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Global Research |
Global Research was a research project initiated by IFAS in 1987 with the main objective to uncover and illustrate the need for an institute like IFAS, and to research how already existing knowledge and technology could be used for the benefit of people, especially in the Third World. Global Research did not have the objective of implementing the projects identified and described. The task of its research was only to investigate the need for the type of research which IFAS intended to carry out. After this first and fundamental task, IFAS has later researched a row of concrete projects, and has signed contracts with various partners who have implemented them. In the following chapters you can read about those of the projects which have received economic support from the Foundation. Contents of this article:
The Background for the Application on Global Research
People’s basic conditions of life are inseparably connected to the developments within technology and science. Naturally, one can point to a number of conditions which have an immediate significance for people and society - a special occasion, a specific law passed in a country, a natural catastrophe, a particularly good/bad political leader - but looking at the major trends in development, man’s knowledge, capacity, and technology are decisive for the potential end result. Looking out over the planet, one cannot avoid seeing the big differences there are in people’s living conditions in the different parts of the world - the gap between rich and poor has grown, and is still growing. Knowledge and wealth are steadily increasing in some parts of the world - at the same time as other parts of the world experience deterioration and impoverishment. This is particularly clear today when we have passed the turn of the century - it was less clear in 1987 when global networks with satellites and internet were not yet widely spread; when the cold war had divided the world and the people into camps with each their concept of the enemy, and where technology and science were subject to, and constricted by, these conditions. The time around 1987 was generally marked by an air of lost hope with regard to development aid. For decades, countries in the rich part of the world, like Denmark, had provided development aid without succeeding in changing the basic conditions for the many people. The question of how one actually creates development became more and more urgent. Loads of theories have been created on this topic in the course of the 20th century. Global Research was the fundamental project of IFAS, which had the task to clarify if it was at all correct that a long row of significant problems in the poor parts of the world could be solved if only existing knowledge from the rich world was used. The new knowledge exists everywhere - scattered among nations, behind iron curtains, at universities and research centers in the form of general knowledge. Yet normal people’s access to the scientific advancements is traditionally so minuscule, that something extraordinary has to be done to alter this condition. It was the hypothesis of IFAS that the most needy did not by themselves formulate applications for projects. It is here IFAS comes into the picture as an initiator of the identification and formulation of projects, in cooperation with the recipients. Global Research was created as an IFAS project which was going to demonstrate the need for this research effort. The Course of the Project The project Global Research started in June 1987. The research team, consisting of six people, arrived to the ship "Store Klaus" [Big Klaus] in Panama, and went on board. During the next twelve months the crew visited Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, USA, Canada, Colombia and Chile. Before the arrival to each country, all available information about this country was localized. The ship library grew with time as more material was collected along the way. The main issues were discussed, the country was divided, and the investigations in the field were planned. Thereafter the researchers went out one by one, or two or three together, to each their area and traversed it. One of the researchers, Kim Hansen, tells: "We were first of all looking for people who were doing something different. We traveled, looked around, asked along the way, and in this way found people we could formulate useful research projects together with." After a few days the researchers met on the ship. The ship served as a hotel, means of transport, and as an excellent point of departure for the investigations. Here the discussions took place, the comparisons and studies were made, and the reports written. New areas were pointed out, and the researchers again left the ship - to return with new results. It was the wish of the researchers to uncover as big a part of the country as possible, and at the same time uncover as diverse a cross-section as possible of a country’s main questions and issues. The departure from a country, however, did not take place on the background of a complete "mapping" - on the contrary, only the time schedule decided when the researchers went on to new countries. Each country was left with the clear impression that the formation of projects could be almost infinite. In all countries the researchers from IFAS have looked for those in most dire need, and have in cooperation with them formulated main issues in a potential future research project. A fixed element of the research investigation of a country was to visit ministries and interview officials, as well as to visit the countries’ own research centers. What did they research in? How did this fit with the discoveries the IFAS researchers had made among the country’s farmers, fishermen and craftsmen? In Panama, five projects were developed. There was for example a farmer who wished to develop a system for producing salt from ocean water and simultaneously grow brine shrimp in the dams - the so-called artemia - which was otherwise imported from the United States. A consultant from the Ministry of Agriculture wished for help to find out how a normal type