June 18, 1999

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) says a "daunting challenge" of the 21st century will be feeding the world's growing population. Resolving that problem "will minimize factors that contribute to global instability and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," he adds.

Lugar made the comments Thursday at the Library of Congress Bicentennial Frontiers of the Mind in the 21st Century Program. With world population expected to increase from 5 billion to 9 billion over the next 50 years, "the demand for affordable food will increase well beyond current international production levels," he said.

"A dynamic" that needs to be understood by western nations, he added, is that developing countries "often use limited arable land to expand cities to house their growing populations." Good land disappears, "desperate people" destroy rain forests and timber resources to crate more acreage for food production, and the resulting environmental consequences "have disastrous potential for the entire globe."

More money is needed for research "that gives priority to scientists who have identified significant breakthroughs" in expanding food production, said Lugar. "Fundamental research remains the only systematic method for generating the innovations that will be necessary to feed the world."

Research takes time to yield results, he added, including "all the genetic improvements and biotechnology advances" that may be possible. "We must not further encumber this painstaking process with a grant system that fails to reward the most promising research," he said.