PDF file: Annual Report 2002/2003 - Scottish Crop Research Institute

Report of the Director
John R. Hillman
Global perspectives of
factors influencing
agricultural,
biological, and
environmental
sciences, and their
associated industries :
2002-2003*
Preamble
Setbacks and Progress National security concerns,
bankruptcies, commercial wrongdoings, a hiatus in
business decision-making, and
stock-market downgrades
characterised the financial year
2002-2003 for the western
economies, echoing the uncertainties
created by the
September 11th 2001 (‘9-11’)
terrorist events. By mid-2003,
however, there were signs of a
strengthening of the global
economy. Every day, 34,000
young children died from
malnutrition and disease.
Illegal immigration became
politically high profile. More
than five million terabytes of data were created in
2002, a prodigious amount of information, much of
“When you are courting a nice girl,” said Albert
Einstein,the Nobel laureate physicist whose bust sits
on the windowsill of my Personal Assistant, “an
hour seems like a second. When you sit on a redhot
cinder, a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”
Agriculture is relatively more important
than most other human activities – it is the basis of
sustenance and civilisation, after all – but in terms
of perception of those that people our towns and
cities and body politic, it seems less important than
entertainment, celebrity, sport, recreation, having a
good time, and just about any other activity. That’s
relativity, too.
which was instantly forgettable, but the remainder a
record of advancement in science, engineering, and
technology to add to the achievements and intellectual
advancements of mankind. Data production in 2003
will dwarf that of 2002.
Terrorism In the political and economic aftermath of
September 11 th 2001, the USA declared a war on terrorism
which began with the military attack on
Afghanistan to rid it of the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban,
and pressure worldwide was put on terrorist groups
and their sponsors and supporters, especially those
linked to Al-Qaeda, an organisation of extreme religious
intolerance thought to be embedded in up to 60
countries. US President G. W. Bush in his State of
the Union address in
January 2002, identified
Iran, Iraq, and North Korea
as an ‘axis of evil’. In May
2002, the US
Administration named
Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya,
North Korea, Syria, and
Sudan as sponsors, supporters
or acquiescent of terrorism.
Weapons of mass
destruction, i.e. chemical,
biological, and nuclear
weapons, were a particular
issue in US foreign policy,
one shared by several western democracies. In June
2002, US President G. W. Bush stated that the out-
* This review updates and enlarges on themes developed in my previous accounts in the SCRI Annual Report series.
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