Da Food Prices Good DA

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NORTHWESTERN 8 ZAREFSKY SCHOLARSHIGH FOOD PRICES GOOD LAURA/JUSTIN

Industrial Agriculture: 1NC Shell ........................................................................ 3Industrial Agriculture: 1NC Shell ........................................................................ 4Industrial Agriculture: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices=local move) ......... 6Industrial Agriculture: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices=local move) ......... 7Subsidies: 1NC Shell ............................................................................................ 8Subsidies: 1NC Shell ............................................................................................ 9Subsidies: 1NC Shell .......................................................................................... 10Subsidies: Uniqueness Ext ................................................................................ 11Subsidies: I/L Ext (fight rural poverty, combat US deficit) ............................. 12Green Revolution: 1NC Shell ............................................................................. 13Green Revolution: 1NC Shell ............................................................................. 14Green Revolution: 1NC Shell ............................................................................. 15Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = more production indeveloping countries) ........................................................................................ 16Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = more production indeveloping countries) ........................................................................................ 17Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = more production indeveloping countries) ........................................................................................ 18Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = moreproduction/profit in developing countries) ...................................................... 19Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = moreproduction/profit in developing countries) ...................................................... 20Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = more investment) . 23Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = more investment) . 24Green Revolution: Uniqueness/Brink Ext (High food prices = moreinvestment) .......................................................................................................... 25Biotech/Warming: 1NC Shell ............................................................................. 27Biotech/ Warming: 1NC Shell ............................................................................ 28Biotech/ Warming: 1NC Shell ............................................................................ 29Biotech/Warming Uniqueness Ext .................................................................... 30Biotech/Warming Uniqueness Ext ................................................................... 31Biotech/Warming Uniqueness Ext .................................................................... 32Biotech/Warming I/L Ext (Cuts Herbicide Use) ................................................ 33Biotech/Warming I/L Ext (Farmer demand= new climate change crops) ..... 35Biotech/Warming Impact Ext ............................................................................. 36Biotech/Econ: 2NC Impact Module ................................................................... 37Biotech/Econ-Biotech Key to Econ Ext ............................................................ 38Biotech/Econ-I/L Ext-Revenue&Workforce ...................................................... 40Biotech/Poverty: 2NC Impact Module ............................................................... 41Biotech/Poverty: 2NC Impact Module ............................................................... 42Biotech/Poverty: 2NC Impact Module ............................................................... 43Biotech/Poverty I/L Ext: Global expansion gives Africa chance to escapepoverty ................................................................................................................. 44Biotech/Poverty Impact Ext-Poverty=Structrual Violence/War Against Poor .............................................................................................................................. 46Biotech/Famine: 2NC Impact Module ............................................................... 47

If you like pia coladas-Spreeder 1


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Biotech/Famine I/L Ext (GM yield necessary to provide adequate food) ..... 48Biotech/Famine I/L Ext (GM yield necessary to provide adequate food) ..... 50Biotech/Famine I/L Ext (GM yield necessary to provide adequate food) ..... 51Biotech/Famine Impact Ext ................................................................................ 52Case Turns (Economic Boost and Fossil Fuels) ............................................. 53

Biotech Link Ext- High Energy Prices= High Food Prices ............................. 54AT Uniqueness Overwhelms Link .................................................................... 55AT No Link-Aff Lower Prices .......................................................................... 56

AT High Food Prices Starvation ...................................................................... 57AT High Food Prices Starvation ...................................................................... 58AT High Food Prices Bad Economy ............................................................... 59AT GMOs Bad (precautionary principle) .......................................................... 60AT Localized Agriculture Increased Emissions ............................................ 61AT Uniqueness Overwhelms Link ..................................................................... 62AT Biotech Bad (Increased Yield, Drought Resistance, Less Pesticides) ... . 63AT Biotech Bad (Increased Yield, Decreased Herbicides) ............................. 64

AT Biotech Bad (Laundry List) .......................................................................... 65AT Biotech Bad (Boosts Econ) .......................................................................... 66Aff: Green Revolution Answer ........................................................................... 67Aff: Poverty Answer ............................................................................................ 68Aff: Poverty Answer ............................................................................................ 69Aff: Biotech Answer (Kills agriculture and Bio-D) .......................................... 70



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Industrial Agriculture: 1NC Shell

Uniqueness: High food prices have brought about a call to shift to localized foodproduction

MartinKhor , Director, Third World Network Presentation at FAO Food SecuritySummit, Rome 4 June2008 Food Crisis, Climate Change and the Importance of Sustainable Agriculture

The rising world prices of many food items in the past couple of years have meant moreexpensive imports, and inflation of food prices in local markets. There have also beencases of shortages, as some countries placing orders for example for rice have found thatthe supply is not forthcoming or guaranteed, sometimes because of export restrictions bythe exporters of the food items. Many developing countries have been caught in thissituation, resulting in street protests as families found it difficult to cope

Because of this new situation, the paradigm of food security has suddenly shifted back to the traditional concept of greater self-sufficiency, instead of prioritizing the option of relying on cheaper imports. It is now recognized that in the immediate period, there isneed for emergency food supplies to affected countries, but that a long-term solutionmust include increased local food production in developing countries. This raises thequestion of what constitute the barriers to local production and how to remove these barriers.

Link: High food prices are caused by high energy prices. The affirmative planlowers energy prices, causing food prices to decline.

McConnel, 2008. High Food Prices, Urban Migration Make it Hard to Help the Poor,Kathryn-, April 17-. http://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2008/April/20080417163323akllennoccm0.6278345.html

At the conference, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said the growing demand for crops to produce biofuels is only one reason, and not a major reason, for high food costs.Schafer said, Higher energy prices are the biggest factor in pushing up food prices.

I/L: The Aff will end the current move into local agriculture and cause thecontinued rise of large agricultural corporations.

Impact: Corporations are violently exploiting third world countries by extendingthe grasp of economic colonialism.

Ikerd, 2004 . The Globalization of Agriculture: Implication for Sustainability of Small HorticulturalFarms, John E.-, Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri.

In general, regardless of the region of the world or the segment of agriculture considered, thevast majority of all farms are still small farms, with many still serving local markets. However, the vastmajority of total agricultural output is accounted for by a small proportion of larger, specialized commercialoperations, oriented toward serving global markets. And increasingly, these large, export-oriented

http://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2008/April/20080417163323akllennoccm0.6278345.htmlhttp://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2008/April/20080417163323akllennoccm0.6278345.htmlhttp://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2008/April/20080417163323akllennoccm0.6278345.htmlhttp://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2008/April/20080417163323akllennoccm0.6278345.html


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agricultural operations are controlled, if not owned outright, by giant multinational corporations. Asdiversified family

Industrial Agriculture: 1NC Shell

farmers have been replaced by large, specialized productionunits, independent food processors and wholesalers have beendisplaced by giant food processing and distribution firms. These large foodprocessing and distribution operations more recently have combined, through various types of alliancesand joint ventures, into five or six even-larger global food chain clusters. As the four or five dominateglobal food retailers link up with existing global food chain clusters, they increasingly willcontrol all phases of the global food system from conception to consumption,including agricultural production (Heffernan, 1999, Hendrickson, 2001).

