www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

Swiss farmers are among the most cherished in the world, but at a meal of
Alpine ham, and local pinot noir, some of the dominant figures in world
agriculture sat down in Davos today to discuss Africa's failure to feed
itself, January 2007 by Julian Glover.

The conversation was serious, way more engaging than the shed-a-tear
showbiz way in which Africa is often discussed at this and other big
gatherings, all grand plans and gimmicks. (Whatever happened to Tony Blair's
Commission for Africa, so prominent a couple of years back?)

That was largely because those speaking knew what they were talking about -
and kept sentimentality to a minimum. Among them were Tanzania's president,
Jakaya Kikwete, Monsanto's boss Hugh Grant and Erik Fyrwald, head of
agriculture at Du Pont (a division, he said, worth $6bn a year).

Leading the pack was Paul Wolfowitz, now president of the World Bank but not
so long ago the man who, as US deputy defence secretary, helped bring about
the Iraq war.

This panel was not a soft touch, then. But they had ideas and experience -
and their message was that science and the market could do for Africa what
the green revolution has already done for Asia and India.

That means new seeds, new skills and security.

All of the speakers, especially the corporate ones, had heartwarming tales
to tell of African grandmothers who had farmed their way out of famine and
poverty. But in the end the main point was made by Monsanto's Mr Grant, a
sharp, serious Scot who now runs one of the world's biggest biotechnology
firms - a business many environmentalists loathe for its use of GM
technology and patenting of seed crops.

Yes, he said, new crops could help Africa - but only if the world finds a
way to get the technology to a continent that cannot pay for it. He pointed
to the model of the pharmaceutical industry, which restricted the
distribution of HIV retroviral drugs and limited research into malaria, both
essential to Africa's needs, on profit grounds.

But what other model is there? The new idea to emerge from the meeting was
that the agro-industrial complex needs to let go, not put all its faith and
future profits into patents but share skills. The model might be the
open-source software industry, which has its big players but does not
restrict access or development.

Could Linux be a model for farming? Monsanto might find the transition hard
to make. But a world in which all food is produced from seeds owned by a
handful of big companies is not one that would be good for Africans, or for
anyone else.

[www.guardian.co.uk]