Lester Brown, a former New Jersey tomato farmer, is President
of the Worldwatch Institute. He has served as an analyst with
the U.S. Department of Agriculture and as an adviser to the Secretary
of Agriculture on foreign agricultural policy. In 1974, with the
help of Rockefeller Brothers Fund, he founded the Worldwatch Institute
to "alert policy makers and the general public to emerging
global trends in the availability and management of resources."
The Worldwatch Institute now has an estimated annual budget of
$3 million and a staff of 32.
Worldwatch's most significant publication is State of the World,
a book updated annually that reports on the status of world resources
and the environment. The books' dire forecasts on depletion of
natural resources and on deteriorating environmental conditions
are used to support Brown's claim that government-imposed restrictions
on population growth are needed to avert a catastrophe. Though
State of the World is used as a textbook at some 600 universities
and has been given considerable coverage in the media, it lacks
academic credibility. Brown looks for recent college graduates
with a general interest in the environment, but without advanced
degrees to staff Worldwatch.
Once described by the Washington Post as "one of the world's
most influential thinkers," Brown is frequently quoted on
population issues by the news media. He is also a favorite on
the speakers circuit -- He has received as much as $20,000 for
a single speech.
But Brown's analyses are often incorrect. In 1976, for example,
Brown announced that inflation -- which hit 9.1% in 1975 -- was
caused by population growth. There was no corresponding drop in
population when inflation subsequently dropped to 5.8% (for 1976).
In 1989, Brown claimed that three straight years of declining
world grain reserves was evidence that population was outpacing
the world's ability to grow food. But shortages never occurred:
As the September 26, 1989 Washington Post explained, "The...
decline in... grain reserves... was partly the result of policies
designed to dispose of enormous surpluses that accumulated in
the early 1980s."
Selected Quotes By and About Lester Brown
"Building an environmentally sustainable future requires
restricting the global economy, dramatically changing human reproductive
behavior, and altering values and lifestyles. Doing this quickly
requires nothing short of a revolution." - Quoted by Dixy
Lee Ray in her book Environmental Overkill (1993)
"Mr. Brown declared that Mikhail Gorbachev might become the
savior of the... environment and... is extremely proud that Georgi
Arbatov, the [Soviet's] leading expert on ideological warfare,
wrote the forward to the Russian edition of [his book]."
- James Bovard, The Wall Street Journal, June 26, 1989
"If the world continues with business-as-usual policies in
agriculture and family planning, a food emergency within a matter
of years may be inevitable. Soaring grain prices and ensuing food
riots could both destabilize national governments and threaten
the integrity of the international monetary system." - Quoted
in the Washington Post, September 26, 1989
"Chinese success in agriculture cannot be viewed apart from
the social reforms and regimentation that have resulted in a rare
degree of social equity not only within the rural sector but between
the rural and urban sectors as well." - 1975 Brown quote
cited in the Washington Post, September 26, 1989
Version Date: August 26, 1993
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