Green Revolution
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{{agriculture}}
:''This article is about the Green Revolution of the 20th century. For the earlier medieval Green Revolution, see [[Muslim Agricultural Revolution]].''
The '''Green Revolution''' refers to the transformation of [[agriculture]] that began in 1945 at the request of the Mexican government to establish an agricultural research station to develop more varieties of wheat that could be used to feed the rapidly growing population of the country. The associated transformation has continued as the result of programs of agricultural research, extension, and infrastructural development, instigated and largely funded by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]], along with the [[Ford Foundation]] and other major agencies.<ref>[http://wparks.myweb.uga.edu/ppt/green/ Defining the Green Revolution]</ref> <ref>[http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalDevelopment/Agriculture/RelatedInfo/AfricanFarmers.htm New Hope for African Farmers-The Gates Foundation]</ref> The consensus among some agronomists is that the Green Revolution has allowed food production to keep pace with worldwide [[population growth]]. The Green Revolution has had major social and ecological impacts, and with multi-million dollar backing from organizations including the [[Gates Foundation]], the deployment of Green Revolution policies will continue for some time.
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 [[October Revolution|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."<ref name="agbio">Speech by William S. Gaud to the Society for International Development. 1968. [http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/topics/borlaug/borlaug-green.html]</ref>
==History==
====Indian success====
{{main|Green Revolution in India}}
With the experience of agricultural development begun in [[Mexico]] by [[Norman Borlaug]] in 1943 judged as a success, 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.
In 1961 India was on the brink of mass famine. [[Norman Borlaug]] was invited to India by the adviser to the Indian minister of agriculture [[M. S. Swaminathan]]. Despite bureaucratic hurdles imposed by India's grain monopolies, the Ford Foundation and Indian government collaborated to import wheat seed from CIMMYT. [[Punjab (India)|Punjab]] was selected by the Indian government to be the first site to try the new crops because of its reliable water supply and a history of agricultural success.
India began its own Green Revolution program of plant breeding, irrigation development, and financing of agrochemicals. [http://www.cgiar.org/newsroom/releases/news.asp?idnews=532]
India soon adopted IR8 - a rice variety developed by the [[International Rice Research Institute]] that could produce more grains of rice per plant when grown properly with fertilizer and irrigation. In 1968, Indian agronomist S.K. De Datta published his findings that IR8 rice yielded about 5 tons per hectare with no fertilizer, and almost 10 tons per hectare under optimal conditions. This was 10 times the yield of traditional rice.<ref>De Datta S.K., Tauro A.C., Balaoing S.N. Effect of plant type and nitrogen level on growth characteristics and grain yield of indica rice in the tropics. Agron. J. 1968;60:643-647.</ref> IR8 was a success throughout Asia, and dubbed the "Miracle Rice."
In the 1960s, rice yields in India were about two tons per hectare; by the mid-1990s, they had risen to six tons per hectare. In the 1970s, rice cost about $550 a ton; in 2001, it cost less than $200 a ton. India became one of the world's most successful rice producers, and is now a major rice exporter, shipping nearly 4.5 million tons in 2006. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118556810848880619.html]
[[Famine in India]], once accepted as inevitable, has not returned since the introduction of Green Revolution agriculture.
CGIAR
An international group coordinating the efforts of the local groups was formed in 1971 under the urging of the Rockefeller Foundation. The [[Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research]],The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) was originally created at the initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, which had sponsored international meetings of agronomists at its Bellagio Conference Center in Lake Como, Italy, from 1968 onwards.
In 1970, foundation officials proposed a worldwide network of agricultural research centers under a permanent secretariat. This was further supported and developed by the World Bank; on May 19, 1971, with the FAO, IFAD and UNDP as co-sponsors, the CGIAR was established
CGIAR, has added many research centers throughout the world.
CGIAR has responded, at least in part, to criticisms of Green Revolution methodologies. This began in the 1980s, and mainly was a result of pressure from donor organizations.<ref name=oasa>Oasa 1987</ref> Methods like Agroecosystem Analysis and Farming System Research have been adopted to gain a more holistic view of agriculture. Methods like Rapid Rural Appraisal and Participatory Rural Appraisal have been adopted to help scientists understand the problems faced by farmers and even give farmers a role in the development process.
====Problems in Africa====
There have been numerous attempts to introduce the successful concepts from the Mexican and south Asian projects into [[Africa]]. These programs have generally been less successful, for a number of reasons. Reasons cited include widespread [[Political corruption|corruption]], insecurity, a lack of infrastructure, and a general lack of will on the part of the governments.