of oven could be used to smoke meat. A research station for aqua culture had begun breeding a large, meaty fish and wanted help to improve this technology and then to disseminate it to the farmers. In Costa Rica a cooperative coffee factory with 15,000 suppliers wished to develop methods for utilizing the waste from the coffee production to produce biogas and fertilizer. In Guatemala a beekeeper wanted research help from IFAS to develop a breed of bees stronger than the unwanted African killer bee which chased the good bees away. Then the trip went overland to Belize, where nine projects of very different nature were developed - for example the development of communication methods over long distances in rural areas, research into methods for getting rid of the nuisances of mosquitoes, the utilization of impoverished and deficient soil - the so-called pine ridge soil, the utilization of water pumps driven by solar energy, and the utilization of banana waste for energy and fertilizer. In Mexico, the researchers developed ten projects. Research into how the lake of Cuitzeo could be used to breed shrimp for poor farmers in Mexico; the exploitation of the guaco plant for the extraction of natural insecticides; breed local strawberries so they would not have to be expensively imported from the United States; utilization of solar energy for irrigation; methods for increasing the production of dairy cows, and development of agricultural methods for vegetable production in the Mexican highlands. The researchers let the ship lie in Mexico and then went north to California and on to Oregon. In the United States and in Canada visits were made to the large University and Research Centers. It became obvious that giant libraries and databases with knowledge, inventions and results existed, which could and should be used all over the Third World. Everywhere, researchers were more than willing to put their inventions to use. It was also typical that many wished to give their inventions away if they could be used for the benefit of fellow human beings. As was often the case - and still is - the researchers did not have access to neither funds nor the organizational network necessary to bring an idea from the drawing board and into reality, and therefore many inventions suffered the destiny of being thoroughly described and then placed on a book shelf, where people who could and should benefit from them never had a chance to get to know them. The investigations in the US and Canada showed that there existed knowledge and technology, which, if transformed, combined and used for many of the issues which people in the Third World face, actually could bring development and progress for these people. The trip then went back to Mexico to the ship, which sailed on to Colombia. Here the investigations and identifications of research projects continued. In Colombia eight projects were described: In a remote and inaccessible area people wished to develop more than the one crop they now depended on. In another place, research was needed to develop the use of an algae super rich in protein - Spirulina Algae - as pig feed. And in a third place research was needed into using coffee waste for energy. There was also a need for research into how a local parasite could be used for insecticides, and for the development of crops whose specific odors are disliked by certain harmful insects; a need for research into using cocoa rejected by the buyers for the production of chocolate, and the development of agricultural methods with crop rotation, so that the soil of poor mountain farmers is not exhausted. After Colombia the trip went to Chile. At this point it became obvious that Global Research had fulfilled its mission - the research hypotheses advanced had been demonstrated. There was no reason to sail around the world for another four years - but a big reason to assume however that it would only bring more result of the same kind. IFAS therefore took the initiative itself in March 1988 to discontinue the project. The first year had demonstrated all the hypotheses advanced - and a continuation would not increase the quality of the findings. Therefore the project was finalized after the first year. 2,4 million Dkr of the grant had been used, and the rest of the money remained in the Foundation and benefited other applicants. The research ship "Store Klaus" had visited USA, Canada and six countries in Central America and had developed 36 projects which were definitely worth a research effort. A List of the 36 Projects Issues which could be solved by that research effort, knowledge and technology which IFAS had proved exists in large quantities - without being available for the concerned people as they live far from the strongholds of science. Panama
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Belize
Mexico
Colombia
Postscript Since the time when Global Research made its reports, a long line of developments have taken place in the world which have moved the actual issues. The development within telecommunication has made it much easier for many more people to access the existing knowledge and technology. The concrete knowledge and technology for solving a long row of questions and issues described by Global Research have themselves also developed. Technology which in 1988 was at a stage of trial and research is now developed into fully tested and accessible products, while others have been discarded or shelved. Mankind’s awareness of creating sustainable development, where the earth’s resources are taken care of, has been of great importance for development within energy saving measures, new agricultural methods, etc. All of this is obviously gratifying. On the other hand, the basic relation between rich and poor has not changed. We need an encompassing effort to create development and a dignified existence for all people on earth - today, more than ever. With the turn of the century, the time of the ‘-isms’ and the ideologies is passé - it is not modern to discuss which one is the right theory - something has to be done, and we need to join all our forces to move that heavy load together.
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