By Sarath Fernando, MONLAR (Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform), Sri Lanka

( 27-28 March,2007, Imagine New South Asia, New Delhi, India)

"Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life".

I would like to imagine a new South Asia and a new world, where "every single individual on earth will have the possibility of living a decent life". One simple and obvious requirement for a decent life is that no individual should be hungry or should not die of hunger. Therefore, before we go too far into complex and complicated imaginations can we think of a South Asia and a world where no human being would be compelled to die of hunger. This should be quite easy to achieve, because it is admitted that the world, the earth, has capacity to produce enough food for all human beings and more.

We know very well that over the centuries the processes of production, forms of distribution and consumption have not looked at the need to sustain the earth's capacity or the nature's capacity to continually "regenerate" its resources, the resources that are necessary for the survival of humans and all other living beings. Thus, most of these processes have been so designed that they deplete these resources and destroy the nature's ability to regenerate itself. In spite of such massive destruction, almost through out the history of what is described as "Human advancement" it has still been possible for the World to say that the ability of the world to produce enough to feed all is not yet lost.. Therefore it should be possible to imagine a world and a South Asia where no one goes hungry, at least where no human person dies of hunger.