A recent program in western Africa is attempting to introduce a new high-yield variety of [[rice]] known as "Nericas". Nericas yields about 30% more rice under normal conditions, and can double yields with small amounts of fertilizer and very basic irrigation. However the program has been beset by problems getting the rice into the hands of farmers, and to date the only success has been in [[Guinea]] where it currently accounts for 16% of rice cultivation.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/africa/10rice.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin In Africa, Prosperity From Seeds Falls Short, New York Times, 10 October 2007]</ref>
== 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 [[pesticide]]s, [[irrigation]] projects, synthetic nitrogen [[fertilizer]] and [[Genetically modified food]].
<blockquote>''The novel technological development of the Green Revolution was the production of what some referred to as “miracle seeds.”''<ref name=brown>Brown, 1970</ref></blockquote> [[Agronomists]] created strains of [[maize]], [[wheat]], and [[rice]] that are generally referred to as HYVs or “[[high-yielding variety|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.”<ref name=”ir8”> Rice Varieties: IRRI Knowledge Bank. Accessed Aug. 2006. [http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/regionalSites/nepal/RiceVarieties.htm]</ref>
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 [[Cell signaling|cellular signaling]] components [[gibberellic acid]] (a [[phytohormone]] involved in regulating [[Plant stem|stem]] growth via its effect on cell division) and subsequently [[cloned]]. [[Plant stem|Stem]] growth in the mutant background is significantly reduced leading to the [[Dwarf plant|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.
=== Production increases ===
Cereal production more than doubled in developing nations between the years 1961 – 1985.<ref name=conway1> Conway, 1997 chpt. 4.</ref> Yields of rice, maize, and wheat increased steadily during that period.<ref name=conway1/> The production increases can be attributed roughly equally to irrigation, fertilizer, and seed development, at least in the case of Asian rice.<ref name=conway1/>
While agricultural output increased as a result of the Green Revolution, the [[energy]] input into the process (that is, the energy that must be expended to produce a crop) has also increased at a greater rate,<ref>[http://www.energybulletin.net/5045.html Why Our Food is So Dependent on Oil]</ref> so that the ratio of crops produced to energy input has decreased over time. Green Revolution techniques also heavily rely on chemical [[fertilizers]], [[pesticides]] and [[herbicides]], some of which must be developed from fossil fuels, making agriculture increasingly reliant on [[petroleum]] products.<ref>[http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20070914/NEWS/709140329/1011/RSS&source=RSS Fuel costs, drought influence price increase]</ref> Proponents of the [[Peak Oil]] theory fear that a future decline in oil and gas production would lead to a decline in food production or even a [[Malthusian catastrophe]].<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0724/p01s01-wogi.html Rising food prices curb aid to global poor]</ref>
=== Effects on food security ===
{{main|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 [[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]]. [[India]] saw annual wheat production rise from 10 million tons in the 1960s to 73 million in 2006.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4994590.stm The end of India's green revolution?]</ref> The average person in the developing world consumes about 25% more calories per day now than before the Green Revolution.<ref name=conway1/> Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed [[agriculture]] around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%.
The production increases fostered by the Green Revolution are widely credited with having helped to avoid widespread [[famine]], and for feeding billions of people.<ref>[http://www.aworldconnected.org/article.php/311.html]{{Dead link|date=March 2008}}</ref>
== Criticisms of the Green Revolution ==
===Food security===
====Malthusian criticism of the Green Revolution====
Some criticisms generally involve some variation of the [[Malthusian catastrophe|Malthusian]] principle of population. Such concerns often revolve around the idea that the Green Revolution is unsustainable<ref>[http://www.dieoff.com/page55.htm Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://www.soilassociation.org/peakoil Peak Oil: the threat to our food security]</ref><ref>[http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2225 Agriculture Meets Peak Oil]</ref>, and argue that humanity is currently in a state of [[overpopulation]] with regards to the sustainable carrying capacity of the earth.
