The Futures Foundation

Is it safe to assume that universal abundance, even of food, is an unalloyed good? Or do we need to look harder? For example, is the abundance already achieved in the west being won at the cost of a balanced diet? And are we sweetening commercial production with our societal addiction to sugar -- or is it vice versa?

"Walk into any large supermarket in any western nation and you canÍt help feeling that the world has never before seen such an abundance and variety of foodstuffs," said the New Scientist in a recent issue. "Aisle after aisle of multicoloured vegetables, fruit and groceries stretch into the distance, served by an endless row of beeping checkouts.

"It is an impressive sight, but itÍs misleading. Abundance there certainly is, for the western world has never been so overfed. But variety has not increased as much as we might think."

The respected journal points out that as the world has grown richer, farming more intensive and agricultural research more sophisticated, we have concentrated food production on just a few varieties. Ninety-five per cent of the worldÍs calories now come from only 30 crops, and fifty percent from four -- rice, maize, wheat and potato. Most of the rest is sugar, the single most abundant crop with nearly 1500 million tonnes produced in 1995.

These top crops of the west can be seen against a background of around 1000 food crops in India, 1100 in North America. In Africa, Ghana alone has 2500 food plants and there are another 800 in the arid areas of the Sahel. That is 5400 potential crop species in just a few locations.

While recognising that "culinary conservatism" plays a part, the New Scientist lays most of the blame for our limited diet on the economics of agribusiness - vast specialised systems for a few crops. On the brighter side, it notes some activity from organisations seeking funding for diversityƒ "our farming and taste buds will be better off for it".

In Australia, there are more encouraging signs - in part because of the problems besetting traditional industries like dairy and wool. According to ABARE in its Australian Food Statistics 2000, production has become more diverse with a range of industries, including wine and other horticulture, oilseeds and aquaculture, all becoming more important in the 1990s.

New crops in the fruit and vegetables industry, introduced to take advantage of new market opportunities, include Asian vegetables, nashi pears, lychees, olives, herbs.  New aquacutlure activities, such as farming of Atlantic salmon and southern bluefin tuna, have also been established.

As well as providing diversity, these new industries are providing new jobs in farming.  For instance, in the Eyre Peninsula region of South Australia aquaculture has directly provided 400 new jobs and another 600 indirectly.

Meanwhile the contribution of beer fell almost quarter of the value of all farm food production in 1998-90 to 18%, and the number of specialist sheep farms declined by 51%.  At the same time, the number of enterprises based on field crop production increased by nearly 60%.

In another example of the need to question assumptions, many critics are troubled by the processes being used in the name of achieving food abundance.  Genetically modified organisms and the growing dominance of monocultures head the list of concerns.

These are not just issues of science, agriculture and industry, but of society and the way it works.  Donella H. Meadows, adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College, reports that the work of a colleague has thrown disturbing light upon the processes that allowed genetic engineering to excape the constraints of science and accelerate more freely in the corporate sector. 

She quotes the transcript of a "fateful meeting" at the National Institute of Health in 1976 which showed that NIH virologists agreed to less than stringent testing to avoid politics, controversy and regulation.  And when even the weaker test produced disturbing results, these were not published.  "To the contrary, a 1979 NIH press conference announced that 'this form of research is perfectly safe'".