The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution

  • Characterized by:
    • High yield seeds.
    • Increased chemical usage.
    • Mechanized farming.
  • Led to a drastic increase in food production for farmers.
  • Allowed countries to have a greater food surplus.
  • More food was accessible to the people.
  • Supply of food went up, countries also saw the food prices decrease.
  • More people were able to afford food.
  • Started by Doctor Norman Borlaug, known as the father of the Green Revolution.

Doctor Norman Borlaug

  • Developed a new semi dwarf, high yield disease resistant wheat variety.
  • Could prosper in the growing conditions in Mexico.
  • Transformed agricultural production in Mexico, Pakistan, and India.
  • His work allowed for increased food supplies for countries around the world.
  • Resulted in millions of lives being saved from starvation.
  • Won a Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Started the Green Revolution.
  • Credited for saving over a billion lives from starvation.

High Yield Seeds

  • Achieved through cross breeding.
    • Mixing different species of plants to produce a new variant with the best genetic characteristics of both.
  • Often results in hybrid seeds.
    • Shorter growing seasons.
    • More resistant to different climates.
  • Doctor Borlaug's semi dwarf wheat varieties:
    • Shorter growing seasons, allowing farmers to have multiple harvests in a year.

Hybrid Plants vs. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

  • Hybrid plants:
    • Involve mixing different species of plants.
    • Were a central part of the green revolution.
  • GMOs:
    • Involve altering an organism's DNA to achieve specific traits.
    • Did not come until later.

New Advancements in Chemical Usage

  • Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.
  • Led to increased yields of crops.
  • Chemical fertilizers (nitrogen and phosphate):
    • Allowed plants to grow faster compared to previous natural fertilizer.
  • Pesticides:
    • Stopped insects from destroying the crops, increasing farmers' yield.
  • Herbicides:
    • Targeted invasive plants to prevent weeds from growing in the fields.
    • Allowed more water and nutrients to go to the crops.

Mechanized Farming

  • New machinery replaced manual labor, making farming more efficient.
  • Tractors, irrigation pumps, and harvesters became more common.
  • Led to:
    • Increased food production.
    • A reduction in global hunger.
    • New economic growth.
    • Cheaper food.
    • Lower production costs.
  • Decreased the amount of jobs for women who traditionally worked in agriculture.
  • Resulted in more inequalities between individuals in certain societies.

Negative Consequences

  • Increased use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides:
    • More soil degradation and water contamination.
  • Monoculture farming:
    • Loss of biodiversity.
      • Biodiversity: variety of life forms in a given geographic area.
      • Monoculture: farmer cultivates one type of crop, livestock, or fish species at a period of time.

Economic Opportunities

  • New large scale farms became more profitable.
  • Decline of family farms as industrial farms gained momentum.
  • Did not single handedly create agro businesses, but it did lay the foundation for them to become possible and definitely helped accelerate the growth of them.
  • This shift in production also led to unequal economic development, with smaller family farms struggling to compete with large scale farms.
  • Many countries that are in the periphery or semi periphery became more dependent on core countries and multinational corporations.
  • Large agro businesses often controlled the high yield seeds and chemical fertilizers.

Conclusion

  • Increased the world's food security and transformed how we as a society produce food.
  • Created some new environmental and societal issues that still impact society today.