The two dominant trends in agriculture today, globalization and corporate consolidation, are not justcoincidental, but almost certainly are intentional. Trade negotiators for the more industrialized nations,the US in particular, are the driving force within the WTO demanding ultimate removal of all social andecological barriers to trade. The support of multinational agribusiness corporations is the primarymotivating force behind these negotiators. With all political constraints to trade removed, themultinational corporations would be free to treat the world as a single production area and single market,

and thus to maximize profits globally.The world economy envisioned under the WTO presumably wouldoperate much as a national economy. International commerce would resemble interstate commerce,and no individual member nation would be allowed to have laws interfering with such commerce. Underthe WTO, nothing could be arbitrarily excluded from international commerce. The WTO would decidewhat nations can and cannot exclude from the world marketplace. And, no seller or buyer would beallowed to offer different prices or conditions of trade to different nations, for any reasons.Under such rulesof trade, a nation could not subsidize its agriculture by any means that might be trade distorting; that is, itcouldnt subsidize producers of one commodity more than it subsidizes producers of another. A nationcould not establish environmental, health, or safety standards for its production processes that were morerestrictive than those specified by the WTO. A nation could not close its borders to WTO approvedcultural exports from other nations movies, television programs, clothes, and magazines no matterhow repulsive they may be to some residents of that nation. A nation could not refuse to allow its naturalresources, such as minerals, oil, or even water, to be sold to another nation. And, the WTO would standready to enforce merchandise patents and intellectual property rights globally, regardless of whether thepeople of the world agree that all things, such as genetic life forms, should be patented. These are butsome of the many potential consequences of the WTO vision of a single global economy.In essence,removal of national economic boundaries would open the world to corporate colonization. Historically, acolony has been defined as a geographic territory, acquired by conquest or settlement by a people orgovernment previously alien to that territory (Encarta, 1998). In general, a colonial relationshipis created when one entity extends its sovereignty and imposes controlover another people or territory. In the case of corporate colonization, it isthe corporation, rather than a people or government that extends its sovereigntyand imposes its control over the economies of nations. Nations losecontrol over their individual economies as their economic boundariesare removed, allowing the multinational corporations, previously aliento their countries, to expand across political boundaries at will.

The potential for economic colonization is inherent, so long as the world is composed of nations atradically different stages of economic and technological development. Those in the more developedeconomies will always be tempted to dominate those in the less developed economies . Theemergence of multinational corporations, lacking a strong affiliation toany nation, makes those in the less developed areas or all nationsvulnerable to global

corporate domination. Such disparities in power, however, only make colonizationpossible not necessary or inevitable. The powerful are not always able to expand and dominate theweak, as long as the weak have the political means to resist. Once the economic boundaries are removed,however, there will be no political means to resist.

As with political colonialism, there are strong arguments both for and against economiccolonialism. Clearly, multinational corporations can bring numerous economic benefits to people in less



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developed economies, including greater access to investment capital, more employment opportunities,and higher personal incomes. A stronger economy also provides opportunities for governments to spendmore for public transportation, health care, education, national defense, police protection, and other socialwelfare programs.

However, reliance on outside corporate investors for capital andtechnologies brings with it significant social and ecological risks . As withpolitical colonization, life-styles are disrupted, cultures are destroyed, andentire communities, nations, and races of people may be economicallysubjugated by the corporations. A nations natural resources minerals,petroleum, forests, biological diversity, soils may be exploited to maximize corporateprofits, because there is no long term corporate commitment to any particular people, place, orculture . Decades after political colonization has ended, many so-called Third Worldcountries still harbor a deep resentment, sometimes hatred, towardtheir former colonial masters, in spite of the numerous economic, health, technological,and educational benefits they received. There certainly is no reason to believe that an after-the-factassessment of benefits and costs will be any less condemning of the corporate colonization process.



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Industrial Agriculture: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices=localmove)

High food prices have resulted in food sourcing form regional producers and anincrease in local sustainable agriculture

Mark Scott (contributor to business week) June 3,2008 Aid Groups Cope with HighFood Prices www.businessweek.com

Rather than importing costly commodities from the developed worldoften grown withfarm-support subsidiesagencies now try to source food from domestic or regional producers. There's also a move to teach local communities sustainable agriculturaltechniques so they are less susceptible to the volatility of the global food markets. "Therise in food prices has accelerated the push by organizations to alter their strategies," saysJohn Hoddinott, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institutein Washington. "Sourcing food from developing countries is a welcome step."

High food prices are causing consumers to reconsider food miles and buy locally,reducing energy use

LaureenFagan , contributor to WSBT News, High gas, food prices may spark interestin locally grown products Mar 12,2008SBT24/7 News Report

Those kinds of numbers add new meaning to the term "food miles."It's a term familiar to people looking for more sustainable lifestyle choices andlearning about "green" living, because decreasing the food miles in one's grocery

shopping is one strategy for using less energy .That means buying locally grown foods, gardening, even participating in food co-ops and shared farm projects.In one Michiana neighborhood, that may mean a community garden. In another,including Goshen, it's a co-op program at a farmer's market. Still others may buy or "timeshare" with their labor a stake in a local farm. Churches, synagogues and other faithorganizations have embraced the notion, too. In North Manchester, about an hour fromSouth Bend, the HOPE Community Supported Agriculture offers pastoral leadershiptraining in partnership with the J.L. Hawkins Family Farm. Additionally, people innortheast Indiana can buy "shares" in the Hawkins farm and enjoy its yield.The organization Local Harvest estimates that in 1990, there were about 50 such

Community Supported Agriculture programs, or CSAs, around the country. Now, there'smore than 1,000. And for some people, that may be one solution to the double-whammyof high gas and food prices.



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Industrial Agriculture: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices=localmove)

Higher food prices support local agriculture and encourage shorter supplychains

KimSeverson April 2,2008 , The New York Times,Some Good News on FoodPrices, www.nytimes.com

Still,there are likely to be some tangibleadvantages to current prices . For onething,the relative bargains are likely to be found in the produce aisle and thefarmers market stalls . The Consumer Price Index for fresh fruits and vegetablesis slightly lower than a year ago. That is good news for many shoppers, includingthe poor who use food stamps and are experts in stretching a food dollar, saidLaura Brainin-Rodriguez, a public health educator who helps the poorest people inthe San Francisco Bay Area eat better.People here will take two buses to get to Chinatown to get cheaper produce, shesaid.Policies meant to support local farms and urban agriculture programs willlikely be strengthened, too. Shorter supply chains become increasinglyattractive as fuel costs rise, said Thomas Forster, a former organic farmer andveteran of four farm bills who is working with the United Nations on food issues.To that end, both state and federal governments have begun to encourageinstitutional buyers like school districts to consider geography and not justprice when seeking bids on food contracts.



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Subsidies: 1NC ShellUniqueness: The WTO meets this week to discuss reach an agreement on the Doharound. High food prices have made subsidy cuts palatable.

JoshuaZumbrun 07.21.08 , (contributor to forbes.com)1:30 PM ET , Food On TheTable

Finance ministers of World Trade Organization(WTO ) members countries will meetin Genevathis week to try --again--to reach an agreement opening up trade betweenits members.The talks, known as the Doha Development Round, have dragged on for sevenyears--hampered largely by developed countries unwilling to reduce agriculturesubsidies.What makes the issue more urgent this time--and may ultimately make a deal morepalatable--is the recent surge in food prices, caused in part by trade restrictions in

global agriculture markets. Negotiations a year ago collapsed over a rift between rich nations and the developing world. Members such as the U.S.and European Union nations want developing countries to reduce their tariffs on imports, opening the markets for American and European farmers.The developing world wants the Americans and Europeans to reduce their subsidiesto these farmers. Neither side has been willing to move far enough to make the otherhappy. Since meeting a year ago, the WTO has drafted a new agreement, which sets levels for these cuts. Financeministers will attempt to refine this agreement to something agreeable for all 152 WTO members.Is a deal now within reach? WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy thinks it could be.Higher food prices have already reduced the subsidies paid to rich country farmers.The U.S. would be able to meet its commitments under the deal with relativelyminor changes in agriculture policy, says David Blandford, a professor of agricultural economics at Penn StateUniversity.The draft agreement, through the use of numerous complicated formulas, would limit the overall level of farm subsidies and also putcaps on the amount of support that can be received by any one crop. Limits would gradually be lowered between 2009 and 2013.A study of the draft agreement by Blandford, David Laborde of the International Food Policy Research Institute and Will Martin of the World Bank projected that by 2014 the overall level of U.S. support would be capped at around $13 billion annually, but the U.S.would be providing only $7 billion of subsidies if current programs remain in place, meeting its obligation with $6 billion to spare.The obligation can be met thanks to high food prices. Many subsidies in the U.S. arecountercyclical--meaning that when prices are high, the level of subsidy is low. Thelimit for such countercyclical subsidies under the WTO agreement is $5 billion. But with current prices, the U.S. would be payingonly $1 billion to $1.5 billion in these payments.

