Zootecnica International - World Poultry Journal

During his openings address to some 2,000 delegates from all over the world attending the 23rd World Poultry Congress in Brisbane, Australia, Prof. Dr. John Hodges, former FAO head of genetic programmes for farm animals, suggested that the World's Poultry Science Association should take a lead in setting up a poultry 'think tank' to secure a sustainable poultry industry.
Professor Hodges assumed the present Western global policy of leaving agriculture and food to unregulated market forces risks food security and large-scale social collapse among small farmers in developing countries.
Leaders in the poultry sector need to show the same innovation and moral courage in shaping a sustainable future as they have in building a highly productive past. Appeals to ethics will not work and should be considered as issues of elite capitalism. The poultry industry has to play an important role in a sustainable food supply but it will than have to express better how it can contribute.
He called upon them urgently to set up a global Think Tank to design modifications to the system and to press their plans to National Governments and the World Trade Organization for just and equitable laws to ensure the survival of civilised society and food security.
Professor Hodges expressed that a better link between farmers and consumers should be encouraged and the agro-diversity should be freed from patents laws. Within this perspective, Hodges called upon the regulators to put agriculture and food in a unique category within the WTO mandate and laws so that levies on international trade in food can empower rural development and power.