76 THE FIVE-YEAR OUTLOOK 



losses of over half of the harvested crops have been re- 

 ported (AGR). The transporting and processing of food 

 account for two thirds of the final price of the food to the 

 consumer Activities in this area are complicated by a lack 

 of knowledge about what processing does to the nutri- 

 tional content of food and its ability to supply the nutrients 

 to the consumer Thus, the development of improved 

 methods for storing, distributing, and processing food is 

 badly needed. 



Two main directions are now being pursued. The first 

 deals with ways in which food preservation can be en- 

 hanced, and techniques being studied include irradiation, 

 improved sealing, better detection mechanisms for con- 

 taminants, atmospheric control, and using better com- 

 binations of ingredients. The second concerns distribution 

 mechanisms involving transportation and improved ac- 

 cess of the consumer to the producer Clearly, postharvest 

 technology development has strong potential for improv- 

 ing agricultural efficiency and productivity (AGR). 



INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER SECTORS OF 

 SOCIETY 



This section began by noting that agriculture is charac- 

 terized by tradeoffs at all levels. Those tradeoffs go 

 beyond agriculture; frequently there are global tradeoffs 

 between the agricultural system and other societal ac- 

 tivities. Competition for such resources as land, water. 



and energy have already been mentioned. Additionally, 

 there is predicted to be a potentially severe shortage of 

 persons with selective agricultural training in the near 

 future (AGR). Competition also includes such aspects as 

 the diversion of agricultural products to nonfood uses, 

 such as the use of com and other biomass for fuel produc- 

 tion and the use of vegetable oils directly as fuels (ENER- 

 GY). It involves the tradeoffs between agricultural de- 

 mands and the requirements for environmental security. 

 The runoff of fertilizers is a major cause of water pollu- 

 tion, for example, and dealing with such sources of pollu- 

 tion will clearly affect the efficiency of agriculture 

 (NRC-7; ENVIRON). The tradeoffs or balances between 

 the needs of different sectors will become more and more 

 important in policy decisions in coming years as resources 

 become scarce and such other concerns as the quality of 

 the environment constrain agricultural activities. 



Ultimately, agriculture must be viewed as a social and 

 economic system as well as a biological system. For 

 example, tax and regulatory policies adopted to deal with 

 other social problems will clearly affect agriculture as 

 well. Understanding the economic and social relation- 

 ships of agriculture with society, in both this country and 

 abroad, will require the involvement of social scientists as 

 much as plant geneticists and computer modelers. Thus, 

 in agriculture, as in the rest of science and technology, a 

 unified and multidisciplinary perspective on both the 

 basic scientific and policy issues will be essential 

 (AAAS-8). 



J. Education 



Science and technology and education are intimately 

 linked. Not only are science, mathematics, and technol- 

 ogy significant components of the curriculum at all educa- 

 tional levels, but, in addition, science and technology 

 provide powerful tools that are broadly applicable in the 

 educational process itself. As an example in the latter 

 case, recent advances in computer and communications 

 technologies and in cognitive science and related disci- 

 plines offer major opportunities for improving educa- 

 tional strategies. However, before that knowledge can be 

 widely applied in the classroom, several critical problems 

 need to be resolved, and many of the problems are too 

 complex for resolution by any single sector of society. 

 Therefore, during the next 5 years, attention will need to 

 be focused by State and local governments and by the 

 private sector on ways to foster cooperation among private 

 industry. State and local jurisdictions, and college and 

 university science and engineering departments to take 



full advantage of the opportunities offered to the educa- 

 tional system by science and technology, and to resolve 

 problems associated with their use in the educational 

 process. 



There is also a range of problems associated with the 

 first aspect of the relationship mentioned above, that of 

 education in science and technology, that will need to be 

 addressed in the next 5 years. The need for an adequate 

 supply of well trained scientists and engineers for the 

 Nation in the long term has been treated in Section 1-B. In 

 addition, there is a need to improve the training of techni- 

 cians that provide support for the work of scientists and 

 engineers. Furthermore, since many other professions and 

 occupations that formerly had little scientific or technical 

 content now require a moderate level of competence in 

 those areas, and since numerous public policy issues have 

 significant science and technology components, an im- 

 proved level of understanding of science and technology 



