Bill Gates has an interesting new post up on the risks of of buying into the false choice between sustainability and productivity:
The global movement to help small farmers is increasingly divided into two camps. On one side is a technological approach focused on improving productivity. On the other side is an environmental approach that promotes sustainability. Productivity or sustainability – they say you have to choose.
…
As I said during my speech at the World Food Prize in October, this is a false choice that is dangerous for the field of agricultural development.
At a time of rising population and climate change, we need both organic solutions that promote sustainability and the technological approaches that increase productivity – and there is no reason we can’t have them both.
Whatever you think of the man’s operating system, he clearly possesses a different perspective* on the solutions to a whole host of global problems, and the willingness to put his money where his mouth is.
*How could he not, as, perhaps, the most prominent member of that tribe: Geeks Who’ve Changed the World (and found fame and fortune in the processes)?
He has got it on the nose.
The food production thing, not the operating system of course.
Comment by Greg — January 20, 2010 @ 8:57 pm