But the limits on specific crops are a potential deal breaker: Support for sugar and cotton would have to be cut under the draftagreement. The cut would be most dramatic for cotton, which would lose $2 billion in annual payments, reducing support to $1 billionfrom a projected $3 billion. Sugar too would face substantial cuts, to $1.1 billion from a projected $1.5 billion.

The agreement would not be a totally raw deal for cotton and sugar. Though their level of support would be reduced, developing

countries would be required to reduce their tariffs against the crops. Look for heavy resistance from Beltway cotton and sugar lobbyists.

Two of the most contentious topics in agriculture policy--biofuels and export controls--won't be on the table at all in Geneva.If a deal is accepted now, it would be harder for WTO members to backslide ontheir commitments down the road.Is this the Doha round's last, best chance? Stay tuned.



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Subsidies: 1NC ShellLink: High food prices caused by high oil and gas prices

Chirinos, 2008. High food prices caused by oil, gas prices than ethanol, farmers say, Fanny-,June 18-. Caller Times. http://www.caller.com/news/2008/jun/18/high-food-prices-caused-by-oil-gas-

prices-more/

High food prices have more to do with the high price of oil and gas than they do withethanol production. That's the message local and state farmers gave Tuesday during a press conference at the Corpus Christi International Airport. Accompanied by officialswith the Texas Farm Bureau, the farmers used the event as an opportunity to explain their role in the pricing structure, saying that much of the increases on commodities stemsfrom the high cost of fuel. The market sets the commodity price, which is paid to thefarmer. Fuel costs, initially absorbed by the wholesaler and/or distributor, are passed onto the retail market and, ultimately, consumers.

I/L: Cutting agricultural subsidies would eventually lower food prices and eliminaterural poverty in third world countries.

Bitondo, 2003. Agricultural subsidies hurt world, US, Mike-contributing authorat UCLA, September 2006-. University Wire. LexisNexis Academic.

Eliminating subsidies would be extremely beneficial to U.S. consumers because it wouldlower the artificially inflated prices of food and force the American farming industry tocompete with overseas imports. Additionally, it would save the federal governmenthundreds of billions of dollars that it badly needs in its current deficit-riddenstate Americanagricultural subsidies also do an innumerable amount of damage to Third World agricultural markets bydumping cheap surplus food stocks on foreign markets. Every year, the United States buys up hugequantities of surplus food stocks from the agricultural sector to keep domestic food prices artificiallyhigher. The surpluses it buys end up getting dumped on Third World markets overseas and devastate thefarming industry of the Third World.The so-called "subsidy superpowers" of the west haveutilized World Trade Organization trade talks to allow rich countries to use subsidies andforce poor countries to accept their demands. This system is perpetuating unfair competition in agricultural markets and reinforcing rural poverty in the process.Eliminating subsidies would lead to improved access to western markets and an end todumping surplus food stocks on Third World markets, potentially lifting many people outof poverty.If real reform in the WTO's agricultural policy is made, then it will go a long way in the fightagainst rural poverty in Third World countries. For example, if Africa could increase its share of worldtrade by just 1 percent, it would approximately earn an additional $ 80 billion a year. Recent WTO trade

talks in Cancun were not enough to solve the problem of farm subsidies.More must be done to createa real chance for the world to eliminate western agricultural subsidies and take a big stepforward in developing Third World economies.

http://www.caller.com/news/2008/jun/18/high-food-prices-caused-by-oil-gas-prices-more/http://www.caller.com/news/2008/jun/18/high-food-prices-caused-by-oil-gas-prices-more/http://www.caller.com/news/2008/jun/18/high-food-prices-caused-by-oil-gas-prices-more/http://www.caller.com/news/2008/jun/18/high-food-prices-caused-by-oil-gas-prices-more/


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Subsidies: 1NC ShellPoverty is a Form of Structural ViolenceThe Decision To Maintain it is theLargest ImpactAn Ongoing and Accelerating War Against the Poor

MumiaAbu-Jamal, Activist and Prisoner, A QUIET AND DEADLY VIOLENCE,9/19/98 (http://www.mumia.nl/TCCDMAJ/quietdv.htm)

We live, equally immersed, and to a deeper degree, in a nation that condones and ignoreswide-ranging "structural" violence, of a kind that destroys human life with a breathtakingruthlessness. Former Massachusetts prison official and writer, Dr. James Gilliganobserves;"By `structural violence' I mean the increased rates of death and disabilitysuffered by those who occupy the bottom rungs of society, as contrasted by those who areabove them. Those excess deaths (or at least a demonstrably large proportion of them) area function of the class structure; and that structure is itself a product of society'scollective human choices, concerning how to distribute the collective wealth of thesociety.These are not acts of God. I am contrasting `structural' with `behavioral violence' by which Imean the non-natural deaths and injuries that are caused by specific behavioral actions of individualsagainst individuals, such as the deaths we attribute to homicide, suicide, soldiers in warfare, capital punishment, and so on." -- (Gilligan, J., MD, Violence: Reflections On a National Epidemic (New York:Vintage, 1996), 192.)This form of violence, not covered by any of the majoritarian,corporate, ruling-class protected media, is invisible to us and because of its invisibility,all the more insidious. How dangerous is it -- really? Gilligan notes:"[E]very fifteenyears, on the average, as many people die because of relative poverty as would be killedin a nuclear war that caused 232 million deaths; and every single year, two to three timesas many people die from poverty throughout the world as were killed by the Nazigenocide of the Jews over a six-year period. This is, in effect, the equivalent of anongoing, unending, in fact accelerating, thermonuclear war, or genocide on the weak and poor every year of every decade, throughout the world." [Gilligan, p. 196]Worse still, in a thoroughly capitalist society, much of that violence became internalized,turned back on the Self, because, in a society based on the priority of wealth, those whoown nothing are taught to loathe themselves, as if something is inherently wrong withthemselves, instead of the social order that promotes this self-loathing. This intense self-hatred was often manifested in familial violence as when the husband beats the wife, thewife smacks the son, and the kids fight each other.This vicious, circular, and invisible violence, unacknowledged by the corporate media,uncriticized in substandard educational systems, and un-understood by the very folks whosuffer in its grips, feeds on the spectacular and more common forms of violence that thesystem makes damn sure -- that we can recognize and must react to it.This fatal and systematic violence may be called The War on the Poor.



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Subsidies: Uniqueness Ext

High food prices give governments the opportunity to wean farmers off of subsidies.

David Victor, July 14, 2008. With food prices rising, the U.S. congress does justthe wrong thing.- director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Developmentat Stanford University, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and hasadvised the U.S. government on climate change . Newsweek. LexisNexis.High food prices have been bad news for consumers, but they have revealed even worsenews about the tendencies of government. Soaring crop prices offer a tremendousopportunity for smart reforms and real economic development. In rich countries likeWestern Europe's and the United States, high prices could, in theory, make it easier towean farmers from lavish subsidies, plugging holes in the public budget and putting theworld's farmers on a more level playing field. That, after all, has been the stated goal of free-market-oriented governments in the United States for many years. Lowering

subsidies could also lighten farmers' footprints on the landscape; subsidized and protectedfarmers usually plow too much land and tread heavily with fertilizers and pesticides.



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Subsidies: I/L Ext (fight rural poverty, combat US deficit)

Cutting agricultural subsidies would fight rural poverty and help ease the US deficit

without any detrimental effect on the agricultural sector.

Bitondo, 2003. Agricultural subsidies hurt world, US, Mike-contributing authorat UCLA, September 2006-. University Wire. LexisNexis Academic.