Malthusian predictions have frequently failed to materialize. In 1798 Thomas Malthus made his prediction of impending famine.<ref name = "Green Revolutionary">https://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19871/</ref> The world's population had doubled by 1923 and then had doubled again by 1973 without fulfilling Malthus' prediction. Malthusian [[Paul R. Ehrlich]], in his 1968 book [[The Population Bomb]], said that India would never feed itself and claimed that "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980" and "Hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs."<ref name = "Green Revolutionary"/> Ehrlich's predictions failed to materialize when India became self sustaining in cereal production in 1974 (six years later) as a result of the introduction of [[Norman Borlaug|Norman Borlaug's]] dwarf wheat varieties.<ref name = "Green Revolutionary"/>
====Is food production actually related to famine?====
To some modern Western sociologists and writers, increasing food production is not synonymous with increasing food security, and is only part of a larger equation. For example, Harvard professor [[Amartya Sen]] claimed large [[List of famines|historic famines]] were not caused by decreases in food supply, but by socioeconomic dynamics and a failure of public action. <ref name=sen> Drezé and Sen 1991</ref> However, economist Peter Bowbrick has accused Sen of misrepresenting historical data, telling outright lies and being wrong on his theory of famines. In fact Bowbrick argues that Sen's views coincide with that of the Bengal government at the time of the [[Bengal famine of 1943]] and the policies Sen advocates failed to relieve the famine.
====Food production versus quality of diet====
Some have challenged the value of the increased food production of Green Revolution agriculture. Miguel A. Altieri, a self-proclaimed "agroecologist" and peasant-advocate, writes that the comparison between traditional systems of agriculture and Green Revolution agriculture has been unfair, because Green Revolution agriculture produces [[monocultures]] of cereal grains, while traditional agriculture usually incorporates [[polyculture]]s.<ref name=agroeco> Altieri 1995.</ref> Additionally, some claim traditional systems of agriculture that were displaced by the Green Revolution such as the [[chinampas]] in Mexico or raised-field rice farming in Asia can be highly-productive.<ref name=ramon2>Wright, 2005. pp. 158.</ref> Critics point out that these traditional forms of agriculture produced less food than Green Revolution crops, and were prone to famine, as evidenced by the frequency of famine in these communities.
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.<ref name=spitz>Spitz, 1987</ref> Also, the [[pesticides]] involved in rice production eliminated fish and weedy green vegetables from the diets of [[Asian people|Asian]] rice farmers.<ref name=conway2> Conway 1997 pp. 279.</ref> Critics of this view counter that this presupposes an inherent superiority of subsistence living, which tends to be romanticized in rich Western countries.
=== Social impacts ===
==== Political impacts ====
The Green Revolution is unpopular among many [[leftists]] because of its context within the [[Cold War]]. A major critic of the Green Revolution, the US investigative journalist Mark Dowie, writes that the primary objective of the program was a [[Cold War]] geopolitical one: providing food for the populace in underdeveloped countries which thus brought social stability and weakened the fomenting of [[communist]] insurgency. Citing internal Foundation documents, he states that the Ford Foundation had a greater concern than Rockefeller in this area.<ref>Primary objective was geopolitical - see Mark Dowie, ''American Foundations: An Investigative History'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001, (pp. 109-114)</ref>
Additionally, it is maintained elsewhere that there is a significant amount of evidence suggesting the Green Revolution had the effect of weakening [[socialist]] movements in many nations. In countries like India, Mexico, and the Philippines, technological solutions were sought as an alternative to expanding agrarian reform initiatives, the latter of which were often linked to socialist politics.<ref name=”ross1”> Ross 1998. Chpt. 5.</ref>
==== Socioeconomic impacts ====
The transition from traditional agriculture in which inputs were generated on-farm to Green Revolution agriculture, which required the purchase of inputs, lead to the widespread establishment of rural credit institutions. Smaller farmers often went into debt, which in many cases result in a loss of their farmland.<ref name=”oasa”> Oasa 1987 </z> The increased level of mechanization on larger farms made possible by the Green Revolution removed a large source of employment from the rural economy.<ref name=”oasa”> Oasa 1987 </ref> Because wealthier farmers had better access to credit and land, the Green Revolution increased class disparities. Because some regions were able to adopt Green Revolution agriculture more readily than others (for political or geographical reasons), interregional economic disparities increased as well. Many small farmers are hurt by the dropping prices resulting from increased production overall.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}
The new economic difficulties of small holder farmers and landless farm workers led to increased [[rural-urban migration]]. The increase in food production led to a cheaper food for urban dwellers, and the increase in urban population increased the potential for industrialization.
