862 



regions of the world, and worldwide. It would seem to be essentiftl that 

 the base of education be strengthened in all countries so that their 

 peoples can understand the reality of the problem, and to assure that 

 the best available technology bearing on the food/people equation 

 is everywhere available and in the hands of people competent to use it. 



There are dangers in the premature adoption of unproved tech- 

 nology and dangers in too prolonged testing and perfecting of tech- 

 nology that shows promise. Risks need to be balanced against alterna- 

 tive consequences, under the specific conditions of individual countries. 

 Nor should technology be expected to provide complete answers. The 

 "technological fix" is a chimera unless it is applied in compliance with 

 social and political rules, unless its application makes use of social 

 and political skills and knowledge. 



Should scientists be educated to recognize that the problems of hu- 

 man management are far more intractable than are the technological 

 problems associated with the food/people equation? It has been the 

 policy of scientists to apply techniques as soon as they are validated, 

 without subjecting them to rigorous assessment as to possible second- 

 ary effects that may ultimately prove undesirable. U.S. policy in the 

 adoption of technology has been mixed and inconsistent : relaxed and 

 carefree for many consumer products, fearful for some, and painfully 

 protracted for others. The decision as to when a new technology is 

 ready for use is an extremely difficult one, quite apart from the hazard 

 to its users. 



The great human effort involved in the mobilization of adminis- 

 trative and social action is more difficult than the mobilization of 

 scientific effort. If a government is called upon to administer a grossly 

 faulty technology, more is lost than the wasted effort and the injury 

 resulting from the faults as the program is halted. Failure makes 

 more difficult a subsequent mobilization of social effort when a more 

 relia,ble technology becomes available. Diplomats, no less than scien- 

 tists, need to be aware of this. In some areas, the Green Revolution 

 came too early with crops ill-adapted to local conditions so that effort 

 was wasted, harvests spoiled, and — above all — confidence impaired. 

 Dissatisfactions also have been reported with the initial efforts to 

 introduce the lUD, resulting in a similar toll on confidence. 



The problem of the food/people equation is so complex that its 

 solution is bound to be piecemeal and incremental, and to contain a 

 fair element of trial and error. There is a general human tendency, 

 moreover, to ignore possibly adverse consequences if they are remote, 

 in order to exploit what is real, concrete, and near at hand. 



Among the questions raised by the problem for which anprwers 

 may have to be forthcoming are the following. Are there new tech- 

 niques of diplomacy and management that can be applied to acceler- 

 ate the Irinds of corrective action that have been discussed in this 

 study? Can additional new technoloffies further improve the cor- 

 rective methods that have been described, to render them more ac- 

 ceptable politically, economically, and socially? Should each country 

 bear the brunt of the burden of adjustment to achieve its own balance 

 between food and population, or does a more effective solution lie in 



