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Bangladesh	Home

It's amazing to think that a country slightly smaller than Iowa can have over 127 million people. That's roughly 2,456 people per square mile, or 948 people per square kilometer! Talk about squished! Incredibly, the numbers are still growing.

The sad thing is, it's taking a toll. Bangladesh has been food deficient for more than fifty years. If you lined up ten four year-olds from Bangladesh, eight of them would be malnourished. Put yourself in their shoes:

~Out of your ten friends, five or more live below the poverty line.

~Three of those ten friends eat less than 1500 calories a day. In comparison, a regular person, weighing 330 kilograms (about 150 lbs), burns 217.8 calories, just by playing ping-pong for ten minutes!

~Half of the kids in your neighborhood go without food one or more nights a week.

If you lived in a rural area, the facts would be even worse.

~Two of your ten friends would have electricity-if they were lucky.

~You live in a one-room, bamboo shack with at least five other people. The rich people a few kilometers away built theirs with two rooms, but your family couldn't afford it.

~Your family has three-and-a-half acres to live on, raise cattle on and grow enough food both to eat and sell.

~You would like to learn how to read your name, but you know it'll never happen. You don't have access to a school...no rural places do. You would ask your parents to teach you, but they have no idea either.

~You've watched two of your little sisters die because there was no medicine.

~Last week, one of your friends, Amina, disappeared. Everyone knows that she has been sold into slavery in exchange for food to feed her little brothers. It is not unusual. Each night, you pray that your parents don't decide to sell you too.

Luckily, there is hope. Your country has come up with some ingenious ideas, like biotechnology.

Biotechnology (using genetics to enhance resources-like plants and cattle-that they already have) works especially well for your cramped country. If your family used it on their crops, for example, the nutritious value of that crop would go way up, but the crop wouldn't take up any more of your precious land then it did before. Also, your dad would be able to plant things besides rice, which is big. Growing only rice had taken a toll on your land, whereas growing as variety of plants gives your land time to rejuvenate.

Gamal, your favorite cow will profit from it as well. Biotechnology will strengthen her immune system to make her a stronger, healthier, and better cow.
Using biotechnology, your family will be able to get much more from your land and animals. They can take the excess raw supplies and sell it at market for money. That money can buy you, say, a new pair of shoes for winter. It may not sound like much, but it really helps.

Chickens. Don't laugh. Chickens are a prime solution to hunger in Bangladesh. Because Bali, your friend, is Hindu, and Hussein, your other friend, is Muslim, they can't eat almost any of the same meat. This is where chickens come in. Both Hindus and Muslims can eat chickens. That is one of the criteria that selected the chicken. They are also very easy to raise. City goers (you've heard) can raise them in their cramped quarters. They don't eat a lot, your uncle told you. They can scavenge for themselves. They also taste quite good. So...they're easy. They're safe. They taste good. What's not to like?
There is hope. All it takes is a chicken and a biotech-savvy farm. Bangladesh, you hope, will live to see another decade.