Showing papers on "Sustainability published in 1982"

A Global and Agriculture Policy for Western Countries: Laying the Foundations

Abstract: The food system of industrialized countries is characterised as being deficent in the areas of nourishment, fulfillment and sustainability. Improvements will require that these areas be recognized as dominant goals, even where they conflict with the more common goals of productivity, profit and power. Policy implications and methods of implementation of such changes are examined.

Population environment medicine and global sustainability.

Abstract: The final 2 decades of this century see our planet in a highly perilous condition. This paper after touching on the problem of nuclear proliferation goes on to consider 3 other issues: overpopulation environmental depredation and the future of medical practice. The section on population concentrates on the time required for numbers to stabilize at 2 children per family. Europe is likely to attain stabilization before 2050 North America and the USSR by 2100. In the developing world South and East Asia could be in balance by the beginning of the 22nd century; but the situation in Africa vis-a-vis population growth is much more serious and stabilization cannot be anticipated until about 2150. Destruction of life support systems on a massive scale continues particulary in developing countries. There is little evidence that the major aims of the World Conservation Strategy maintenance and responsible utilization of essential ecological systems and preservation of genetic diversity are being obeyed anywhere in the world. In the society of the future engineering medicine with its proclivity for resource depletion will be deemphasized in favor of prevention and of attempting to delineate the environmental factors known to be responsible for an increasing number of diseases. The likely pattern of morbidity and mortality in the 21st century is discussed. Geriatric medicine will hold pride of place; the incidence of cancer will rise markedly and as an increasing number of Third World nations undergo the process of modernization development diseases will spread throughout the planet. (authors modified)

Analysis of National and International Agricultural Policies for Sustainable Growth and Equity and Stability in an International Setting

Abstract: Food problems efficient production or procurement of food and the appropriate distribution of food among members of family and societyare endemic problems of mankind. Yet the nature and dimensions of these problems have been changing over time. As economic systems have developed specialization has increased and this has led to increased interdependencies of rural and urban areas, of agricultural and nonagricultural sectors, and of nations. The importance of public policies in resolving these problems has grown with this growing interdependence of nations, reflected in increasing volumes of food trade, and this requires that the exploration of national policy alternatives be carried out in the context of international trade, aid and capital flows. The objective of the Food Agriculture Programme (F AP) of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is to find national and international policies that would help ensure adequate food for all in a sustainable way (Parikh and Rabar; 1981 ). Our primary emphasis is on policies with a five to twenty years perspective. But we recognize that the policy options available to individual nations are significantly affected by the policies of other nations. Policies have to be evaluated in the context of the objectives of national governments. Growth, equity, stability and sustainability may in general be considered to be the objectives of the governments' economic policies. Specific policy instruments, even policies relating to primarily agricultural issues, affect these objectives differently. This can be seen in Table 1 which summarizes the possible impacts of some important policies on those objectives in a large developing country such as India. Thus to evaluate policies we need to determine quantitatively the impact of policies on various objectives. This can be done satisfactorily only with a policy analysis model system. The model system we have