Lucidity sometimes springs from the most unexpected sources. Imagine my surprise when a friend forwarded me John Hodges?opening address at the World Poultry Congress, of all fora, and the urgency of his words hit home with unerring precision. Rather than presenting a stodgy speech about the intricacies of poultry farming, the animal geneticist made an emphatic plea for a sustainable world system rather than one created by and for what he calls ?the elite capitalist minority?.

The scientific community has the credibility and expertise needed to denounce the excesses of big business. And it?s about time they sounded the wake-up call needed to get the world population out of its consumerist-induced stupor.

?Individually, we are ethical. You and I do not break the law. We use good science, intelligent and rational business methods ; and by reductionism we minimize our use of resources and produce cheap food. What has gone wrong ? Like the rest of society, we are pushing the market economy system that has yielded huge financial success and cheap food. But it is a Faustian bargain. Now we pay because we have stretched a good system too far and have broken boundaries of sustainability and morality through distorted and excessive uses.?

Amongst many other things, John Hodges warns against the long-term implications of genetically-modified (GM) food products. He establishes a timely parallel between the impact of GM organisms on the human digestive system and the effects of beef proteins on cows. If the former is still unknown, we know what happens when we feed ruminants meat : mad cow disease. Many governments have shown criminal neglect by accepting the widespread cultivation of GM crops without deeming it necessary to carry out the scientific tests to determine their effect on the health of their citizens. More often than not, they accept the results of "tests" conducted by the GM companies themselves, companies that have shown jaw-dropping disdain for the rule of law.

?Thinking people know we are pushing the natural resource community beyond its ability to recover. But many leaders in business, politics and science believe we have found the winning formula that has no limits. Their proven formula is the market economy that has yielded immense prosperity over several centuries especially in the last 60 years. Western leaders are desperately keen to sweep the whole world into free trade market economics by globalization. But here is a tragic paradox. Even though the free market is being widely advocated it shows warning signs of unsustainability. Promoting it globally both spread and compounds the crisis?, he explains.

As yet, there might not be an alternative to the market economy. And don?t expect politicians or businessmen to be overzealous in looking for one. By simply waking up to the exploitative nature of the current system and by recognizing that, as human beings, you deserve better, you?ll be sowing the seeds of a more sustainable future.