At a time when massive tax cuts, a costly war in Iraq and a prolonged economic recessionare pushing deficit spending in the coming federal budget to over $ 500 billion, actionneeds to be taken to help offset these staggering costs. Eliminating all U.S. agriculturalsubsidies would save the government hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, would benefit U.S. consumers, and would also go a long way toward fighting rural poverty in poor countries.Agricultural subsidies were first created in the early years of the United States to help the large portion of the population that lived as small farmers. Still, the reality today is that the small farmer is going the same route as the small rancher --extinction. Large agribusiness corporations dominate the American agricultural sector and have a stranglehold on many politicians inWashington, D.C. Just last year, President Bush pushed a staggering $ 170 billion farm subsidy bill. In his speech supporting the bill,Bush stated, "Our farmers and ranchers are the most efficient producers in the world. ... We're really good at it."If our agricultural sector is so efficient, then does it really need so many hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies? The answer is a resounding no. American agribusiness does not needsubsidies at all and eliminating them would not hurt our farming industry. In fact, it could benefit the industry. Chris Edwards, the director of fiscal policy at the Cato Institute, andTad DeHaven, a research associate at the Cato Institute, use New Zealand as an exampleof successful agricultural reform. New Zealand eliminated all agricultural subsidies in1984. Since the reforms, just 1 percent of New Zealand farms had declared bankruptcy.Additionally, the country's agribusiness productivity has experienced an average growth

of 6 percent since 1984 compared to 1 percent growth before. The numbers from NewZealand are clear: Eliminating subsidies resulted in better productivity with relatively fewside-effects.



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Green Revolution: 1NC ShellA. Uniqueness: High food prices are causing leaders and international institutions toprioritize agriculture. Sustaining high food prices is key to allow for investment andbanish extreme hunger and poverty for millions of people

Jeffrey D.Sachs (professor on the faculty at the School of International and PublicAffairs and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Senior Adviser toUnited Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals)April 22,2008 The African Green Revolution Scientific American Magazine

[Until recently, donors sent only food aid in response to Africas deepening agriculturalcrisis. Now they are waking up to the one real solution: increased agricultural productionthrough a homegrown African green revolution. It would require four kinds of temporaryhelp: financing for better farming inputs, extension services to advise farmers on the new technologies, communitynurseries to diversify production, and investments in infrastructure. Market-based techniques of financial managementcan also offer weather-risk insurance to the farm communities.

The time for action is ripe for several reasons. Most important among them is thatAfrican leaders themselves are prioritizing agriculture and often getting major increasesin harvests and farm incomes as a result.Malawi has more than doubled its food output in just threeyears, following a bold government program to ensure that all farm households have subsidized access to fertilizers andhigh-yield seeds. Others are following that lead.International institutions such as the World Bank have returned to leadership onagriculture after years of waiting in vain for the markets alone to solve the problem.Aninternal review last year called on the World Bank and donors to help design efficient mechanisms, including public- private partnerships, to provide farmers with critical inputs. New international donors have also stepped forward. The Alliance for a GreenRevolution in Africa, sponsored by the Gates and Rockefeller foundations, has given amassive boost to the agenda.Aid to Africa from the governments of wealthy countries has been promised todouble between 2004 and 2010, and much of that should go to agriculture.An additional reason speaks to the urgency for change: Africas vulnerability to foodinsecurity has skyrocketed. The population has outstripped the food supply. Climatechange is already wreaking havoc on crop yields. Depletion of soil nutrients has reachedcrisis proportions. Soaring world food prices have put a crippling burden on Africa as anet food importer. This way lies disaster.Here are bold but realistic goals that Africa and its donor partners can adopt: to double grain yields in Africa by 2012,to graduate at least three quarters of African smallholder farm households from subsistence to commercial farmingwithin a decade, and to expand nutrition programs alongside increased food production to cut the ranks of the hungry by at least half by 2015.We should establish a special fund for the green revolution in Africa akin to the highlysuccessful Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. An annual flow of $10 billion from the richcountries, half through the fund, would finance the needed breakthroughs. It would amount to roughly $10 per person in the donor countries, a modest sum that would give Africa the historicopportunity to banish extreme poverty and chronic hunger for hundreds of millions of its people.



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Green Revolution: 1NC ShellB. The Link:

1. High energy prices raise food prices because farmers are forced to pay more foragricultural inputs. When the plan lowers energy prices, food prices go down aswell.

IFPRI, 2008. High Food Prices: The What, Who, and How of Proposed PolicyActions, International Food Policy Research Institute, May-.http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/FoodPricesPolicyAction.pdf

High energy prices have also made agricultural production more expensive by raising thecost of inputs like fertilizers, irrigation, and transport of inputs and outputs. Whereas theshare of energy in the cost of crop production is around 4 percent in most developingcountries, it is between 8 and 20 percent in some large countries such as Brazil,China, and India.

2. Lower food prices will cause organizations to withhold investments, preventing agreen revolution

C. The Impact: Until a green revolution, Africa will remain in poverty and hungerand stay isolated from the world economy. Small projects have shown the success of innovative agriculture in Africa, all that is needed is investment

Jeffrey D.Sachs (professor on the faculty at the School of International and PublicAffairs and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Senior Adviser toUnited Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals)April 22,2008 The African Green Revolution Scientific American Magazine

Africa needs a green revolution. Food yields on the continent are roughly one metric tonof grain per hectare of cultivated land, a figure little changed from 50 years ago androughly one third of the yields achieved on other continents. In low-income regionselsewhere in the world, the introduction of high-yield seeds, fertilizer and small-scaleirrigation boosted food productivity beginning in the mid-1960s and opened the escaperoute from extreme poverty for huge populations. A similar takeoff in sub-Saharan Africais both an urgent priority and a real possibility.

Until this change happens, Africas vast rural areas, which are home to two thirds of its population, will remain mired in poverty, hunger and high child mortality and will stayisolated from the world market economy. Proven technologieshigh-yield seeds, newwater-management techniques and ways to replenish soil nutrientsare alreadyachieving three to five tons per hectare in many parts of Africa but too often only in smalldemonstration projects.

http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/FoodPricesPolicyAction.pdfhttp://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/FoodPricesPolicyAction.pdf


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Green Revolution: 1NC Shell

Currently tens of millions of African farmers, with hundreds of millions of dependents,are stuck living in subsistence conditions. They lack the savings or creditworthinessneeded to buy better seed, fertilizer and water technology. They lack even minimalcommunity infrastructure (roads, storage capacity and power) to participate profitably inthe market economy, and so they cannot better their situations.



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Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = moreproduction in developing countries)

High food prices increase the production of food in developing countries bystimulating production

Africa News June 24, 2008. Uganda; High Food Prices anOpening for Developing Countries. LexisNexis Academic

Dr Jurgen Zattler, the Deputy Director General Multilateral and EuropeanDevelopment Policy, trade, at the Ministry for Economic Cooperation in Germany,advised developing countries to step up their agricultural out put to take advantage of foreign markets where food prices have soared as a result of food shortages. Heunderlined that the swelling prices are not only negative but also positive because theyare also stimulating production especially in developing countries. "The high prices area big chance for developing countries to increase their productivity in the agriculturesector," Dr Zattler told Daily Monitor in an interview, on June 13. At the moment, hesaid, there are no export subsidies in Europe because food prices like elsewhere, arehigh. He said this was a result of rising energy prices as a result of increased demandfor oil and food stuff like beef, rice and wheat by China and India with ballooninggrowth rates. Subsidies for local farmers in European countries have for long been amajor impediment in trade between them, theUnited States of America anddeveloping countries. If counties like Uganda increase their food production, andexported to these markets, this would translate into higher incomes for the localfarmers and increased revenue for government.

