One of the speakers at the opening session of the World Agricultural Forum was the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current Chairman of the World Ag Forum, the RT Hon. James B. Bolger.
He told the group that while you can park unsold cars, you can’t park hunger… drawing parallels to the bailout of the US auto industry but a lack of similar action to bail out some of the world’s poorest people.
Just a few minutes ago, I caught up with Mr. Bolger as he stepped off the stage from a session that included representatives from some of the world’s biggest agri-businesses talking about how to solve the current global financial crisis. He says the most important thing we can do is lift up the 3 billion people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder.
“Fundamentally, if we are going to have a world economy moving smoothly, we need to have the 3 billion on the bottom having the income to buy the goods of the others.” Mr. Bolger sees those 3 billion as potential customers who could make a tremendous difference in the world’s economy as a whole.
Several of the panelists pointed out that while banks and companies would like to invest in these developing countries, there needs to be a stable political environment. Mr. Bolger sees it as a “chicken-and-egg” quandry as to which one is solved first.
“Poor countries will be unstable. We’ve got to start looking at how we lift them up out of absolute poverty to have more stable societies. It’s naive to say we can’t do anything until they all settle down and behave.”
He says a venue, such as the World Agricultural Forum, is a tremendous place where people can get together and hear other viewpoints and learn from others backgrounds.
Listen to my entire conversation with Mr. Bolger here: Bolger1.mp3
AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
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