by Dennis T. Avery

About the author: Dennis T. Avery directs the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates practical approaches to public policy issues.

The obvious environmental problems and solutions are not necessarily obvious at all. Organic farming and the time-proven techniques of traditional agriculture hold great emotional attraction. Pure foods without chemical fertilizers and pesticides seem clearly preferable to the methods of large agribusiness. Could they be the cure for the unrelenting destruction of earth’s forests and its diverse flora and fauna"

Ironically, developed world demands for these “obvious” solutions may push the world into famine and destroy the planet’s biodiversity far faster than chemicals and overpopulation. Only the judicious application of the “evils” of high- yield farming may...