Chapter 1: The green revolution — From green to gene revolution — Economic globalisation and debt creation — Free trade and its inconsistencies. At the 1974 UN World Food Conference in Rome governments adopted the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition, proclaiming that 'every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop their physical and mental faculties'. The goal was to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition within the next decade, and emphasis was placed on increasing food production, mainly by technical means and especially those developed as part of the ‘green revolution’. The global community failed to achieve its goal and, when governments reconvened in Rome in 1996 for the World Food Summit, 800 million people faced hunger and malnutrition. A Plan of Action that accommodated the interests of all participating countries was agreed and governments renewed their resolve: ‘We pledge our political will and our common and national commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.’ [...]