==== Globalization ====
In the most basic sense, the Green Revolution was a product of [[globalization]] as evidenced in the creation of international agricultural research centers that shared information, and with transnational funding from groups like the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and USAID. Additionally, the inputs required in Green Revolution agriculture created new markets for seed and chemical corporations, many of which were based in the United States. For example, [[Exxon|Standard Oil of New Jersey]] established hundreds of distributors in the Philippines to sell agricultural packages composed of HYV seed, fertilizer, and pesticides.<ref name=standardoil>Brown 1970</ref>
=== Environmental impacts ===
==== Pesticides ====
Green Revolution agriculture increased the use of [[pesticides]], which were necessary to limit the high levels of pest damage that inevitably occur in monocultures.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}
==== Water issues ====
[[Salinization]], [[waterlogging]], and lowering of [[water level]]s in certain areas are all consequences of increased irrigation.<ref name=water>Conway 1997, pp. 253</ref>
==== Biodiversity ====
The spread of Green Revolution agriculture affected both agricultural [[biodiversity]] and wild biodiversity. There is little disagreement that the Green Revolution acted to reduce agricultural biodiversity, as it relied upon just a few high-yield varieties of each crop. This has led to concerns about the susceptibility of a food supply to pathogens that cannot be controlled by agrochemicals, as well as the permanent loss of many valuable genetic traits bred into traditional varieties over thousands of years. To address these concerns, massive seed banks such as [[Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research|CGIAR]]’s [[International Plant Genetic Resources Institute]] (now [http://www.bioversityinternational.org/ Bioversity International]) have been established (see [[Svalbard Global Seed Vault]]).
There are varying opinions about the effect of the Green Revolution on wild biodiversity. One hypothesis speculates that by increasing production per unit of land area, agriculture will not need to expand into new, uncultivated areas to feed a growing human population. A counter-hypothesis speculates that biodiversity was sacrificed because traditional systems of agriculture that were displaced sometimes incorporated practices to preserve wild biodiversity, and because the Green Revolution expanded agricultural development into new areas where it was once unprofitable or too arid.
Nevertheless, the world community has clearly acknowledged the negative aspects of agricultural expansion as the 1992 Rio Treaty, signed by 189 nations, has generated numerous national [[Biodiversity Action Plans]] which assign significant biodiversity loss to agriculture's expansion into new domains.
==Norman Borlaug's reply to the alternative interpretations of the Green Revolution==
[[Norman Borlaug]] has dismissed most claims of critics, but does take certain concerns seriously. He states that his work has been "a change in the right direction, but it has not transformed the world into a Utopia". Of environmental lobbyists he has stated, "some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things".
==See also==
* [[Food security]]
* [[Genetic pollution]]
*[[Green revolution and cancer]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
== Bibliography ==
*Altieri, M. A. ''Agroecology: The science of sustainable agriculture''. [[Westview Press]], Boulder, Colorado, 1995. Revised and expanded edition.
*[[Lester R. Brown|Brown, Lester]]. ''Seeds of Change''. New York: [[Praeger Publishers]], 1970.
*Cleaver, Harry. ''The Contradictions of the Green Revolution''. [[American Economic Review]], Vol. 62, Issue 2, May, 1972, pp.177-86. Available on the author's website.
*Conway, Gordon. ''The Doubly Green Revolution''. Ithaca: [[Cornell University Press]], 1998.
*[[Mark Dowie|Dowie, Mark]]. ''American Foundations: An Invesigative History''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The [[MIT Press]], 2001.
*Dreze, Jean and Sen, Amartya. ''Hunger and Public Action''. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]], 1991.
*Oasa, Edmud K. ''The Political Economy of International Agricultural Research in Glass'', Bernhard, ed., 1987. The Green Revolution Revisited, pp. 13–55.
*Ross, Eric B. ''The Malthus Factor: Poverty, Politics and Population in Capitalist Development''. London: [[Zed Books]], 1998.
*[[Vandana Shiva|Shiva, Vandana]], ''The Violence of the Green Revolution: Ecological degradation and political conflict in Punjab'', Zed Press, New Delhi, 1992
*Spitz, Pierre. ''The Green Revolution Re-Examined in India in Glass'', Bernhard, ed., 1987. The Green Revolution Revisited, pp.57–75.
*[[Angus Wright|Wright, Angus]]. ''Innocence Abroad: American Agricultural Research in Mexico'', Jackson, Wes, ed., 1985. Meeting the Expectations of the Land pp.124 – 138.
*Wright, Angus. ''The Death of Ramon Gonzalez''. Austin: [[University of Texas Press]], 2004.
[[Category:Agriculture]]
[[Category:Industrial agriculture]]
[[Category:International development]]
[[Category:Rockefeller Foundation]]
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[[es:Revolución verde]]
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[[it:Rivoluzione verde]]
[[he:המהפכה הירוקה]]
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