What was the Green Revolution?

The Green Revolution was the application of science and technology to increase food productivity; the reformation of agricultural practices began in Mexico in the early 1940s. Due to the success in producing increased yields in Mexico, the technologies spread globally in the 1950s and 1960s, vastly increasing the amount of calories produced per acre around the world. The beginnings of the Green Revolution are accredited to Norman Borlaug – an American biologist, humanitarian, and Nobel Laureate. He has been referred to as “the father of the Green Revolution”, “agriculture’s greatest spokesperson”, and “the man who saved a billion lives”. Countries in all areas of the world benefitted from Borlaug’s work.

What are the Environmental Value Systems? How have they been presented within the Green Revolution?

An Environmental Value System or EVS is a worldview that moulds the way both individuals and the societies they form perceive and therefore evaluate environmental concerns. An Environmental Value System is influenced by social, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Similarly to all other systems, there are inputs and outputs; inputs range from education, media such as books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the internet, and religious doctrines whereas outputs include perspectives, decisions, and actions. The members of society become the consumers of new ideas, which are derived from information flow. The three environmental value systems are technocentrism, anthropocentrism, and ecocentrism. In simplified terms, technocentrism proposes humans and technology as always having the ability to provide a solution to scientific, political, or environmental issues; anthropocentrism presents humans to be the dominant species and the manager of all aspects of the environment for our own requirements; and ecocentrism takes a nature-centered, holistic view of the world.

"If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner."  - Omar N. Bradley, a quote about technocentrism

The most prominent environmental value system within the Green Revolution was technocentrism. Technocentrism is the trust in technological advances to solve problems, specifically environmental problems; natural processes need to be understood in order to control them, resource replacement solves resource depletion, and a strong emphasis should be placed on scientific analysis and scientific prediction prior to policy-making. A free market and economic growth are perceived as highly important.

In order to increase the productivity of food, a variety of techniques were developed. Greater crop yields per hectare and several harvests each year were predominantly achieved through the use of high-yielding varieties. The major high-yielding crops, in regards to the area of land devoted to their cultivation and the total quantity of crops produced, were wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and potatoes. A major area that was improved upon was the harvest index or the above-ground weight of the plant. The plants that produced the largest seeds were selected to provide the greatest yields; many high-yielding variety seeds produced up to ten times more crops than regular seeds on the same area of land. Plant breeding also produced genetically-modified crops with better resistance to pests and plants that would be better able to flourish in the harsher environmental conditions. The maintenance of yields was most successful when used in conjunction with irrigation, artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Irrigation allowed for agriculture to expand to areas that were once unsuitable, artificial fertilizers mimicked the soil’s natural minerals and elements and therefore replenished deprived soils, allowing way for monoculture where the same crop could be grown on the same soil over and over, and unwanted insects and vegetation were eradicated by chemicals.

"We create our fate everyday ... most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior." - Henry Miller, a quote focusing upon anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism proclaims humans to be the dominant and most significant entities in the world. A common result of this attitude is the belief that other existences are resources that may be justifiably exploited for the benefits of humanity. During the Green Revolution, this usually occurred in an unsustainable fashion that resulted in the degradation of nonhuman species.

The Great Depression aided the U.S. Congress’s decision to pass the Farm Bill of 1933. This bill provided subsidy support to farmers struggling with low crop prices due to flooded markets. Burgeoning production was gradually slowed through the government’s commitment to buy surplus grain. Many of the world’s wealthiest countries faced food shortages during the war years as supplies sent from overseas were damaged by enemy activity. When peace was regained, the main priority was to increase each country’s home-grown food supplies. Farmers began using chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and machinery, munitions plants in the U.S. were transformed into artificial fertilizer factories, pesticides were derived from wartime nerve gas, and plant-breeding techniques provided vast quantities of cheap corn that was used as animal feed. Farming was slowly converted into a process of mass production. Simultaneously, quality was replaced by quantity.

The Green Revolution has had extreme impacts on birds, bees, and butterflies. Since the 1960s, Britain has seen the population of tree sparrows decrease by 97%; grey partridges by 90%; turtle doves by 89%; corn buntings by 86%; skylarks by 61%, yellowhammers by 56%; even common species like starlings and song thrushes have fallen by 85 and 48% respectively. The European farmland census, which focuses on thirty-three species, discovered the overall population declined by 44% from 1980 to 2005 and a multi-agency report in the U.S. concluded one quarter of the 1,000 bird species were threatened, endangered, or of conservation concern. The study continued to note that more than 97% of wild grassland in the U.S. had been lost due to conversion to agriculture and the grassland birds had therefore declined the most out of any other group.

In the last seventy years, two of the twenty-four species of wild bumble bees in Britain have become extinct, six are considered seriously endangered, and half of the rest are considered at risk. In the U.S., several species that were common as recent as the 1990s have become extinct. Artificial nitrogen fertilizers do not require the rotation of crops, especially clover, that bees used to forage on and herbicides have eradicated most of the wild substitutes. Their nesting sites have vanished as well. Some species nest in dense grass above the ground while others prefer underground cavities such as abandoned rodent nests. The removal of hedgerows and unploughed field margins has impacted the above-ground bees directly and the below-ground bees indirectly due to the fact that voles and mice are starved and thus do not have the opportunity to build homes. Any that do find nesting places are likely to have them destroyed by farm machinery or sprayed with pesticides.

Monarchs only lay their eggs on milkweed, a weed. This plant used to be controlled by mechanical tilling and a small number of plants per acre would survive the process, ensuring continued population growth. The use of genetically modified crops, however, has all but wiped out the plant in many areas.

The Green Revolution primarily benefitted the agrochemical and seed companies and large farm operations. These corporations were driven by the deep-seated assumption that industrialized agriculture was the only way to produce enough affordable food. All populations of living organisms are interrelated. When one population increases or decreases, other populations are affected as well. Interactions are critical for survival. The Green Revolution’s technology caused the endangerment and extinction of many species. This ultimately led to the decay of food webs across the world.

"What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another."  - Chris Maser, a quote about ecocentrism

The third environmental value system is ecocentrism, which strives to integrate social, spiritual, and environmental dimensions into a holistic ideal. Nature is perceived as being central to humanity and an emphasis is placed on a less materialistic approach to life with greater self-sufficiency of societies. The policy measures implemented for sustainable practices during the Green Revolution best reflect this viewpoint. Many countries introduced green payments, that is, reimbursements to farmers who adopted sustainable or environmentally benign farming practices. Farmers may have been given money for landscape maintenance or for taking land out of production for a prescribed period of time. Taxes, removal of subsidies, and new regulations were embraced to dissuade extreme use of fertilizers and pesticides. Investments were provided to environmental research groups. Education programs were provided on environmental sustainability and although they were available to the public they were primarily targeted towards farmers. Better strategies were proposed for the relations between inter-agency co-operation; the major areas were environmental protection agencies, agricultural consultancy agencies, agricultural directories, farmers’ associations, local authorities, and local non-governmental organizations. Strict measures were outlined in different laws for the protection of the soil, water, and biodiversity.

Follow-Up Questions:

• In no more than 50 words, what was the Green Revolution?
• Define technocentrism, anthropocentrism, and ecocentrism in your own words.
• Which technologies were developed to increase food productivity? Do you find them morally acceptable?
• Many examples have been provided to aid the definition of anthropocentrism. Summarize one and include a brief description on what methods could be put forth to decrease the impacts.
• Which policy measure would have been the most beneficial during the Green Revolution? Provide three other measures that are not listed that you feel would have reaped positive impacts during this time.

Works Cited:

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