Ghana has the capability of leading a green revolution in Africaall that is needed

is increased agricultural development

Emmanuel K.Dogbevi (contributor to Ghana News Today.com)2008 The biofuelfactor, the food crisis and Ghanas participationhttp://www.ghananewstoday.com/news_readmore.php?id=162By

Ghana, a developing country, which has about 70% of its population in the rural areasinvolved in agriculture, ironically imports over 40% of its food needs.Another interesting angle to Ghanas agriculture dilemma is the fact that whileagriculture contributes nearly 40% to the countrys GDP, only 10% of the national budgetis allocated to the sector.Ghana has the capability to lead a green revolution in Africa, in this criticalmoment, but sadly not much is being done to shore up the agriculture sector. Only about 16% of Ghanas arable land is used for farming. And the prices of food have more than doubled in Ghana since the crisis.Ghanaian food crop farmers need support in the forms of investments in inputs,fertilizer, training and access to markets. These could potentially boost agriculturein the country and contribute to job creation and economic growth.

http://www.ghananewstoday.com/news_readmore.php?id=162Byhttp://www.ghananewstoday.com/news_readmore.php?id=162By


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High food prices could result in greatly increased agricultural production inTanzania

PeregeGumbo 29 May2008 , ippmedia.comBanker says Tanzania could benefit from ongoing global food crisis

A leading economist has said Tanzania is one of the few African states whichcommand great potential to turning the current global food crisis into gainfulopportunity .That is because the country is endowed with huge arable land and has sinceindependence enjoyed unparalleled peace and social-cultural stability, unlike somany other countries in the region.Addressing participants to the second Business Journalism Forum, the Standard Bank Group Economist Yvonne Mhango said that with many African nations facing internal political instabilities, Tanzania could benefit from the current global food crisis.Drawing contrasts, she said that recent Kenyas post election violence and conflicts inChad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Zimbabwe and Northern Ugandawere factors which do not augur well with enhancement of farm productivity.Tanzania has a surface area of 94.3 million hectares, of which 19.1 million hectaresrepresents arable land, but only 5.1 million hectares are cultivated annually. The rest of the arable land is either reserved or used for pasture.Under proper policies, incentives and technological encouragement, this land couldproduce enough crops to feed itself and export the surplus to global markets.

High food prices will benefit the Kenyan economy by increasing foreign exchangeearnings

By WashingtonGikunju , 24 April2008 , Silver Lining Emerges in Rising Food PricesBusiness Daily (Nairobi)

The latest Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that the month-on-month overallinflation rate increased from 19.1 per cent in February 2008 to 21.8 per cent in March2008, a new decade high,in response to rising food prices. Prof Ryan , however , seesan indirect benefit in sustained high global agricultural commodity prices, whichare likely to push the case for an increase in domestic production as importing food

becomes more expensive.The pressure to increase domestic productivity could inturn lead to adoption of long term strategies such as increase in land underirrigation and the development of high yield seeds to meet our domestic needs. Theeconomist also says that a rise in prices of tea, coffee and horticultural producecould benefit the economy in terms of increased foreign exchange earnings and islikely to trickle down as real benefits for farmers.



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Experts call for a biotechnological Green Revolution to combat famine andincrease yields.

Scott, 2008, Green plan targets hungry continent, Marian-, June 14-, TheGazette (Montreal). LexisNexis Academic.

Exhausted by intensive farming and eroded by drought and flood, Africa's arable land isunable to support its hungry people. Per capita food production has declined for 30 yearsin Africa, where farm productivity is just one-quarter the global average, according to theUnited Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Impoverished farmers havemined nutrients out of the soil by growing crops season after season without manure or fertilizers, Rattan Lal, a professor of soil management at Ohio State University, says."We have an urgent problem of feeding the people," he says. More than 200 millionAfricans are chronically hungry and 33 million children under age five are malnourished.War and natural disasters have compounded food insecurity: ethnic slaughter in Darfur,drought in Kenya, floods in Ethiopia. Three-quarters of the population lacks food in theDemocratic Republic of Congo, struggling to rebuild democracy after years of civil strife. Now, an international coalition of governments and humanitarian groups is calling for a"Green Revolution" to boost Africa's agricultural output. Headed by former UNSecretary-General Kofi Annan, the Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA) wasfounded in 2006 by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation. It aims to improve food production by providing farmers with high-yieldseeds, fertilizer, irrigation, soil management, access to markets and education. On June4, the FAO, World Food Program and International Fund for Agricultural Developmentannounced a partnership with AGRA to accelerate food production in the region. Africanagriculture needs biotechnology,like new seed varieties and fertilizers, to achieve adrastic increase in crop yields, says Lal. Without those tools, farming in the regionsimply cannot make the quantum leap it needs to feed its population, he argues. "We'renot looking for a 10-per-cent increase in agricultural yields. We're looking to triple or quadruple yields." African farmers lack access to the large quantity of organic materialneeded to improve soil fertility, Lal says. "We just do not have enough manure."Agricultural residues are often burned as fuel rather than returned to the land to enrich thesoil. In many parts of Africa and Asia, farmers support their families on less than one-tenth of an acre - one-twenty-fifth of a hectare. "You need 300 kilograms of grains per

person per year to survive," says Lal. "To produce that on one-tenth of an acre, you needto use chemicals.



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Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = moreproduction/profit in developing countries)

High food prices allow African farmers to increase their

income and become competitive in the global market.

Catholic Information Service for Africa, May 4, 2008. Africa;high food prices could benefit farmers. Africa News.LexisNexis.

The crisis, however, can benefit rural farmers who have a marketablesurplus, the expert said. "For example, CRS works with navy beanfarmers in Ethiopia and chickpea farmers in Tanzania to link them toprofitable markets. As the prices for these commodities shoot up, thefarmers can invest in increasing their production to make more

money." The rising food prices, he pointed out, can be an opportunityfor farmers in the developing world if they are included as part of thesolution. "Make no mistake: The increased prices for wheat, maize,soybean and other edible oils have been a boon for farmers who areexporting from the United States, Europe and elsewhere. The questionis, how can we help African farmers also benefit from the increase inprices while contributing to increases in food supply?" CRS is knownfor an innovative approach that uses vouchers and fairs to get neededassets into the hands of poor farmers. Eligible farmers receive a set of vouchers worth a given sum. They then use the vouchers to "buy"seeds, farming tools, fertilizer or livestock from approved local sellerswho typically attend a special fair. This approach helps farmersincrease agricultural production and subsequently their incomes. Theapproach was successfully applied by CRS in 2006 as part of droughtresponse activities in Kenya, with 2,500 expectant and nursingmothers and 3,500 families with malnourished children receiving foodvouchers to supplement their food resources. Remington said thecurrent crisis in prices could be a driver to increase production inAfrica. "Africa has the potential. Will that potential be tapped? That'sthe question."

High food prices provide Ghanaians the opportunity to profit.

Daily Graphic, April 22, 2008. Ghana can benefit from world high food prices,BBC Worldwide Monitoring. LexisNexis.

The president of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr TonyOteng-Gyasi, has called on Ghanaians not grieve over rising prices of commodities on the world market because the country has all it takesto reap from the benefits. "This shouldn't be a problem for us. We



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have a unique one-time opportunity to develop our agriculturalindustry," Mr Oteng-Gyasi said at an Executive Business luncheon of the association in Accra. He said considering the large agriculturalsector in the country, replete with farmers who had, over the years,lived in poverty, the sudden rise in the price of samples should be a

blessing in disguise for them as they could take advantage of thesituation to reap good profits.


High food prices around the world are giving farmers inUganda a chance to enter the export market.

New Vision, April 23, 2008. Africa; surging prices an opportunity for continent.Africa News.

The recent food price increases has been predicted as doom and gloom for thecontinent. However, this needs not to be the case . There are medium and longterm benefits owing to the commodity price rise for African producers.About 48 of the 53 African countries are dependent on commodityexports, including primary agricultural commodities, minerals and oilproducts to earn foreign exchange. The recent price boom has sweptacross commodities like metals, oil and food. Africa is a natural basketof most of these commodities and enjoys an absolute advantage onsupplies. Specifically, food-related commodity price increases are attracting a lot of global attention.

The World Bank warns that over 100 million people, especially in Africa, could be severely affected andplunged into deeper poverty. The president of the bank has called for a "new deal for global food policy" tothe tune of $500m to support the World Food Programme. This is because food crop prices have increasedby more than 85% since 2004 and they are predicted to remain above 2004 levels until 2015 . InUganda, most households are net food producers and could benefitfrom high food prices through regional food exports.

