The US Presidential World Food and Nutrition Study and Commission on World Hunger: lessons for the United States and other countries
Johnson, G.L.
Agriculture and international relations analysis and policy essays in memory of Theodor Heidhues: 47-63
1985
Document Number: 501002
Three US efforts to analyze the world food problems are considered and used as examples to show that the understanding of real world issues remains fragmentary as long as there is no research into the values of societies, groups of people and individuals. The dominance of the positivistic approach in social sciences obstructs the use of objective normative analysis which is needed to reach objective prescriptions. An approach is suggested which accepts the proposition that recorded experiences and logic can be used to investigate questions about values in an objective manner. Many problems in the world food economy will not be understood unless this approach is adopted.