Opinion: All for One – Diversity in the modern world

We live in a troubled world. In terms of wealth and resources, great inequalities exist between nations. But there is enough, and to spare, for each and every one of us. We’re all brothers and sisters under the same sun and need to treat each other that way.

We live in a troubled world. In terms of wealth and resources, great inequalities exist between nations. We’re materialistic and depend on technology for our creature comforts. We’re egocentric; so long as our needs are met, there is no need to look to others for assistance. We are rapidly depleting our earth’s natural resources and failing to put back what we take out. As a result our world is unhealthy, and many of its inhabitants are unhealthy also. But there is enough, and to spare, for each and every one of us. The answer lies in recognising the talents and special attributes of individuals and nations, learning to get along with each other, and educating each other in the use of natural resources and technologies to assist in day-to-day living.

While researching this topic, I was appalled at the economic emphasis placed by wealthy nations on the giving of aid to famine-riddled, and less developed countries. There appeared to be a very real fear that if nations were offered, for example, whole wheat at reduced prices, it would artificially deflate the price gotten elsewhere. Where this is a concern for those who make their living on the land, most of the profits did not go to the primary producer, but to big business and conglomerates set up to regulate the industry. Consequently, great stores of wheat and other grains, as well as vegetables, rotted in warehouses and storage facilities, rather than be given at heavily subsidised prices to needy nations.

Therefore, I concluded that the issue of “to genetically modify or not to genetically modify” was a moot point. Developing nations, while “technologically disadvantaged”, nevertheless have a lot to offer the world economy. We’re all brothers and sisters under the same sun and need to treat each other that way.

 I was out driving to recharge my car battery after one of my children left the doors open overnight, and happened upon an unfamiliar country road a scant ten minutes from my home. The diversity of the shrubbery and the untamed beauty of the countryside beside which I was driving struck a chord with me. I’m not a city slicker, by any means, though I do live in a fairly highly populated suburb. Yet this scenery was a tonic to my soul. Do we need nature? Perhaps many would think not, but in just a few short minutes driving down a country lane, I once again caught a glimpse, in only a small way, of the importance of nature in my life.

My early childhood was spent in the city but with nomadic parents, we naturally moved a lot. One such move was to an isolated farming community in the Brisbane Valley where we were the proud owners of a ten-acre lot complete with an old farmhouse. It was mostly grassland with a few trees, but with hard work and great industry, we soon transformed it into a profitable concern. The profit was not in money, but in our ability to live off its produce.

One acre was under wheat and another under lucerne. We milked a couple of cows, kept what seemed like hundreds of chickens and generally grew what fruits and vegetables we needed. We used bore water for irrigation and washing, tank water for drinking, and generally recycled vegetable scraps either as compost for the garden or chicken feed. The chickens not only provided us with eggs and meat occasionally, but also provided a great source of fertilizer for our passionfruit! To pay basic utilities and other running expenses, my father sold fish and painted houses. For other things, there was the barter system.

It was a hard life, but very rewarding – and not that long ago at all. My own children have experienced nothing of the life I led, and I mourn for their loss. We live, for the most part, in a world of ease and selfishness. At the flick of a switch, we have light. We open the refrigerator and there is food; supermarket shelves abound with ready-to-eat meals; clothes come off the racks. But a life of luxury and ease comes at a terrific price and great loss. Although the loss of skills gained from husbandry and cottage industry is great, the loss to the gene pool and the environment is even greater.

Fast-growing, disease- and drought-resistant varieties of grains and vegetables have the potential to help third world countries overcome their food crisis – but are they simply a band-aid solution to a wider reaching problem, and are these solutions a problem within themselves? Even the scientific community is divided on these issues.

Some scientists warn that genetically engineered food may have serious long-term health and environmental consequences, even going so far as to claim that utilising them may “worsen chances of food security in the developing world”. These claims are based on the explanation that normal gene functions are extremely tightly controlled to ensure that organisms and all their inherent characteristics are produced in the correct order, as nature intended.

The genetic modifications occurring naturally are as a result of cross-pollination between closely related species, also occurring naturally. By developing these resistant strains, we are limiting the gene pool and thus risking the extinction of an entire species of necessary foods in the human food chain, should a crop become infected by a virus or such other unforeseen pestilence. To assume this is impossible is both naïve and ignorant. The potato famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1852 is testament to the fact that a simple disease has the potential to wipe out the entire harvest of a nation’s crops, causing the starvation of entire communities and sometimes, even death.

