Robert Paarlberg
Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
AP Photo
August 2, 2011
"Famine in Somalia: What Can the World Do About It?"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
"The international community can also do things beyond Somalia, and indeed beyond the exigencies of emergency food aid. Rich nations, including the United States, can start by delivering the support they have promised to build Africa's own food-production capabilities. Small farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa need help to boost their productivity....What these farming communities need, above all else, is increased public investment in rural roads, electrical power, irrigation, clinics, schools, and agricultural research."
Summer 2004
"Knowledge as Power: Science, Military Dominance, and U.S. Security"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 29
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
Robert Paarlberg investigates factors behind the “unparalleled military dominance” of the United States and challenges to it in a post–September 11 world, particularly the overwhelming U.S. lead in science and research and development.
AP Photo
August 2, 2011
"Famine in Somalia: What Can the World Do About It?"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
"The international community can also do things beyond Somalia, and indeed beyond the exigencies of emergency food aid. Rich nations, including the United States, can start by delivering the support they have promised to build Africa's own food-production capabilities. Small farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa need help to boost their productivity....What these farming communities need, above all else, is increased public investment in rural roads, electrical power, irrigation, clinics, schools, and agricultural research."
AP Photo
July 20, 2012
"No Need to Panic about Corn"
Op-Ed, China Daily
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
"US officials have long scolded China for not letting markets work, and for trying to run too much of their modern economy through state targets and inflexible mandates. The damage done by the US' ethanol mandate in the context of today's Midwest drought gives Chinese officials a chance to tell their counterparts from the US, 'Practice what you preach'."
AP Photo
July 20, 2012
"No Need to Panic about Corn"
Op-Ed, China Daily
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
"US officials have long scolded China for not letting markets work, and for trying to run too much of their modern economy through state targets and inflexible mandates. The damage done by the US' ethanol mandate in the context of today's Midwest drought gives Chinese officials a chance to tell their counterparts from the US, 'Practice what you preach'."
AP Photo
March 8, 2012
"Precision Farming Yields Many Gains"
Op-Ed, China Daily
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
"Greater precision in modern farming raises a farm's income, brings down food prices, and is good for the environment. China will want to move toward precision farming using its own unique mix of solutions, based on both high-tech and low-tech methods, including both conventional and biotech seeds. The new Chinese farming model that emerges can lead agriculture in all of Asia toward a more prosperous, environmentally sustainable future."
Summer 2004
"Knowledge as Power: Science, Military Dominance, and U.S. Security"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 29
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
Robert Paarlberg investigates factors behind the “unparalleled military dominance” of the United States and challenges to it in a post–September 11 world, particularly the overwhelming U.S. lead in science and research and development.
AP Photo
March 8, 2012
"Precision Farming Yields Many Gains"
Op-Ed, China Daily
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
"Greater precision in modern farming raises a farm's income, brings down food prices, and is good for the environment. China will want to move toward precision farming using its own unique mix of solutions, based on both high-tech and low-tech methods, including both conventional and biotech seeds. The new Chinese farming model that emerges can lead agriculture in all of Asia toward a more prosperous, environmentally sustainable future."
April 22, 2008
"It's Not the Price That Causes Hunger"
Op-Ed, International Herald Tribune
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
"Africa's food crisis grows primarily out of the low productivity, year in and year out, of the 60 percent of all Africans who plant crops and graze animals for a living. The average African smallholder farmer is a woman who has no improved seeds, no nitrogen fertilizers, no irrigation and no veterinary medicine for her animals. Her crop yields are only one third as high as in the developing countries of Asia, and her average income is only $1 a day."
March 2008
Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa
Book
By Robert Paarlberg, Advisory Board Member, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project; Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 20072008
Heading upcountry in Africa to visit small farms is absolutely exhilarating given the dramatic beauty of big skies, red soil, and arid vistas, but eventually the two-lane tarmac narrows to rutted dirt, and the journey must continue on foot. The farmers you eventually meet are mostly women, hardworking but visibly poor. They have no improved seeds, no chemical fertilizers, no irrigation, and with their meager crops they earn less than a dollar a day. Many are malnourished.
Nearly two-thirds of Africans are employed in agriculture, yet on a per-capita basis they produce roughly 20 percent less than they did in 1970. Although modern agricultural science was the key to reducing rural poverty in Asia, modern farm science—including biotechnology—has recently been kept out of Africa.
