Page 6 - Mount Joy Bulletin
March 6, 1974
Work Force Will Double By 2000
GENEVA - By 1985, the
world’s work force will be 30
per cent larger than it was in
1970, the International Labor
Organization predicts.
“With present population
growth rates,” a recent ILO
report states, “we will need by
the end of this century twice as
much food, water and power
— and twice as many jobs —
merely to maintain the present
unsatisfactory standard of liv-
ing for most of the world’s
people.”
Noting that population is
growing at the rate of nearly
100 people a minute, ILO
statisticians say that by the
year 2000 “the total popula-
tion of our planet is expected
to reach 6,500,000,000,” or
four times what it was at the
start of this century.
Developing Countries
This means, they add, that
within less than 30 years from
now, there will be an ad-
ditional 2,900,000,000 human
beings requiring food,
‘Of This and That’
(Continued from Page 1)
bit
‘‘jiggle’’ the boodle buggy a
if he needed en-
couragement in going to
clothing, shelter and jobs.
Much of this increase will
come in the developing coun-
tries, precisely in those areas
where housing and employ-
ment remain the greatest
problems.
The report points out that
2,542,000,000 people were liv-
ing in the developing areas of
the globe in 1970, compared
with 1,090,000,000 in the in-
dustrialized areas, and
birthrates in the developing
countries are running far
ahead of the industrialized
nations.
The report, citing the needs
for limiting population
growth, warns: “The stagger-
ing growth of population has
all but wiped out recent
economic gains in many
developing countries. A rising
gross national product means
little when it must cover the
needs of so many newcomers
each year.”
Asia Singled Out
Supporting the ILO fin-
into our hearts!
Twenty-two years is a long
time, but it is comforting to
dings, Naval Tata of the
organization’s governing
body said they are particularly
applicable in Asia.
“Uncontrolled population
growth is the most important
single factor that threatens to
neutralize and nullify all the
genuine efforts of Asian coun-
tries towards economic eman-
cipation,” he said.
Among factors contributing
to population and
demographic pressures,* the
ILO describes the continuing
movement from rural to urban
areas. As more young people
continue to leave farms and
villages to seek employment in
towns and cities, rural popula-
tion is expected to show an
overall increase of perhaps 50
per cent by the end of this cen-
tury, compared with an almost
250 per cent increase in urban
growth.
“Few of these migrants
arrive in the city with any in-
dustrial skills, and few receive
any training after they arrive,”
get through the long, mostly
gray months of winter, are a
terrarium and a little pine
the report adds.
Live Longer .
It all points out that ad-
vances in medical science
mean that in most parts of the
developing world people now
live longer than they did just
20 years ago, while fewer .in-
fants and children succumb to
disease.
But the beneficial results of
these advances are offset by
the fact that housing, training,
and jobs for many of these
people do not exist and they
are doomed to lives of poverty.
“In the industrialized coun-
tries, many women now go out
to work,” the ILO report con-
tinues, ‘‘and although they
marry earlier than before, they
tend to delay starting a family
and consequently limit the
number of children they bear.
“In most developing coun-
tries, however, the work of the
women, except for a tiny
minority, is still at home and
in the fields and does not play
the same role in determining
the age of marriage or the size
of families.”
Opportunity for Women
The report suggests
programs offering women
greater education and employ-
ment opportunities could be a
major influence in reducing
birth rates.
Commenting on the
organization’s findings, ILO
Director-General Wilfred
Jenks said present population
trends continue to “frustrate
efforts toward attaining basic
objectives in ILO’s own sphere
of responsibility: creation of
fuller and more productive
employment, raising the skills
of the labor force, and im-
proving the levels of living and
welfare of workers.”
“For many developing
countries,” Jenks added, no
lasting solution of the employ-
ment problem can be en-
visaged without moderating
the excessively high rates of
population growth that now
prevail.”
when we got it, but it has put admit to the fact.
out several new shoots, and
mmf wpe fue
Washington,
And newspapers! When all
else failed, two or three
sheets of newspaper kept
him happy for a long time.
They rattled so nicely! And
crumpled so well! (We
wondered if the ‘‘printer’s
ink’ he got all over his face
and his fingers might be
prophetic!)
At any rate, we thought
we had forgotten about some
of those things!
But had we really?! It all
came back so ‘easily, and
seemed so natural and right.
We hadn’t forgotten how to
rock and sing, how to put
shirts, socks and pajamas on
and take them off! Or how to
spoon-feed cereal, fruits and
vegetables. Or how to
sleep!
And the rewards for these
things, which were a
pleasure in themselves, were
many.
We watched with
fascination as he began to
“crawl” on his stomach, on a
palette on the floor, to reach
a beloved toy.
We heard his dear little
baby coos and gurgles as he
investigated a new object
with his soft little fingers —
and his mouth!
We were entranced with
his first enchanging,
welcoming smile in the
morning, and his last sleepy
murmur at night.
He squirmed, wriggled,
and bounced his way straight
know that the mother in-
stinct is no respecter of the
passage of time! A few
things in this topsy-turvey
world just DON'T change!
