ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the need for restructuring to correct the inadequacies of our food production systems. It explores the characteristics of systems which seem to be well adapted to resource-limiting environments. The International Rice Research Institute has done a projection of "gross benefits based on anticipated increases on rice yield and cropping intensity that could be possible for reasonable research and extension inputs directed at each environment in South and Southeast Asia." Both the Nepal and the Chinese systems have evolved to meet the needs of food production in a resource-scarce environment of high population density and scarcity of outside production resources. Agricultural development pathways resemble the US model: increased capitalization, large-scale technology, and the removal of people from agriculture. Critics seriously question the social desirability of the US model even for the US.