High food prices will benefit South Africas agricultural sector and allow them tomaintain viability in international markets

africa.reuters.com , 7/10/2008 , http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=25266Global food price hike to benefit S.Africa farmers

The rise in global food prices will benefit South Africa's farming sector despite worriesover food supply for the country's poor, the president of the country's largest farmers' body said on Tuesday. Lourie Bosman, president of farmers' federation AgriSA, said theincrease in food prices would help ensure viability for local farmers, who have in the past



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struggled to stay profitable as bumper harvests pushed commodity prices lower. "We arenot unhappy about it ... (the rise in food prices). If that hadn't happened then a lot of producers would still be struggling to maintain viability," Bosman told reporters. SouthAfrican farmers have raised concerns over a critical lack of support from the government,which has seen farmers fortunes take a dive after a massive cut in state subsidies in post-

apartheid South Africa. The farmers say the absence of subsidies has also made itdifficult for them to compete in international markets. But increased demand, triggered by the global shortage of food is likely to improve farmers' prospects. A combination of high oil and fuel prices, rising demand for food in a wealthier Asia, the use of farmlandand crops for biofuels, bad weather and speculation on futures markets have pushed upfood prices, prompting violent protests in a handful of poor states. "The rising food priceswill make it possible for us to bargain in global trade ... it will also make it possible for the developing world to produce more," Bosman said. AgriSA chief executive Hans vander Merwe said there was unlikely to be a decline in food prices. "We are expecting aslower rise in prices and the food inflation trend, but not a decline," he said.



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Now is the time for the green revolution: high food prices are spurring internationalactors to invest in Africa agriculture

StephenBrown and RobinPomeroy , (contributors to reutors.com), 04 Jun2008 Foodsummit seeks "green revolution" for Africahttp://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04680179.htm

A U.N. summit on the global food crisis asked rich nations on Wednesday to helprevolutionise farming in Africa and the developing world to produce more food for nearly1 billion people facing hunger."The global food crisis is a wake-up call for Africa to launch itself into a 'greenrevolution' which has been over-delayed," Nigerian Agriculture Minister Sayyadi AbbaRuma said on the second day of the three-day summit."Every second, a child dies of hunger," he told Reuters. "The time to act is now. Enoughrhetoric and more action."The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation called the summit after soaring commodity pricesthreatened to add 100 million more people to the 850 million already going hungry and caused food riots thatthreaten government stability in some countries.The cost of major food commodities has doubled over the last couple of years, with rice, corn and wheat at recordhighs. The OECD sees prices retreating from their peaks but still up to 50 percent higher in the coming decade.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the summit, attended by 151 countries, had shown "a clear sense of resolve,shared responsibility and political commitment among member states".But discord over how much biofuels contribute to the rise in food prices, by competing with food output for crops,threatened to deprive the summit of a forceful final declaration."I doubt there will be a positive agreement on biofuels," said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer.The United States, a leader in maize-based ethanol, and Brazil, the world's largest producer of ethanol from sugar cane,say it is important to diversify energy sources at a time when oil prices are sky-high and there is pressure for cleaner fuels.Ban's predecessor at the head of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, was in Rome tosign an agreement with U.N. food agencies for a new drive to increase farm production inAfrica."The world is facing an unprecedented world food crisis and nowhere is this crisis moreserious and acute than in Africa," he said of the new plan. "We hope to spur a greenrevolution in Africa which respects biodiversity and the continent's distinct regions," saidAnnan, who chairs the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) which iscoordinating the effort.He told Reuters that African nations using prime farm land for biofuel risked creating food shortages, adding, "they will regret it because the populationwill turn on them."



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Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = moreinvestment)

The international community is now funding long term sustainable agriculture inAfrica in response to high food prices.

DominiquePatton , (contributor to Business Daily Nairobi), 13 May2008 High FoodPrices Renew Interest in African Farming(http://allafrica.com/stories/200805131046.html)

At a special meeting on food prices called by UK prime minister Gordon Brown lastmonth, the UK pledged 400 million over five years for research aimed at higher cropyields and better pest control, a doubling of the previous year's amount. It will alsodonate 120 million a year to boost the agricultural sector in poor countries and 34.7million to reduce the cost of transportation in Africa.The US has announced funding for agricultural development as part of an additionalUS$770 million food aid package. And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said thata new international task force set up to tackle the rise in food prices will need "to boostagricultural development, particularly in Africa and other regions most affected".The moves come after years of declining funding for agricultural research. Investment inagricultural development for Africa fell by 66 per cent between 1985 and 2004, accordingto FarmAfrica, a UK-based NGO that works with small farmers in East Africa. Now, as global attention focuses on soaring food prices, calls for long-term funding of agriculture are growing."For decades African agriculture has been neglected, and the price for this neglect is nowglaring. National grain reserves are very, very low. The situation can and must bereversed," said Kofi Annan in an opening speech to a seminar in Austria at the beginningof the month.Mr Annan said that providing effective humanitarian aid will be vital for many Africancountries in the short-term to help them deal with surging food prices. But withsignificant investments in agriculture in the medium to long-term, Africa could radicallyimprove its food output and become self-sufficient.

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Green Revolution: Uniqueness Ext (High food prices = moreinvestment)

High food prices are providing incentives stimulate the agricultural sector in areassuch as research, extension, and infrastructure

FAO.org (food and agriculture organization of the United Nations) 28 May2008 ,High food prices - supporting the poor and re-launching agricultureJune Summit on food security offers historic chance to address world food challenges:The report stresses thathigh food prices represent an excellent opportunity forincreased investments in agriculture by both the public and private sectors tostimulate production and productivity . It calls for investment into long neglectedareas such as agricultural research, extension and infrastructure . Support should focus onagricultural research serving the needs of poor farmers, many of whom farm in increasingly marginal areas; poor farmers should have better access to factors of production, namely land, water and inputs.The report also notes that unilateral trade policy measuresundertaken by countries to ensure domestic food availability can exacerbate price instability on world markets and affect food securityin other countries. Policy coordination is important in this respect. Production and trade policies on biofuels may also need to be re-examined in light of their possible effects on international food markets and hence on food security, especially in vulnerable countries.To be successful, decisions made and policies implemented in this area should take into utmost consideration world foodsecurity.This is a unique moment in history: for the first time in 25 years,afundamental incentive - high food commodityprices - is in place for stimulating theagricultural sector, Jacques Diouf said. Governments, supported by theirinternational partners, must now undertake the necessary public investment andprovide a favourable environment for private investments , while at the same timeensuring that the most vulnerable are protected from hunger.

Biotech industry able to commit to large GMO products to combat high food prices.

Pollack, 2008. Monsanto pledges to double crop yields with seed research,Andrew-MIT civil and environmental engineer, NYT staff writer, June 5-,TheInternational Herald Tribune. LexisNexis Academic

Monsanto, the leader in agricultural biotechnology, pledged Wednesday to develop seedsthat would double the yields of corn, soybeans and cotton by 2030 and would require 30 percent less water, land and energy to grow. The announcement, coming as worldleaders are meeting in Rome to discuss rising food prices and growing food shortages,appeared to be aimed at least in part at winning acceptance of genetically modified crops

by showing that they could play a major role in feeding the world. Much of what is in thecommitment are things the company was doing anyway, though it now becomes a formalgoal. Monsanto said it had developed its new commitment after consulting farmers, political leaders, academics and advocacy groups as to what needed to be done toincrease food production to cope with a rising population and the demand for biofuelswithout converting more forests into farmland. ''In short, the world needs to producemore while conserving more,'' the company's chief executive, Hugh Grant, said.



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Green Revolution: Uniqueness/Brink Ext (High food prices =more investment)

High prices must be sustained to allow biotech companies timeto put new agricultural projects in the pipeline; As pricesincrease, more innovators will begin to develop new crops.

Pascal Zachary, May 18, 2008. A brighter side of high prices; professor of journalism atStanford University, technology and economic development writer. New York Times. LexisNexis.

For the new agricultural innovators, these are early days. It will taketime for the pipeline to fill with ambitious projects. Monsanto and BASFare among the relatively few big companies that remain active inagricultural innovation. And the most creative researchers can'timmediately drop their other projects in response to price signals.

