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Paul Anderson addresses the benefits of cassava, which provides food security for Africa, during the human rights panel discussion at the Sunnen Lounge on Tuesday, March 16.

Human rights panel explores global issues

By: Vincenza Previte

Posted: 3/18/10

Global warming, malnutrition, sustainability and agricultural production were only some of the issues discussed at the "Using New Tools to Grow Food and Protect Resources" panel at Webster University's Sunnen Lounge March 16.

The speakers were Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden; Mark Manary, professor of pediatrics at Washington University; Paul Anderson, executive director of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center; and Maureen Mazurek, head of human rights at Monsanto Company.

Raven, who was named a "hero of the planet" by Time magazine, is member of the advisory board of the College of Arts and Sciences at WU.

"In order to set the world, we must educate and engage children to nature," Raven said.

At the lecture, Raven talked about biodiversity, issues regarding insufficient agricultural production and how these problems, combined with today's growing population, led to malnutrition and starvation.

Raven said one billion out of the estimated seven billion people in the world today are malnourished and 100 million people are on the verge of starvation. In the next several decades, the world's population is expected to grow by two and a half billion more people.

Increased agricultural approach, integrated pesticide management and modern genetic technologies were the solutions to malnourishment presented at the panel.

Manary, who has traveled several times to Malawi, Africa, has tried to lessen starvation among African children and has provided them with a new therapeutic diet based on peanut butter.

Manary traveled to Malawi in 1994 and implemented his diet on children who where in critical health conditions at hospitals due to malnourishment. He also provided his diet to sick children at homes and found these had a greater positive response.

"Children don't deserve to die just because they don't have anything to eat," Manary said.

After a six-week period, children stopped receiving the therapeutic food, yet 96 percent of the children who received the diet remained nourished until after a year.

Manary said in order to prevent starvation, children should be fed with therapeutic food at six months of age and more genetically modified agriculture should be produced.

Raven said despite what many scientists have said about genetically modified agriculture having negative health consequences on humans, crossing genomes and radiation to improve crops have few negative results and no human health consequences. Additionally, genetically modified agriculture requires fewer pesticides on crops and has little damage on the land.

Anderson, who has 25 years of experience in plant biotechnology development, said human conditions could be improved with plant science, which included the use of less damaging fertilizers, better irrigation process and modification of plant genetics, among others.

One of the solutions Anderson offered to lessen starvation in Africa was to develop a project that provided crops with a wide range of iron, proteins and vitamin A.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center created a project that provided genetically modified rice to the Philippines and genetically modified cassava, also known as yucca or manioc, to Uganda.

At the lecture, Mazurek, who led an effort to create a global child labor policy, agreed with the other speakers about using land productively for agriculture.

Mazurek said Monsanto created projects in India that educated people about the negative effects of child labor and reinforced the educational system by creating a residential school. Monsanto also acquired lands in India to produce genetically modified cottonseeds and paid adult laborers to work for them.