Page 4 R IN August/September 1978 We keep coming back to the fact that Food First by Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins (RAIN, Oct. 1977, Feb.! Mar. 1978) is a seminally important book in understanding the world food situation and its relationship to the goal of locally self-reliant agriculture systems. Food First is now being updated and will be released in paperback by Ballantine Books in January ofnext year. The following short piece on biogasification, previewed from the new edition, is a reminder that an inequitable society will abuse technology, regardless ofits scale. agood society is the best technology by Frances Moore Lappe & Joseph Collins Just as we canno~ ay that alilarge-s ale mechanization is neces arily bad, neither can we say that appropriate technology is necessarily the answer. Even the "right" technology cannot be imposed nor is it likely [0 do much good in the "wrong" society. Contrast, for example, the impact of biogas technology in India and China. Biogasification is a relatively simple method of fermenting organic raw materials such as crop residues and manure to produce both fuel and fertilizer. small-scale biogas plant can be built from local materials. Since the 1940s India has been developing cow-dung biogas plants, acclaimed widely as a truly "appropriate technology." But, in the highly stratificd economic reality of rural India, this apparently benefjcial technology has created even greater problems for the poorer groups.! First, even the smaUest plants require a significant investment and the dung from two cows. Thus only well-off farmers who have at least two cows and some capital to invest now ontrol the biogas. Furthermore, the dung, which once was free, now has cash value. In areas where biogas plants opcrate, landles laborers can no longer pick it off the road and use it for fuel. And since the landless and other poor villagers are in no position to buy biogas, they end up with no fuel at all. In other words, their position is worsened by the introduction of biogas plants, according to A. K. N. Reddy, governor f the appropriate technology unit at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangladore. What about biogas in China? Many visitors to China have noted the growing use of biogas in the countryside. now providing fuel and lighting for 17 million commune peasants in Szechwan, China's most populated province. In China, the biogas benefits aU members of the community because plants are owned and operated collectively. The largely methane gas produced by China's more than 4 million biogas pits is used for cooking, lighting and running farm machinery. A member of one commune noted, "It takes only 20 minutes to cook a meal for my family of seven using marsh gas [the Chinese term for biogasJ.2 Unlike firewood or coal, marsh gas does not make the kitchen walls grimy and it has no smoke or smell." The Chinese also note that the sealed biogas pits have helped significantly reduce the incidence of para itir diseases and eliminated breeding grounds for flies and mosquitoes. The contrast between biogas technology in these two countries suggests that even technology theoretically appropriate to the needs of the people will not necessarily serve those needs. It can even exacerbate social inequalities unless a prior redistribution of social power has created structures in which all share in the control over and the use of the new technology. Moreover, unless they really grasp the truth that any technology is appropriate only if it advances the poorest groups, many people might be taken in by the claim of multinational firms that they now have converted to "appropriate technology." Firestone-India provides a good example of what we mean. In 1976 the Company announced a solid rubber tire and steel wheel that they said would increase the carrying capacity of India's 13 million bullock carts by 50 percent. Sounds great. But there are two snags. At a price of 60 percent more than the conventional wooden wheel, Firestone-India's wheel is beyond the means of the poor peasant. Moreover, the new wheel will put traditional wheel makers out of business. When asked why the company was introducing the new wheel, the factory director explained that the motivation was the current glut in the natural rubber market. "Rubber-tired wheels on bullock carts will provide a large outlet for this surplus rubber." The source of this account, New Scientist writer Joseph Hanlon, notes as he traveled across India: "There is no shortage of technology, nor even of 'appropriate' technology .. . [But] the power and profits remain with those who have always had them and who have been able to exploit the new technologies as they did the old."3 To repeat: Even the "right" technology cannot be imposed nor is it likely to do much good in the "wrong" society. The truly right technology, whether it be capital- or labor-intensive, will only be the product of a profound social restructuring in which rhose who are doing the work decide what is right for them. 1 Jo eph Hanlon, New Scientist, May 26, 1977, p. 267ff. 2 Christian Science Monitor, August 3, 1917 3 Hanlon, p. 469.
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