First Sentence

"Today we face many critical issues in agriculture: (a) an exponentially growing human population; (b) recurrent famine; (c) the destruction of natural landscapes such as tropical rain forests to extend agriculture to previously unused lands; (d) the exodus of human civilization from rural communities to cities; (e) the destruction of environmental quality resulting from exposure to agrochemicals, erosion of soils and salinization of soils as well as exhaustion and contamination of fresh water resources; (f) the loss of bio-diversity through monocropping and the destruction of natural habitats; (g) the reliance of agricultural production, transport, and storage systems on fossil fuel; (h) the acquisition and concentration of agricultural wealth by multinational corporations; and (i) an issuant lack of knowledge by a growing proportion of human civilization on how to cultivate, prepare, and preserve food."