"over the past decade, the world farm economy has been transformed as the grain shortages of the seventies have become the grain surpluses of the mid-eighties. unfortunately, this shift has occurred for all the wrong reasons - overplowing, excessive subsides, and falling food consumption in regions with hungry people."
Contents:
"appropriately, in our age of interdependence and rapid information exchange, international ngo networks that were forged to channel assistance to developing nations are beginning to channel information back to the industrial countries. the insights carried on these people-to-people links bring grassroot experience to the public at large and to decision makers who often need such alternative open channels."
"...shifting agriculture is the most widely practiced form of farming in the tropics. it is the single most important cause of tropical deforestation. with as many as 240 million people growing food for subsistence in rural tropical areas, at least eight million hectares of forest are converted to cropland each year...no single miracle crop nor farming technique can save tropical forests, bu the modification and more careful proactice of farming techniques might slow the ever-increasing uso of tropical forest land for agriculture."