Galbraith Urges Third World To Push Agriculture First

In an effort to help alleviate world hunger. Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith spoke before the United Nations General Assembly Friday, encouraging troubled third-world nations to support agricultural reforms over industrial development.

Most poor developing countries have not reached the stage where industrialization can lead to true economic progress, Galbraith said to U.N. ambassadors gathered in New York City for a "World Food Day" session.

"Too often, we have taken the advanced [industrial] policies of capitalism and socialism and transplanted them to countries where food production is [the most] important issue," said Galbraith yesterday in an interview.

In order to relieve food shortages, hunger stricken nations should remove government price limits on the food market and rescind unfair protections for industrialists and urban laborers.

Although food prices would increase initially, the long-term effect would be higher food production and a rapidly developing economy, he added.

"All that Galbraith is arguing is that you don't want to bias the economy against agriculture," said C. Peter Timmer, Black professor of agriculture and business, adding that, because farmers live far removed from the political centers of third-world countries, their views tend to be ignored by the politicians, to the harm of all.

Galbraith's program is not a new idea, said Malcolm Gillien, professor of public policy and economics at Duke University, adding that for almost 15 years, there has been a growing consensus among economists that poor countries should stop stifling the agricultural market.

"People used to think that the only way to get out of a trend of poverty was industrialization. That's a piece of garbage," Gilles said. "Very few countries that have neglected agriculture have succeeded in getting out of a poverty trap," he added.

Pointing to examples in the history of presently developed countries, Galbraith said that the United States a century ago "overwhelmingly favored agriculture and industry that supported agriculture" in order to foster further growth.

However, Galbraith said that he has "grave doubts about the effect of one speech" and said that he expected only a small shift towards his view points expressed at the U.N.