Given time, priorities change. Tomorrow's most intense technologicalbattles will involve a range of agricultural topics, including these: Usingwater and fertilizer more efficiently, so farmers can grow more withless. Finding new ways to suppress weeds, whose growing resistanceto traditional herbicides is raising the cost of farming. Designing betterseeds, either through conventional means or genetic modification.Finding ways to meet the needs of the eat-local movement, promotedby the food writer Michael Pollan, among others, which requiresinnovative "small batch" processing techniques as well as a shift invalues. "We need to pull out all the stops and do everything we can toimprove farm productivity," says William Dyer, a plant biologist at

Montana State University in Bozeman. To be sure, engineering a new"green revolution" that will yield, say, cheaper wheat and rice -- allwhile meeting the concerns of various special interest groups -- will bemuch harder than designing a better music player. After all, we don'teat iPods. The food fabricator of the 1960s television show "Star Trek"remains an elusive dream, but not merely because of limits on humaningenuity.

High food prices must remain in order for investment in agriculture to occur

Stocks, 2008. Having cheap food will not solve global crisis, Caroline-contributing

writer, April 25-, Farmers Weekly. LexisNexis.

High food prices and greater investment in agriculture are needed if farmers are toincrease food production, NFU president Peter Kendall told Gordon Brown this week. Mr Kendall joined supermarketrepresentatives, scientists and charities at a summit meeting on food inflation at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday (22 April). He stressedthe importance of new technology if the government wanted to help avoid global food shortages. Speaking before the meeting, thePrime Minister said he wanted consumers, food producers, manufacturers and retailers to collectively look at how to tackle the "globalfood crisis".An "agricultural revolution" was needed to help farmers in developing countries produce more food, he added.Speaking to Farmers Weekly, Mr Kendall said it was good to see the issue of food



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inflation being discussed at the highest level, and the UK was well-placed to ease global concerns over food supplies. "The more we produce here, the less pressure we put on producers elsewhere," he said. "I hope this debate will enable the NFU and the farmingindustry to have a more constructive debate with government about the role we play in global food supplies." Mr Kendall said his biggest fear was that the government would conclude that cheap food was the solution to food inflation. "Cheap food is theroot of the problem, and not the desired outcome of this debate about food security," hesaid. "If you want more land to come into production and you want investment in

technology, we must have higher prices."



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Biotech/Warming: 1NC ShellUniqueness: The agricultural biotechnology sector is reaping huge profits from thehigh food prices, and is reinvesting the money in new technology.

David Kesmodel, Lauren Etter, April 30, 2008. Grain companies profits soar asglobal food crisis mounts. Wall Street Journal.

At a time when parts of the world are facing food riots, Big Agriculture is dealing with adifferent sort of challenge: huge profits. On Tuesday, grain-processing giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. said its fiscal third-quarter profits jumped 42%, including asevenfold increase in net income in its unit that stores, transports and trades grains suchas wheat, corn and soybeans. Monsanto Co., maker of seeds and herbicides, Deere &Co., which builds tractors, combines and sprayers, and fertilizer maker Mosaic Co. allreported similar windfalls in their latest quarters. The robust profits are emerging againstthe backdrop of a food crisis some experts say is the worst in three decades. Thesecretary- general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, on Tuesday called for thecreation of a high-level global task force to deal with the cascading impact of high grain prices and oil prices. He said that countries must do more to avert "social unrest on anunprecedented scale" and should contribute money to make up for the $755 millionshortfall in funding for the World Food Program, which feeds the world's hungry.President Bush told reporters on Tuesday that he's "deeply concerned about people whodon't have food abroad," and all three presidential contenders have recently cited highfood and energy prices as causes for concern. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, has said he favors scrapping the 51-cent per gallon

ethanol tax credit and a 54-cent per gallon tariff imposed on most imported ethanol, ideasabhorred by farmers and many politicians. The crisis stems from a combination of heightened demand for food from fast-growing developing countries like China andIndia, low grain stockpiles caused by bad weather, rising fuel prices and the increasingamount of land used to grow crops for ethanol and other biofuels rather than food. Foodcompanies say they're not to blame for the soaring prices and are committed to workingtoward a solution. They say bigger profits can be used to develop new technologies thatwill ultimately help farmers improve productivity. Monsanto says it's designing improvedgenetically modified seeds that can squeeze even more yield from each acre of plantedgrain, while ADM says it's investing in tools that can mitigate supply disruptions."Maybe the question should be not, 'Are you making money?' but, 'What are you doing

with the money that you make?'" says Victoria Podesta, vice president of corporatecommunications at ADM.



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Biotech/ Warming: 1NC ShellLink: High food prices are caused by high energy prices. The affirmative planlowers energy prices, causing food prices to decline.

McConnel, 2008. High Food Prices, Urban Migration Make it Hard to Help the Poor,Kathryn-, April 17-. http://www.america.gov/st/foraid-english/2008/April/20080417163323akllennoccm0.6278345.html

At the conference, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said the growing demand for crops to produce biofuels is only one reason, and not a major reason, for high food costs.Schafer said, Higher energy prices are the biggest factor in pushing up food prices.

I/L: High food prices encourage innovation in agricultural technology becauseentrepreneurs see larger profit margins.

Pascal Zachary, May 18, 2008. A brighter side of high prices; professor of journalism at Stanford

University, technology and economic development writer. New York Times. LexisNexis.

CORN prices are at record high levels. Costs for other agricultural essentials, from wheatto coffee to rice, have surged, too. And many people are stunned, even frightened, by allthe increases. But some entrepreneurs and analysts -- recognizing that relative priceincreases in specific goods always encourage innovators to find ways around the problem-- say they see an opportunity for creative solutions. "When something becomes dear, youinvent around it as much as you can," says David Warsh, editor of Economicprincipals.com, a newsletter on trends in economic thinking. Joel Mokyr, aneconomic historian at Northwestern University, adds, "All of a sudden, some things thatdidn't look profitable now do." Smart people won't shift their efforts to agricultural problems, however, if they think that price increases are only temporary, says HenryKressel, a managing director at the private equity firm Warburg Pincus and a pioneer inlaser research. "When you have a sudden blip in prices," Mr. Kressel says, "it doesn't giverise to entrepreneurial activity." Consider the periodic surges in prices for computer memory hardware. Because its price is declining over the long run -- a result of newtechnologies and automation -- innovators tend to stay away from the field, leaving it to afew large, established companies. For decades, declining prices for food had the samechilling effect. In the United States and Europe -- the world's two biggest consumers of new technologies -- food was plentiful and relatively inexpensive. Innovators turned their attention elsewhere. With higher food prices possibly here to stay, clever people can nowtry things that simply weren't cost-effective before. "I don't pay attention to inflation, butI do pay attention to big problems," says Bill Gross, chairman of Idealab, the businessincubator based in Pasadena, Calif. "If you can beat the price of the big gorilla in themarketplace, there's big opportunity." One clearly "big opportunity" lies in changing therelationship between food and energy. Fertilizer lets farmers raise production but isenergy-intensive to make. Transporting food great distances also requires much energy.So does processing. Finally, some foods are now being valued in relation to oil becauseof their potential use in fuel. For some years now, innovators have trained their attentionon alternative energy; they are now likely to concentrate on food production as well.

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Biotech/ Warming: 1NC Shell

Impact: Biotech companies, buoyed by increasing profits, are developing

technology to cut greenhouse emissions. The plan causes food prices to drop,making these new crops unprofitable.

Cookson, 2008. A time to sow? GM food could curb cost of staples, Clive-science journalist with LA Times, July 10-, Truth About Trade & Technology. LexisNexis Academic.

Monsanto is meanwhile working on adding genes that enable crops to use nitrogen moreefficiently. Nitrogen fertilisers represent one of the largest input costs in agriculture: inthe US alone, farmers spend more than $3bn a year applying nitrogen fertilisers to maizefields and at least half of the nitrogen is wasted because it is not taken up by the crop.