On the other hand, scientists working on the genetic modification programmes claim these hybrid varieties, being resistant to disease and requiring less water to grow, have the potential to be a boon to developing countries, allowing them to produce their own food to feed their own population, and thus allow them to be self-sufficient.

Though I see merit in both arguments, I would like to see an entirely different approach to the growing food crisis of the world. I believe there is the means to produce abundant food and enough to spare on this planet, to feed every man, woman and child for many years to come. Although the land, in many places, is depleted of both water and the nutrients necessary to grow healthy and nutritious grains, vegetables and animals for food, other lands have abundant tracts of arable land. Humankind has the knowledge and capability to replenish the earth – to give back to nature what man has taken, as it were – and thus provide the entire world population with the nourishment we all need.

The “Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP)” operating from 1995 to 2003 between oil-rich Middle-Eastern countries and agriculturally-rich western countries such as the United States and parts of Europe, is a mere drop in the ocean of what we can accomplish. Repairing agricultural lands by returning nutrients to the soil, building up what is already in place and accepting another country’s contribution to the well-being of our own is, in my opinion, the answer.

Yes, I am proposing a return to the barter system – modified to suit modernity, but a system to allow regions to utilise what they already have to obtain what they need. Instead of trying to irrigate an arid land such as Ethiopia where rainfall has forgotten to fall for many years, why not turn to solar power as an exportable commodity for this country? Sunshine is abundantly available – so much so that crops dry and die before they have a chance to blossom. Areas such as the fertile Nile Valley can provide food in return for electrical power. We therefore have an expensive commodity in the form of food and water exchanged for solar power, a renewable, never-ending and certainly ecologically sound natural resource. Countries such as Australia are rich in minerals and natural resources (renewable or otherwise) and produce excesses in food and other necessary provisions for modern comfort. The temptation for nations such as this to push self-reliance, ignoring for the most part the needs of their neighbours, serves no one but themselves and should be openly discouraged by Earth’s inhabitants as a whole.

For this modern barter system to become a viable alternative we not only need to recognise the value of biodiversity in nature, we also need to recognise the value of “biodiversity” in humanity. Just as all nations have something valuable to contribute to the well-being of the earth and its inhabitants, so too, do all individuals. Yet the inequalities existing between the peoples of the earth are widening. There are too many poor among us; the wealthy few control the majority of the land and resources. We may be tempted to believe this only occurs in countries such as India which still operates under the caste system, or Ethiopia where famine has ravaged the land for many years, but this is not so. It also happens in so-called Western societies where free enterprise is supposed to guarantee a fair go for all.

What is it that prevents humanity from working together? Is it a lack of funds? Is it a lack of care? Or is it an indifference to the suffering of others? I do not have these answers, but there is one thing I do know. We desperately need nature; in fact we cannot survive without it.

We need to use what we already have – refined to reflect the growing need to protect our earth and everything on it. Instead of spending money on weapons of destruction – mass or otherwise, why not divert the funds to developing cheaper alternatives to solar power. Education on conservation of fossil and non-renewable fuels is more important than developing a way to create more wealth for already wealthy nations. It is a sick world that places a high monetary value on a product that contributes so highly to greenhouse gas emissions – yet cannot address the problems of feeding its billions of inhabitants.

Wars are fought over oil; people die for oil; yet the oil will be depleted. On the other hand, this earth abounds in renewable resources. The source of power is freely available to many, though the harnessing of that power requires great technology. Let us develop and freely share this technology so that the power of the Sun is available to all.

There is power in diversity. There is power in knowledge. There is power in unity. When all the world works together, there is power.

Maybe we can’t all go back to living on the land. Maybe we can’t be totally self-sufficient and provide everything for ourselves, our families or our countries. We’ve come too far to go back to the post-modern era. Our parents’ luxuries are our necessities. Those items we deem luxuries will become necessities for our children and our children’s children, but we don’t have to have these things at the expense of the world we live in.

Modern technology has a lot to answer for, but modern technology can also be the answer. We have natural resources at our disposal. The diversity of cultures dictates that all have something valuable to contribute to the overall well-being of our planet. There is no need for genetic modification of seeds and vegetables, as poorer countries have something to contribute to even the wealthiest nations in return for what they cannot provide for themselves. The wealthiest nations can release their stranglehold on the world economy and commodities and recognise the valuable input of every nation. Individually, we can take the steps to unite the world as one.

As one we can heal our planet, celebrate the diversity of nature and help to create a better world for us all.