Dr Terry Sicular from the department of economics at the University of Western Ontario was the fourth speaker at the Biology 4243G lecture series. Dr. Sicular’s topic was Green Revolution (GR), which is the plan to change agriculture technology. In order to increase or multiply harvest all around the world with the aim to cure world hunger in low developed countries (LDCs). Dr. Sicular gave us a look at GR history, its creator, some of the outcomes of GR and the lessons learn from the development of GR.
Briefly, she talked about Norman Borlaug an agronomist and the father of The GR. She showed us all the efforts he made to fight world hunger, through the use of science. Borlaug was so effective that his efforts won him a Nobel Peace Prize which was the first one being science related. After going through the GR history, Dr Sicular went through the consequences that GR has brought to the world in the economical and scientific sense. Some of the things that she talk about was the consequence of irrigation dependency causing salination of solid and the farmers having to spend money on new technologies replacing some of its workers for machines. At the end, Dr Sicular said that we shouldn’t analyze GR as a matter of right or wrong but, instead how can we make this better for all.
Something Intriguing from this lecture for me, was that Green Revolution has been around for 71 years and this is the first time I heard of it. Something new or transcending that I learn about GR is high yield varieties in maize, wheat and rice. This is transcending for me, because these products were genetically modified to dwarf versions so that they could grow in more types of soils and absorb more nitrogen. Something that I find controversial is the health related issues that the new technologies and methods might bring to humans when they consume these types of foods, and the risks that farm workers are exposed. The amounts of pesticides are harmful and they have more chances of getting cancer. So the controversy is that in one hand the modification of farming methods to produce more food helps the hungry , but is it worth it if these methods affect our health?. Another controversy is the loss of jobs and debts that some farmers have to face. The new methods to multiple crops require some equipment, which costs money and replaces human workers. So most farmers have to ask for loans in order to buy this equipment and some are on debt. Plus, farm workers are being replaced by machines. So, if people don’t have jobs how are they going to afford to buy the food they need without a proper job.
No everything is negative about GR. In my opinion is a great idea, because it helps the production of crops in a world that is becoming more and more urbanized and the fact that we have methods to multiply the crops give us a peace of mind. Also the multiplication of these crops helps feed a lot of children in many parts of the world that are not getting lots of food. I agree with Dr. Sicular that instead of inventing something new, we should use what we have now and try to improve it. We have a lot of ground to improve on. For example the health and pesticide problems and developing new methods of multiplication like in the deserts. If something new is created it would add more problems to the ones we already have.
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