation of the antitrust laws, to control the global market in seeds. Jeremy Rifkin
My name is Jimmy Doherty and this is my farm. A hundred and twenty acres of rural Suffolk where we raise our livestock the old fashioned way. Horizon: Jimmy’s GM Food Fight, BBC 2008
A dozen years ago Argentina grew virtually no soya. This year over half their arable land, an area the size of Britain, will be planted with genetically modified soya beans. ibid.
Whether we like it or not GM crops are part of what we eat. ibid.
Elsewhere in Europe the protest movement is alive and well. ibid.
None of the crops or vegetables we grow are truly natural. ibid.
In America genetically modified crops have been widely planted for more than ten years. ibid.
We are beginning to see a levelling-off of agricultural yields. David Attenborough, Horizon: How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? BBC 2009
Agriculture is not crop production as popular belief holds – it’s the production of food and fibre from the world's land and waters. Without agriculture it is not possible to have a city, stock market, banks, university, church or army. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization and any stable economy. Allan Savory
Agriculture is the most destructive industry that we have. More than coal mining and other extractive industries. Allan Savory
The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life. Arthur Keith
Of course, with agriculture came the first big civilizations, the first cities built of mud and brick, the first empires. And it was the administers of these empires who began hiring people to keep track of the wheat and sheep and wine that was owed and the taxes that was owed on them by making marks; marks on clay in that time. Howard Rheingold
With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine. Bertrand Russell
Modern agriculture has been accurately described as a way of turning oil into food. As the price of oil continues to rise, so will the price of food. Jeremy Grantham
Someday we shall look back on this dark era of agriculture and shake our heads. How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons? Jane Goodall, Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating
An agricultural life is one eminently calculated for human happiness and human virtue. Thomas Jefferson
Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own. Samuel Johnson
Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to domestic animals than any other air pollutant. US Department of Agriculture 1970
Certainly, there has been more litigation on alleged damage to agriculture by fluoride than all other pollutants combined. Dr Leonard Weinstein, Cornell University 1983
Another United Nations organisation calculated that 0.5 per cent of world spending on weapons of destruction, often mass destruction, would be enough to provide the investment in agriculture in the stricken continent of Africa sufficient to produce enough food easily to feed the entire African population. 0.5 per cent! A tiny fragment of the money devoted to killing could save the lives of millions and millions of people! Yet the ‘free market’ keeps it firmly locked up in bombs and bullets. At the same time it has ruthlessly cut production in the fertile farmlands of the United States of America. It has even launched a campaign to cut off funds from the United Nations agencies which have the effrontery to reveal the full horror of free-market priorities.
Everywhere, the discrepancy gapes so wide that even the blindest believer in the free market cannot avoid it. The human race now has at its disposal more than enough technology, raw materials, knowledge and imagination to fulfil everyone’s basic needs without difficulty. As the man from the FAO said, there would be ‘no problem’ in doubling food production, no problem for that matter in providing the people of the world with food, clothing, shelter, heat and light, not to mention education, health, and transport. Paul Foot, The Case For Socialism ch4
Agricultural bio-technology will find a supporter within the White House next year, regardless of which candidate wins the election in November. Monsanto in-house newsletter 6th October 2000
Half of humankind tills the soil, over three-quarters of them by hand. Home, 2009
We used to be a nation of farmers but now it’s less than 2% of the population. The Future of Food, 2004
Nerve gas developed during World War II was slightly modified to make insecticides. DDT was the hero of its generation. ibid.
97% of the varieties of vegetables grown at the beginning of the 20th century are now extinct. ibid.
A pesticide treadmill: the more they sprayed, the more they had to spray. The increased use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides increased costs, polluted water and created health risks. Then in the 1970s Monsanto introduced Round Up, because of its ability to kill most weeds it became one of the most popular herbicides in history. ibid.
Monsanto genetically modified its seeds to be Round Up ready. ibid.
Estimates are that Monsanto has sent out 9,000 letters to farmers; most farmers choose to pay to avoid lawsuits. ibid.
‘They’re opposing labelling … A key way to get these corporations liable for the health affects.’ ibid.
‘92% of all the water consumption in the world is related to crop production and agriculture. H20: The Molecule that Made US II