Agriculture Program - Articles By Carter Center Experts

May 2, 2008
Africa Does Not Have to Starve
This Norman Borlaug op-ed was published in the May 2, 2008, edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Rapidly increasing world food prices have already led to political upheaval in poor countries. The crisis threatens to tear apart fragile states and become a humanitarian calamity unless countries get their agricultural systems moving.

April 26, 2008
Stem Rust Never Sleeps
This Norman Borlaug op-ed was published in the April 26, 2008, edition of The New York Times.
With food prices soaring throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, and shortages threatening hunger and political chaos, the time could not be worse for an epidemic of stem rust in the world's wheat crops. Yet millions of wheat farmers, small and large, face this spreading and deadly crop infection.

Dec. 10, 2007
Subsidies' Harvest Of Misery:  Jimmy Carter Washington Post Op-Ed
Congress can still act decisively this year to right a wrong that is hurting both small American farmers and the poorest people on the planet. A long-overdue debate is taking place on reform of the 1933 farm bill, passed during the Great Depression to alleviate the suffering of America's family farmers.

Oct. 26, 2007
A Green Revolution for Africa 
This Norman E. Borlaug op-ed was published in the October 26, 2007, edition of The Wall Street Journal
The so-called Green Revolution of Asia, which began in the 1960s and continued through the 1980s, spurred the greatest expansion of food production in world history. Global wheat and rice production doubled, and continued to grow.

July 18, 2007
Continuing the Green Revolution: Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
Early crossbreeding experiments to select desirable characteristics took years to reach the desired developmental state of a plant or animal. Today, with the tools of biotechnology, such as molecular and marker-assisted selection, the ends are reached in a more organized and accelerated way. The result has been the advent of a "Gene" Revolution that stands to equal, if not exceed, the Green Revolution of the 20th century.

Oct. 14, 2005
Food for Thought: Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
This op-ed was published in the Oct. 14, 2005, edition of the Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition).

July 11, 2003
The Next Green Revolution: The New York Times Op-Ed
The key to economic development in Africa is agriculture. As President Bush concludes his trip to the continent, and Americans ponder ways to help it emerge from decades of poverty and turmoil, we would do well to remember that crucial point. Fortunately, we have the economic and technological means to bring about an agricultural revolution.

May 13, 2002
We Can Feed the World. Here's How.
This op-ed was published in the May 13, 2002, edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Thirty-two years ago, I was chosen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, representing the thousands of researchers who created the higher crop yields of the Green Revolution. The extra food created saved perhaps a billion people from starving in the 1960s.

Dec. 6, 2000
We Need Biotech to Feed the World: Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
Recently, in India, I confronted a move to outlaw inorganic, synthetic fertilizers. Government officials had been influenced by a cadre of international foes of technology. Officials told me that although Indian agriculture had greatly benefited from the use of such fertilizers in its Green Revolution -- by which India achieved self-sufficiency in grain in the 1970s -- they were now concerned that these products might have long-term negative effects.