5.3 Green Revolution

The Green Revolution

Shift in agriculture away from small (family opened) to large industrial agriculture (business)

-increased GMO’s, irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, and earths carrying capacity for humans

-decreased worker hunger

-brings negative consequences (soil erosion, biodiversity loss, ground surface water contamination)

Mechanization

-increased use of tractors for plowing and tilling fields

-combines for harvesting which increased yield for profit

-increased resilience to fossil fuels

-machines compact soil (topsoil prone to erosion)

High-Yield Variety (HYV) crops

Hybrid or genetically modified crops to produce a higher yield (increased food stability in regions prone to famine)

GMO’s

Genetically modified crops (crops with new genes spliced into their genome)

-have genes for drought tolerance, pest resistance, faster growth, and larger fruit/ grain

- genetically identical —> genetic diversity is decreased —> more vulnerable to disease or pesticides

Synthetic fertilizer

Shift from organic fertilizer (natural) to synthetic fertilizer (man made)

-increases yield, and profits with more nutrients

-excess nitrate are washed off fields and into by waters where they cause eutrophication (algae blooms)

-requires fossil fuel —> releases CO2 —> climate change

Irrigation

Dry water from the ground or nearby surface waters and distributing it on fields to increase plant growth

-can deplete ground water sources

-over watering can drown roots and cause soil salinization

Pesticides

chemical sprayed on crops that kill weeds, insects, rodents, ect.

-increases yield, and profits with fewer plants loss to pests

-can wash off crops and runoff and kill or harm non-target species in local soil

Ex: DDT (synthetic pesticide sprayed on crops) causes thinning of eggshells in birds —> decrease population