| Green Revolution |
Article Index for Green |
Website Links For Green |
Information AboutGreen Revolution |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GREEN REVOLUTION | |
| agriculture | |
| international development | |
| rockefeller foundation | |
| nobel prize | |
|
The term “Green Revolution” was first used in 1968 by former USAID director William Gaud, who noted the spread of the new technologies and said, "These and other developments in the field of agriculture contain the makings of a new revolution. It is not a violent Red Revolution like that of the Soviets, nor is it a White Revolution like that of the Shah of Iran. I call it the Green Revolution."Speech by William S. Gaud to the Society for International Development. 1968. {Link without Title} The Green Revolution has had major social and ecological impacts, which have drawn intense praise and equally intense criticism. INTERNATIONAL SPREAD OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION With the experience of agricultural development judged as a success by many of the powerholders involved, the Rockefeller Foundation sought to spread the Green Revolution to other nations. The Office of Special Studies in Mexico became an informal international research institution in 1959, and in 1963 it formally became CIMMYT (The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center). The second nation to which the Green Revolution spread was India . The Ford Foundation had a presence in the nation, and their social scientists had decided that the technological development of agriculture was important to the future of India . At the same time C.Subramaniam , the former Indian Minister of Steel and Mines, became Minister of Food and Agriculture. The Foundation and Indian government collaborated to import a huge amount of wheat seed from CIMMYT. India then began its own Green Revolution program of plant breeding, irrigation development, and financing of agrochemicals. By the late 1970s, the Green Revolution raised rice yields in India by 30 percent and bought India the vital time to curb its population growth without suffering a recurrence of the devastating Famines of the 1940s. {Link without Title} The Rockefeller and Ford Foundation jointly established IRRI (The International Rice Research Institute) in the Philippines in 1960. HYVs (high yielding varieties) spread throughout that country, Indonesia , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , and other non-Soviet bloc countries throughout Latin American, Asia, and North Africa. USAID became involved in subsidizing rural infrastructure development and Fertilizer shipments. In Mexico The Green Revolution began in 1943 with the establishment of the Office of Special Studies, which was a venture that was a collaboration between the Rockefeller Foundation and the presidential administration of Manuel Avila Camacho in Mexico. While Camacho's predecessor Cárdenas promoted peasant subsistence agriculture through policies of land reform, Avila Camacho's primary goal for Mexican agriculture was to aid in the nation's industrial development and economic growth.Wright, 2005. pp. 171 – 173. US Vice President Henry Wallace , who was instrumental in convincing the Rockefeller Foundation to work with the Mexican government in agricultural development, saw Camacho’s ambitions as beneficial to U.S. economic and military interests.Wright 2005. pp. 171 – 173 J. George Harrar, who would later become president of the Rockefeller Foundation, headed the Office of Special Studies. Its lead scientists included Norman Borlaug , Edwin Wellhausen, and William Colwell. Researchers from both the United States and Mexico were involved in this program. The main initiative of the Office was the development of high-yielding maize and wheat varieties. Borlaug received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on wheat breeding. The Mexican national government invested heavily in rural infrastructure development, and the adoption of new seed varieties became widespread. Mexico became self-sufficient in wheat production by 1951 and began to export wheat thereafter. In 1900, the Mexican Population was 13.6 million; by 2005, it had increased to 103.3 million. 100 Years of Mexican Migration Policies AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND FOOD SECURITY Technologies The projects within the Green Revolution spread technologies that had already existed, but had not been widely used outside of industrialized nations. These technologies included pesticides, Irrigation projects, and synthetic nitrogen Fertilizer . The novel technological development of the Green Revolution was the production of what some referred to as “miracle seeds.” Brown, 1970. Scientists created strains of Maize , Wheat , and Rice that are generally referred to as HYVs or “ High Yielding Varieties .” HYVs have an increased nitrogen-absorbing potential compared to other varieties. Since cereals that absorbed extra nitrogen would typically lodge, or fall over before harvest, semi-dwarfing genes were bred into their genomes. Norin 10 Wheat , a variety developed by Orville Vogel from Japanese dwarf wheat varieties, was instrumental in developing Green Revolution