Last week we explored the arguments being used against sustainable agricultural practices being able to feel the world – and that only more of the “green revolution” concepts will do. The biggest players in the food industry—from pesticide pushers to fertilizer makers to food processors and manufacturers—spend billions of dollars every year not selling food, but …
Did you know that July 11, 1987 was the very first “World Population Day”? [1] World Population Day was designed “to track world population and bring light to population growth trends and issues related to it”. That year, the world’s population was 5 billion – a result of about 200,000 years of population growth – …
For the past few weeks we’ve been talking about the Green Revolution, and the problem of feeding 9 billion people. With respect to the Green Revolution, opinion is still divided as to how to assess its impact. Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya (a movement of 500,000 seed keepers and organic farmers) said that the Green …
The promise of the Green Revolution was that it would end hunger through the magic of chemicals and genetic engineering. The reasoning goes like this: the miracle seeds of the Green Revolution increase grain yields; higher yields mean more income for poor farmers, helping them to climb out of poverty, and more food means less …
Last week we promised to explore the Green Revolution. The term “Green Revolution” was coined in the 1960s to highlight a particularly striking breakthrough in yields, which is the traditional way to measure agricultural performance – in tonnes per hectare, bushels per acre or whatever. Farmers have been trying to improve yields by improving seeds …