It is clear that modern high-yield farming - the Green Revolution - has been a significant environmental and humanitarian triumph. Since the 1960's it has led to better lives and prevented the malnourishment of billions of people.

Additionally, the Green Revolution's higher yields made it unnecessary to clear millions of square miles for food production, thereby saving large amounts of natural habitat and biodiversity from the plow. In short, producing more food per hectare helped save large areas of land for nature.

Conservation and biodiversity is similarly enhanced by high yield practices being applied to forestry. High-yield plantation forestry meets human demands for forest products with significantly fewer hectares, allowing for far wider conservation of natural forests and the rich array of flora and fauna within those forests.

WHEREAS:

• More than one-third of the earth's total land area is already devoted to food and fiber production.
  
• The most productive and sustainable land is already being farmed.
  
• The world's population will likely rise to nine billion people before 2050, a level 50% higher than year 2000 levels.
  
• As in China, where meat consumption more than doubled in the 1990's, worldwide per capita consumption of meat, dairy products, fruits and vegetables is increasing rapidly as living standards rise throughout the world.
  
• Global demand for forest products is increasing rapidly and may double over the next half century.
  
• The greatest threat to the Earth's biodiversity is habitat loss through the conversion of natural ecosystems to agriculture.

Therefore, we, the signatories to this declaration, hereby declare that additional high-yield practices, based on advances in biology, ecology, chemistry, and technology, are critically needed in agriculture and forestry not only to achieve the goal of improving the human condition for all peoples but also the simultaneous preservation of the natural environment and its biodiversity through the conservation of wild areas and natural habitat.

We invite all organizations and individuals concerned with human welfare and the conservation and preservation of our planet's rich biological heritage to join us in support of high-yield agriculture and forestry by adding their names to this declaration.

Norman Borlaug, PhD Nobel Peace Prize winner, Father of the Green Revolution	Patrick Moore, PhD Co-founder of Greenpeace, Forestry advocate
Oscar Arias, PhD Nobel Peace Prize winner, Former President of Costa Rica	James Lovelock Independent Scientist, author of "The Gaia Hypothesis"
The Honorable George McGovern Former US Senator, UN "Ambassador to the Hungry"	Rudy Boschwitz Former US Senator, Advisory Chair, Center for Global Food Issues
Eugène Lapointe President of the World Conservation Trust, Former Secretary-General of CITES	Per Pinstrup-Andersen, PhD 2001 World Food Prize winner, Director of the International Food Policy Research Institute