What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution a period of time that genetically modified crops were engineered, pesticides and fertilizer were created starting in the 1940s ending in the 1960s. This period caused a lot of debate on the Green Revolution some stating it positively affected the world and some stating that it negatively affected the world. The positives of the Green Revolution include increasing yields, increasing profit for farmers, lowering prices for foods which then allows the poor afford the food, and crops can be genetically modified to contain specific vitamin. The Green revolution is negative because it caused an increase in global pollution, chemical pollution, and health risks due to the exposure to the chemical produced during the Green Revolution.

The Green Revolution had a positive, negative, or possibly both consequences on the way human beings have evolutionized through out the years. Each of these documents specifically proves that whether good or bad the different societies have been able to incorporate a little from what the Green Revolution has left them into their daily lives. The Green Revolution on one-side has ignited the revolution for new ideas and traditions. On the other side the Green Revolution has become a form of destructing the true and only roots for most farmers.

Over the next forty years, global population is expected to reach nine billion people. This increase in population, combined with expected economic growth, will cause an increase in food demanded and inevitably drain the resources we use for food production. So far, agriculture has been able to respond positively to the rising demand for crop and livestock products. However, farmers are already faced with many new challenges associated with feeding an expanding global population. Farmers must now meet strict new emissions requirements and produce more food on fewer acres while minimizing their environmental footprint. The demand for food is expected to grow substantially in the next couple decades. Some of the factors affecting an increase in food demands are population growth, rising incomes of individuals, food supply factors, and biofuels.

Since the beginning of the Human Race, gathering a sufficient amount of food has always proved to be a challenge. The Green Revolution attempted to solve this problem by creating and applying new techniques and technologies. The Green Revolution was created out of necessity and caused social changes, discontent with some of the effects, and the overall quality of living to be improved but the improvement of living quality had the greatest effect because this led to higher overall populations which in turn created the need to feed an even greater population.

Secondly, increased shelf life of genetically modified foods will enable it to be shipped to distant locations and cut costs as well as minimize waste to consumers. These foods are modified to be pesticide and herbicide tolerant, resulting in less use of chemical sprays; reducing soil contamination and pollution. In addition, genetically modified crops are more resilient, weather tolerant and capable of surviving in adverse climates such as droughts and extremely cold weather (Whitman, 2000).

Astyk and Newton, in their essay: The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry, explains that “around the world, industrial agriculture has consolidated land ownership into the hands of smaller and smaller populations” destroying local self-sufficiency (518). Individuals are no longer able to grow own fresh, healthy foods to feed their family. They now depend on industrially grown crops and processed foods loaded with chemicals for food. Additionally, because of the farm policy, farmers that continue to cultivate healthy produce like fruits and vegetables get little or no government support, thus the higher prices of fresh produce seen today at our grocery stores.

In the book The Man Who Feed The World by Leon Hesser it talked about Norman Borlaug’s life. Borlaug helped millions of people in his efforts to the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution is a big boom in the increase of crop production in developing countries. Dr. Borlaug did this by using fertilizers and high yield crop varieties. To this day there still are countries in poverty that can’t support their source of food. As years go by there will be more mouths to feed like in 2050 there is supposed to be 9 billion people on earth. I think that we should keep using modern agricultural technologies to help feed the world.

As the Earth’s population grows at breakneck pace over the next several decades, who will feed the world’s people? Agriculture has undergone an extensive expansion and transformation throughout the last few centuries, beginning with the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s. New technology allowed for better and greater methods of production. With the development of modern technology, people try to think some way can plant less, get more. Many farmers plant only one crop in the same place year after year. However, those against monocropping claim that it is very hard on the environment and actually less profitable than organic means of farming (“Monoculture Crops – Learn About The Effects Of Monocropping”). In addition, the destructive nature of agriculture has recently shown its hand. While our supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants are filled with abundant food options, people forget to ask themselves where all this food comes from. Globalization has opened up economies of scale and has allowed people to tap into different types of products, whether that is food or clothing. But the availability of an increased mass market comes at a cost. However, today, the modern farming techniques have grown into a headache for farmers and governments alike, because they are the consequences of overproduction, industrial waste and other problems arising from the modern methods of agriculture. Thus, modern techniques are harmful to environments, animals, and humans.

Genetically modified foods are altered so that there are genes within them which are not normally found in their organic counterpart. These crops have benefits such as reducing the need to use pesticides which differ from normal organic crops which highly depend on them. For example, a GMO's called BT-Corn has built in bacteria called Bacillus Thuringeinsis (BT) which produces a crystal protein that acts as a pesticide within the crop's cells. The protein is selective and is toxic to harmful pests but to many beneficial species such as bees and butterflies, are harmless. When the protein is produced, as soon as a pest ingests a sector of the plant containing it, the pest will die within hours.

Genetically modified crops are being developed to produce their own pesticide. This will bring the rapid appearance of resistant insects. Even worse, these pesticide producing plants have killed some beneficial insects and pests that many farmers use in their crops. For example, inserting a gene from a snowdrop, a perennial herb found in Europe and Asia into a potato, made the potato resistant to the green fly, but killed lady bugs that feed on green flies.

Farming for our food causes many issues. Growing our food is causing a major decrease in finite resources, like fertile soil and water (Clemmitt 555). Fertile soil and water are being wasted on crops that are not successfully growing. The decrease in finite resources is caused by old, non-efficient techniques, like the throw-and-grow (Clemmitt

However currently we are not concern on running out of supply of food even though our population is increasing at an exponential rate but concerned with the advancement that are being made today to sustain living for example 92% of U.S corn is genetically engineer resulting in 75% of the food in the market is processed. Advancement on farming would be a progress trap because according to a study “A number of studies over the past decade have revealed that genetically engineered foods can pose serious risks to farmers, human health, domesticated animals, wildlife and the environment”(Center For Food Safety) In civilizations, population constantly increases until it hits a point in the food supply, where the food supply scale breaks and there is no more food left -- the upward focus on wealth and how the rich will always stay rich and the poor will always stay poor is a perfect example of why GMO foods were created; they are able to be produced cheap and sold cheap even if it harms human beings. The majority of these big corporations and business that fall along the lines of farming are sought out to make money and that is why being greedy is a progress trap.. you have enough but always have the self-desire for

The DNA is altered and given protective and beneficial genes in terms of development. Farmers use the GMO crops because the organisms contain genes that are herbicide and pesticide resistant (Genetic). GMOs are beneficial for the companies/farmers because the modifications lower the loss of crops per harvest and produce greater abundancies. GMOs also benefits the crops' development because the genes allow for characteristics such as pathogen resistance to appear and causes faster growth (Genetic). The world's demand for specific types of food is far too great for normal harvest patterns. GMOs allow for faster and larger growth each

Many varieties of genetically engineered crops have been designed to decrease the need for chemicals, particularly pesticides. Herbicide-tolerant varieties are among the most widely used type of genetically-modified crop, which enables farmers to use a single herbicide to eradicate weeds rather than rely on a cocktail of pesticides and herbicides. Eliminating weeds in this fashion also decreases the need for soil tillage, which can negatively impact soil ecology. (Ford,

     Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.