We have gotten reports of
crocus, wild geese,
snowdrops, and other
evidences of the coming of
spring.
But the most tangible
evidence at hour house is a
score of pussywillow
branches, which we cut on
Friday, and which the
warmth of the house has
already turned into stems of
fluffy little gray balls!
Among the things at our
house which have helped us
tree.
The terrarium was a
Christmas gift. It is nicely
planted, with a variety of
foliage plants and moss. In
amongst the plants are a
plastic lizard, a China dog,
and a few other interesting
objects.
It must be ‘balanced’ just
right, because it is thriving,
without any additional water
at any time, or any care
from us. It is a bit of the
outdoors brought indoors,
and reminds us of the
wonderful months of spring,
summer and autumn.
The little pine tree also
was a Christmas gift.
Handsomely potted, it was
only about 12 inches tall
we like to think of the day Even in
when it may grow into a tall
pine tree! For the present, it
sits in the kitchen window
above the sink, and adds
color and interest, with its
green branches and its
bright red pot!
MAIN STREET
(Continued from Page ; )
It’s a fact that most
businessmen have, over the
years, despite the headaches
and backaches, enjoyed
their businesses.
Professional men, too,
derive a certain self
satisfaction and, thus, ‘“fun’’
from performing the ser-
vices they render and will
D.C., - at what is supposed to be
the hub of the world and in an
atmosphere as stimulating and
as challenging as it is possible to
find - Congressman Howard
Robison of New York recently
said, ‘It's just not fun
anymore...” tis
tte
Helping to guide the ship of
state is not necessarily
supposed to be fun, but
anything as important
should not be completely
grim, either.
weep = ue
And, the grimness is
emphasized by the mounting
number of congressmen who
are ‘‘retiring’’ deciding that
they will not stand for re
election.
Population Pressure 1
LONDON - The world’s
food producers must become
more internationally oriented
in their thinking, according to
the head of the United Nations
Food and Agriculture
Organization.
FAO Director-General
Addeke H. Boerma said
nations continuously adjust
agricultural program to meet
their changing needs, but in
the process ‘‘as often as not,
only help to worsen the
problems of other countries.”
Boerma said what is needed
today is agricultural produc-
tion within *‘a fully global con-
text.” And he saw increased
food production as ‘‘the most
important challenge facing
world agriculture in the 1970's
and 1980s.”
He viewed the development
of high-yield grains in recent
years — the so-called “Green
Revolution’ — as the principal
hope for the short-term in-
crease in agricultural produc-
tivity, but added that some
promises made for the new
hybrids were premature.
Research Needed
Acknowledging that the new
seed varieties offer hope of
doubling and tripling yields,
he told members of the Royal
Society here the ‘“‘euphoria
that greeted them initially has
been replaced by a widespread
recognition that a great deal
has to be done technically to
adapt them to local con-
ditions, as well as in planning
and organization, before their
potential can be realized.”
Boerma said that popula-
tion pressure on global
resources is forcing scientists
to consider other factors
besides “just yield per acre.”
Among these he listed the need
to economize on scarce factors
of production, “such as land,
water and capital.”
Sounding a conservation
note, the FAO head urged
greater research into what he
termed ‘‘yield-saving’ grains
which could supply needed
food with less strain on the
earth’s resources.
Broad Cultivation
He said man has reached the
point where he must concen-
trate on crops that conserve
soil and water, as well as put
food in the mouths of the
world’s hungry. This means
further research into grains
that have short growing
seasons and resist drought,
heat, cold, disease and pests.
Such crops, which continually
are being studied at ex-
perimental stations in many
nations, are essential as the de-
mand for more food forces
cultivation of marginal lands,
Boerma explained.
Noting that multiple crop
farming is limited at present to
irrigated and high rainfall
areas with mild temperatures
that “probably do not occupy
more than 30 per cent of the
world’s potentially arable
land,” Boerma predicted that
increased attention will be
devoted to less favored
ecological zones. He said this
will be necessary “both to
meet longer-term food needs
and to alleviate social ine-
quities.”
Boerma pointed out that
nearly 90 per cent of all spen-
ding on agricultural research is
confined to the developed
countries, where the problem
is not so much how to increase
production as to reduce ‘“‘the
total number of people in far-
ming and provide those who
remain on the land with higher
incomes.”
Imbalance Seen
In the developing countries,
where he observed *‘the really
immense and urgent
problems” are to be found,
Boerma said the immediate
task is to increase “production
fast enough to ensure the food
supplies of millions of people
s Challenge
whose numbers are growing all
the time.”
He noted that in the
developing countries “in the
first two years of the 1970's,
population actually grew
faster than production.” Boer-
ma said - these countries will
need to increase their
agricultural productivity by
about 4 per cent annually for
at least well into the 1980s, to
feed their growing pop-
ulations. But he added that
agricultural increases in most
countries have been well below
that level.”
It is because of these im-
balances that agricultural ef-
forts must be focused more
sharply on an international
rather than a national scale to-
day, he concluded. The FAO
director called for a greater
sharing of agricultural
technology between nations,
with more agriculture research
in developing countries.
A OE rR Se Se Ie