DeGregori's Agriculture and Modern Technology

Agricultural literacy is at a low level in the land of plenty. There may be a law that dictates an inverse relationship between abundance and knowledge about the source of the abundance. We do not burden ourselves with factual information about that which we take for granted, namely, food, health, and a comfortable life in a non-threatening world. As long as the fridge is full, the car always starts, and the TV keeps entertaining, why bother to know what makes all that happen?

Thomas DeGregori's new book combats this problem. I could have used an excellent book such as this during my thirty years of communicating to students, the public, and the media about food, nutrition, health, and agriculture. I try to instill the facts as the consensus of science knows them and instill an appreciation of the "complex systems" that bring us our food, sustain our habitat, and make our bodies function. The critical part is explaining how progress takes place, how insights are gained using the scientific method, and what technology means for a society endeavoring to shape a better future. This book would have made my job much easier.

Educators complain about various forms of illiteracy, and general illiteracy in physiology, chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics makes people vulnerable to all kinds of exploiters whether charlatans, ideologues, money managers, or public decision makers. We all turn to others for help from time to time, but it is important to know where the help comes from, and this book helps us judge.

Professor DeGregori writes in an engaging style. In a scholarly manner, he constructs a defense of agriculture and modern technology. Close to a thousand references are cited and the author's website at www.uh.edu/~trdegregori/ has still more. His discussions are detailed and comprehensive, with a long introduction about technology, industrialization, creativity, and human welfare. Since agriculture is not mentioned in the first sixty pages, perhaps the title should have been An Assault on the Beliefs of Anti-Technologists, Luddites, Chemophobes, and Naive Do-Gooders. The remaining 140 text pages, however, deal with agricultural subjects, including organic farming, "natural" foods, pesticides, fertilizers, genetic modification of food sources by biotechnological means (as opposed to breeding), the Green Revolution, food distribution (world hunger), animal rights, and environmental pollution.

These subjects have been and will be discussed with great passion in the media and in meeting rooms of schools and governments, as they should be. Unfortunately, the voices of anti-technologists are often shrillest, and the voices of believers in the scientific method subdued, reasoned, and polite. To make matters worse, the media always favor those who supply them with dramatic effects. At best, the media give half of a panel or story to one side and half to the other, but it seems to me that those using evidence and facts based on the scientific method and properly conducted research should be given far more than one-half. If only they would teach that in schools of journalism. I would be happy if they made DeGregori's book mandatory reading there.

Nonagricultural subjects are also covered by the author. They include environmental quality, public health, food faddism, alternative medicine, public policy, industrial progress, and human behavior. All are linked by the recurring theme of technophobia. Whether it is immunizations , DDT, or the precautionary principle, to name three major chapters, the author always presents a historical background followed by pro's and con's. The reader is steered by factual evidence and not by devious rhetoric or a play on the emotions. DeGregori is a very believable defender of agriculture, science, and technology.

He is also an outspoken critic of the forces that seek to undo what has been constructed for the benefit of humankind. More people should have the courage to oppose misguided ideologues, those whose understanding of the world and the future is not scientific but romantic and irrational. Public beliefs about technology have been molded by anti-technologists for 150 years. There were opponents to milk pasteurization in the early 1900's as there are now opponents to food irradiation. Vocal critics of microwave heating twenty years ago have turned their anti-technological vigor toward other targets. Luckily, a beneficial technology will always be embraced once opposition to it is seen as folly. That is a major point made by this book's author, who argues not only for the benefits of science but against the erroneous beliefs about it.

Dr. DeGregori describes many of the technological advances of the past century and challenges those who do not consider them advances. He debunks some views that have become conventional wisdom, such as opposition to the use of chemicals, including DDT and other pesticides. The facts point to their benefits, whereas the imagined, postulated, and theoretical harm done by them pales in comparison.

DeGregori stops short of calling the more rabid anti-technologists by the name they deserve: terrorists. There is no other term for those who destroy the work of visionaries who aim to improve the future of mankind. In mid-February 2002, for instance, Collin Levey wrote in the Wall Street Journal that eco-terrorism is alive and well in the U.S.. As an example, an FBI report to Congress is cited that holds the Earth Liberation Front responsible for 600 violent attacks on research laboratories and other places since 1996, amounting to $43 million of damage. Hearings on such acts are currently being held in Washington by Rep. Scott McInnis. I hope this book is used in those hearings. It pits intellect and scholarship against acts of terrorism. Perhaps this book will erode support for these destructive groups.

In fact, this book may inspire more people to become proponents of technological progress. All technological tools, all inventions, have positive and negative effects just look at the hammer, the car, medicine, or firearms. We must recognize and further their beneficial uses, for the betterment of humanity.