FW DE KLERK'S COMMENTS TO THE FORTUNE/TIME/CNN GLOBAL FORUM ON JUNE 28 2010
FROM FOOD SECURITY TO FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Most of the world has become used to food security - but this is not by any means the normal condition of mankind: we need think only of a number of famines during the past two hundred years that have caused tens of millions of deaths.
Some of these have had their roots in natural causes: some have been greatly exacerbated by inappropriate trade policies - like the potato famine in Ireland; but some of the worst - including the famine that followed the collectivisation of farms in the Soviet Union and the Great Leap Forward in Maoist China - were caused by catastrophically inappropriate ideologies.
The recent grounding of aircraft in Europe by the Icelandic volcano eruption illustrated how vulnerable our sophisticated societies are to the vagaries of nature. But what would happen if there were a really serious eruption that led to poor harvests throughout the world for two or three years or longer? The answer is that there would be famine - and those who would be the main victims would be citizens of poor countries that do not have substantial food reserves.
There is perhaps not too much that we can do to counteract the forces of nature. However, there is a great deal that we can do in normal times to increase agricultural production to ensure food security and food self-sufficiency. In particular, we can oppose ideological approaches that can easily lead to famine.