Progress is Relative….

Agricultural developments throughout history haven’t always resulted in positive change. In contrast, they leave a massive wake of environmental and social problems. Farming involves “modification of the natural environment by clearing the land of naturally occurring vegetation” and “more intensive land use by humans frequently contribute to soils erosion and a decline in soil fertility” (Scupin and Decorse, pp 216). This is what was happening thousands of years ago when the domestication of crops first appeared, a time referred to by anthropologists as “Neolithic”.  Also noted by Scupin and Decorse were the health consequences, which included poor nutrition and disease from a restricted diet that resulted in development of one crop “to the exclusion of most other food-stuffs” (Scupin and Decorse pp 218).  During this time the development of new farming technology, irrigation and the use of fertilizers “led to the appearance of complex societies”(Scupin & Decorse pp244). These “early states were characterized by a great deal of social inequality” and the ones in power were the ones who had “control of agricultural surpluses” (Scupin & Decorse pp244).  Not a far cry from what we see happening today – on a much larger scale.
During the twentieth century “massive public investments in modern scientific research for agriculture led to dramatic yield breakthroughs in industrialized countries” (B.R. Hazell).  By the 1960’s, starvation had decreased in the industrialized countries as a result, and against the back drop of realizing that “if continued population growth was not matched by dramatic increases in the world’s food supply, large parts of the world would face widespread hunger and famine” (Seth S. King). Bringing these new agricultural developments to these regions was seen as a solution to ending world hunger. Dubbed the Green Revolution by American plant geneticists involved in bioengineering new hybrids of grains in Mexico and the Philippines, the mindset at the time became “the miracle seeds of the Green Revolution increase grain yields and therefore are a key to ending world hunger. Higher yields mean more income for poor farmers, helping them to climb out of poverty, and more food means less hunger” (Food First). The first crops they were working on were “dwarf varieties of wheat and rice capable of doubling or tripling yields per acre in those regions. The new plants had shorter, stiffer stems, and if heavily fertilized and irrigated, could produce much larger heads of grain that did not fall over from their weight”(Seth S. King). Idealistic in concept but limited in its scope, the benefits of agricultural industrialization of third world communities have been defeated by the negative regional, environmental and socio-cultural impacts.
The Green Revolution began in Mexico during the early 1960’s by the team led by Norman Borlaug Read the rest of this entry »