wheat cultivars. IR8, the first widely implemented HYV rice to be developed by IRRI, was created through a cross between an Indonesian variety named “Peta” and a Chinese variety named “Dee Geo Woo Gen.” Rice Varieties: IRRI Knowledge Bank. Accessed Aug. 2006. {Link without Title} With advances in molecular genetics, the mutant genes responsible for ''reduced height(rht)'', ''gibberellin insensitive (gai1)'' and ''slender rice (slr1)'' in Arabidopsis and rice were identified as cellular signaling components gibberellic acid (a phytohormone involved in regulating stem growth via its effect on cell division) and subsequently cloned. Stem growth in the mutant background is significantly reduced leading to the dwarf phenotype. Photosynthetic investment in the stem is reduced dramatically as the shorter plants are inherently more stable mechanically. Assimilates become redirected to grain production, amplifying in particular the effect of chemical fertilizers on commercial yield. HYVs significantly outperform traditional varieties in the presence of adequate irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizers. In the absence of these inputs, traditional varieties may outperform HYVs. One criticism of HYVs is that they were developed as F1 Hybrids , meaning they need to be purchased by a farmer every season rather than Saved from previous seasons, thus increasing a farmer’s cost of production. Production increases Cereal production more than doubled in developing nations between the years 1961 – 1985. Conway, 1997 chpt. 4. Yields of rice, maize, and wheat increased steadily during that period. Conway, 1997 chpt. 4. The production increases can be attributed roughly equally to irrigation, fertilizer, and seed development, at least in the case of Asian rice. Conway 1997 chpt. 4. Some, however, have challenged the purported production increases of Green Revolution agriculture. Miguel A. Altieri, for example, writes that the comparison between traditional systems of agriculture and Green Revolution has been unfair, because Green Revolution agriculture produces Monocultures of cereal grains, while traditional agriculture usually incorporates Polyculture s. Altieri 1995. Additionally, some traditional systems of agriculture that were displaced by the Green Revolution such as the Chinampas in Mexico or raised-field rice farming in Asia are known to be very highly-productive.Wright, 2005. pp. 158. Effects on food security See Also: Food security The effects of the Green Revolution on global Food Security are difficult to understand because of the complexities involved in food systems. The production increases fostered by the Green Revolution are widely credited withhaving helped to avoid widespread with regards to the sustainable carrying capacity of the earth. Malthusianism has been evident throughout the history of the Green Revolution. The team sent to survey Mexican agriculture in 1941 for the Rockefeller Foundation cited the High Birth Rate and relative inadequacy of its agriculture as a cause for concern. Wright 2005, pp. 174. In 1959, the Ford Foundation carried out a study in India that stated the nation’s population would outstrip its food supply by 1966, although validity of its methodology was a subject of criticism. Ross 158 At Borlaug’s Nobel acceptance speech he stated, “...we are dealing with two opposing forces, the scientific power of food production and the biologic power of human reproduction.” Norman Borlaug’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 1970. {Link without Title} The World Population has grown by about four billion since the beginning of the Green Revolution and most believe that, without the Revolution, there would be greater Famine and Malnutrition than the UN presently documents (approximately 850 million people suffering from chronic malnutrition in 2005). The average person in the developing world consumes about 25% more calories per day now than before the Green Revolution. Conway, 1997 chpt. 4. Increasing food production however is not synonymous with increasing food security, and is only part of a larger equation. For example, Amartya Sen ’s work has found that large Historic Famines have not been caused by decreases in food supply, but by socioeconomic dynamics and a failure of public action. Drezé and Sen 1991 There are several claims about how the Green Revolution may have decreased food security for some people. One such claim involves the shift of subsistence-oriented cropland to cropland oriented towards production of grain for export and/or animal feed. For example, the Green Revolution replaced much of the land used for pulses that fed Indian peasants for wheat, which did not make up a large portion of the peasant diet. Spitz, 1987 Also, the Pesticides involved in rice production eliminated fish and weedy green vegetables from the diets of Asian rice farmers. Conway 1997 pp. 279. Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed Agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%. The energy for the Green Revolution was provided by Fossil Fuels in the form of Fertilizers (natural gas), Pesticides (oil), and Hydrocarbon fueled Irrigation . How peak oil could lead to starvation |
|
|