Colin Merritt, Monsantos head of external affairs, says more efficient nitrogen use willreduce agricultures contribution to global warming currently estimated at 17 per centof all human activity. In particular, it will cut emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerfulgreenhouse gas. Monsanto has dominated agricultural biotechnology from the start andhas always been the corporate symbol of GM food, for good and for evil. Last year the StLouis-based company was responsible for an estimated 100m hectares of the global totalof 114m hectares sown with GM crops. Its sales of biotech seeds and technology reached$5.4bn in the nine months to May.

A new approach to climate change is needed soon to avoid dangerous warmingimpactsclimatologists agree

David D.Doniger et al , policy director of the Climate Center for the Natural Resources Defense Council,[Antonia V. Herzog and Daniel A. Lashof]2006 (An Ambitious, Centrist Approach to Global WarmingLegislationScience 314:5800 11/03/06 pp. 764-765)

The former proposals are based on the assumption that a more ambitious approach is not now politicallyfeasible. In our view, we no longer have the time for such two-step strategies. Most climate scientists nowwarn that time is short for beginning serious emission reductions if we are to avoid dangerous climateimpacts (5). A new approach is needed that is capable of garnering enough support to be enacted promptlywhile also requiring the deep reductions needed by mid-century.

Sometimes decisions can be postponed without great cost; not so with global warming. Heat-trappingemissions are cumulative, and delaying the decision to reduce emissions will only worsen the problem andmake the task of solving it much harder.



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Biotech/Warming Uniqueness ExtHigh food prices will continue to rise as the world demand grows, profiting biotechcompanies.

The Economist, 2008. The next green revolution; Agriculture, February 23-. LexisNexis Academic.

"We sit at a moment of history when GM technology...is a fact of life," he said this week.Mr Ferguson, who is also the head of Britain's Food and Drink Federation, argues that because many large agricultural exporters have adopted GMOs, it is becoming expensiveto avoid them. Copa-Cogeca, a farmers' lobby, this week warned that the rising cost of feed could wipe out Europe's livestock industry unless bans on GMOs are lifted.Meanwhile, European agriculture ministers failed to agree on whether to allow imports of GM maize and potatoes; the decision will now be made by the European Commission,which is likely to say yes. If it does, it will be a victory for Monsanto. But the firm is

already enjoying an even sweeter form of revenge: huge commercial success. It has hadthree straight years of revenue and profit growth, and on February 12th it raised its profitforecast for the fiscal year for the second time in two months. Monsanto made a profit of $993m in the year to August, on revenues of $8.6 billion. The global commodity-price boom helps (see page 92), but Brett Begemann, a senior executive at Monsanto, insiststhat it is the firm's advances in GMO technology that are fetching premium prices andwill help it to double profits by 2012. The firm's fortunes have been boosted by the success of GMOs outsideEurope. A new report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a non-profit outfit thattracks industry trends, charts the dramatic growth in the 12 years that GMOs have been commercially available. The area under cultivation increased by 12% last year, to 114m hectares globally. America topped the list, but there is rapid growth in Argentina,Brazil, India and China (see map). Thomas West of Pioneer Hi-Bred, a division of DuPont, says Europe should get on board, as "thetrain is leaving the station." According to Cropnosis, an industry consultancy, the market for agricultural biotechnology grew fromabout $3 billion in 2001 to over $6 billion in 2006, and is expected to reach $8.4 billion by 2011. Hans Kast, chief executive of Germany's BASF Plant Science, thinks the figure could reach $50 billion by 2025, as a second generation of GMO technology, now inthe pipeline, reaches the market.Proponents of GMOs are optimistic because a confluence of social, commercial and technological forces is boosting the case for the technology. AsIndia and China grow richer, the world is likely to need much more food, just as arableland, water and energy become scarcer and more expensive. If they fulfil their promise,GMOs offer a way out of this bind, providing higher yields even as they require lesswater, energy and fertiliser.Early incarnations of the technology, such as Monsanto'sRoundup Ready maize and soyabeans, were genetically engineered to be resistant toherbicides and pesticides, making it easier for farmers to control pests without damagingcrops. The second generation will have further traits, such as drought resistance,"stacked" on top. Michael Mack, chief executive of Switzerland's Syngenta, reckons thatfarmers will pay extra for these new features. Indeed, farmers can expect ever-faster cycles of product upgrades, thinks David Fischhoff, a senior executive at Monsanto. Helikens the industry's situation to the early days of the personal computer, now that theunderlying technology is in place.



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Biotech/Warming Uniqueness Ext Biotech companies profits rise in the face of high food prices.

Kesmodel, 2008 . Grain Companies Profits Soar as Global Food Crisis Mounts, David-

contributing technology writer, April 30-, Wall Street Journal. LexisNexis Academic.

Archer-Daniels-Midland, Monsanto and Deere & Co have all reported robust profits intheir latest quarters even as parts of world face food riots; crisis stems from combinationof heightened demand, low grain stockpiles, rising fuel prices and increasing amount of land used to grow biofuel crops; food companies say they are working toward solutionusing their bigger profits to develop new technologies

Agrochemical companies have benefited from the high food prices and are investingmore in GM crops.

Cage, 2008 . High food prices may soften hostility to GM crops, Sam-Los Angeles Time staff writer, July 9-,The International Herald Tribune/Reuters. LexisNexis Academic

Agrochemical companies are riding a wave of high food prices and soaring demand for farm goods, and Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta have all raised 2008 earnings forecasts.Although high prices are a boon for farm suppliers, much of the cost has been passed onto consumers, sparking protests in many countries including Argentina, Indonesia andMexico. Others also see opportunity: in June, the chocolate maker Mars, the computer giant IBM and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said they would map the DNA of thecocoa tree to try to broaden the crop's $5 billion market.

Farmers and ag-tech companies are posting double-digit gains as food prices remainhigh.

Kesmodel, 2008 . Grain companies profits soar as global food crisis mounts, David-WSJtechnological journalist, April 30-, Wall Street Journal. LexisNexis Academic.

"Anybody who is early in the chain is going to benefit," says Ann Gilpin, an analyst withMorningstar. "I don't think this is going to last forever, but there are some significanttailwinds to cause this to persist for a couple of years." Flush with more revenue thanthey have enjoyed in years, and eager to take advantage of the highest grain prices they'veseen in years, farmers are paying more money for seeds, fertilizer and farm gear. That hastranslated into huge revenue jumps and handsome profit increases for the companies thatsell these products. Growing global demand for food has been a boon to companies that buy, process and transport grains. Monsanto saw its profit in the latest quarter more thandouble. Rivals DuPont Co. and Syngenta AG recently raised their profit estimates. Deere posted a 55% rise in earnings in its latest quarter. Mosaic's third-quarter net income jumped about 12-fold. ADM's major rivals are notching big profit gains, too. Closelyheld Cargill Inc.'s profits jumped 86% to $1 billion in the latest quarter. Bunge Ltd.'searnings rose about 20-fold to $289 million. Bunge sells fertilizer in addition to processing and storing grains.



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High food prices have allowed the biotech industry to grow rapidly

Prins 2008. Who Benefits From High Food Prices?, Naomi-Bear Stearn Analyst,The Foundation for National Progress. LexisNexis Academic

The latest grain and oilseed trading report from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange citedfirst quarter of 2008 trading volume up 32 percent over the last quarter of 2007. That'sextra money coming in from speculators, not corn or wheat farmers hedging their crop prices in case of bad weather. Additionally, the hot new favorite among traders is bettingon packages of energy and agricultural futures. Called CCO's (collateralized commodityobligations), they are like their subprime cousins, CDO's (collateralized debt obligations).Their performance is linked to rising commodity prices; the higher the prices, the more

profit to the CCO. There's another group, besides the standard speculator crew, literallyreaping extreme profits from the price squeezesthe crop equivalents of Exxon,multinational agricultural biotechnology corporations. Monsanto, which recently told the12th Annual Goldman Sachs Agricultural Biotech Forum that its profits would double by2012, is buzzing (PDF); the firm's stock price doubled during the past year. ADM, thenation's second-largest ethanol producer, saw its annual revenues increase by 64 percent.Even agriculture conglomerate Cargill's third-quarter profits rose 86 percent.



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