Science and Agricultural Policy

As science has shaped modern agriculture, it is one of the indispensable factors in shaping agricultural policy. Any policy that did not take science into account would be headed for the rocks. But, says the author of this article, both scientists and laymen are inclined to give lip service to this principle without knowing what it actually means. Specialists in the natural sciences do not understand, and often act as if they did not want to understand, social and economic problems. Laymen, on the other hand, often have only vague notions about what science is and the necessities it imposes. The main trouble with modem civilization, he argues, is that it has never learned how to make scientific use of science. He pleads for a new kind of scientific education; for a new kind of cooperation among specialists in the natural and social sciences; above all, for the development of a "science for making use of science." The author does not hesitate to attack what he regards as outworn notions. The article is amply documented with references to significant work in the field it covers.