820 



the additional food produced by the new methods can be bought ai 

 prices high enough to make it worthwhile for the farmer to utilize the 

 new technology. This process requires economic growth on a broad 

 scale : "The tremendous interaction and interdependency which exists 

 between agriculture and other sectors on both the demand and supply 

 sides make it impossible to separate the problem of food production as 

 such from that of overall economic development." ^' 



But more than general economic development is involved. What is 

 also involved is distribution of income. The benefits of economic devel- 

 opment should certainly be distributed so that, at the very least, lower- 

 income groups can purchase the additional food that the Green Revo- 

 lution has made available. Unless such distribution is accomplished, 

 not only will food intake and nutrition continue at inadequate levels, 

 but social unrest will be sure to follow. 



Finally, only as the general drive toward modernization and devel- 

 opment gains momentum can there be sufficient employment and in- 

 come to eradicate hunger. Unless the economies of the LDCs continue 

 to expand, there will not be jobs available for the additional millions 

 that the population explosion will send into the labor market. If these 

 new entrants can find no jobs, the cycle of hunger and malnutrition 

 will begin all over again. 



Thus far the new agricultural technology has increased labor re- 

 quirements per acre because of multiple cropping and fertilizer ap- 

 plication, while simultaneously decreasing labor requirements per unit 

 of output because of the great increase in yield. The net effect, so far, 

 seems to have been the creation of additional employment and in- 

 creased income in the rural sector. But as the new technology continues 

 to advance, and becomes diffused ever more widely through the LDCs, 

 economic development and employment outside agriculture become 

 ever more crucial. 



Requirements Imposed on U.S. Diplomacy 



The job of U.S. diplomacv generally speaking is to advance and il- 

 luminate the goals of U.S. foreign policy. With regard, especially, to 

 a problem as complex and delicate as that of achieving a food/popu- 

 lation balance, it must do so without offending the sensibilities of the 

 countries concerned. As noted earlier the United States seeks to pro- 

 mote the Green Revolution and concomitant economic development. It 

 is evident from what has been said already that this U.S. pc^ture ere- . 

 ates or exacerbates some difficult diplomatic problems. 



U.S. diplomats are faced with the job of urging technological 

 change on the leaders of the LDCs, even though such change may nave 

 unsettling social and political consequences, fiideed, it is even possible 

 that the very leaders who take U.S. advice may find themselves deposed 

 as a consequence of the social instability introduced by technological 

 innovation. It seems paradoirical for the United States to encourage 

 the LDCs to adopt the new agricultural technology knowing that there 

 is a high risk of social turmoil, if a principal aim of U.S. development 

 assistance is to help bring about stability in those countries. However, 



■* National Academy of Bngineering. "STmposlam on the Food-People Balance. Panel on 

 the Interactions between World Food and World Popnlatlon," op. dt, page 4. 



