An Introductory Entry: The Green Revolution

These days, when one thinks of technology, one thinks of the internet, information systems, networks, inventions, biotech, and the future. That is why it is also easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the use of technology to alleviate poverty is something new, that all these 21st century innovations now enable the chance for significant progress in the uphill climb against poverty. Though it is undeniable that there are certain possibilities that have only come into existence in the last couple of years (which indeed, future blog entries are likely to harp on), it is also interesting to note that the use of technology as a force against poverty has taken place for hundreds of years. In my opinion, there is no better example of this than in the field of agricultural technology.

The Green Revolution, which had its beginnings in the mid 20th century but continues have implications in numerous developing countries around the world, is believed to have saved hundreds of millions of lives from starvation. The use of programs in agricultural research and infrastructural development led to an agricultural transformation in major food crops, increasing worldwide food production significantly. There is a great article by the International Food Policy Research institute which summarizes the history, work, and debated legacy of the Green Revolution, ultimately concluding that, despite negative environmental impacts and non-universal success in different regions,

... the Green Revolution was a major achievement for many developing countries and gave them an unprecedented level of national food security. It represented the successful adaptation and transfer of the same scientific revolution in agriculture that the industrial countries had already appropriated for themselves. The Green Revolution also lifted large numbers of poor people out of poverty and helped many nonpoor people avoid the poverty and hunger they would have experienced had the Green Revolution not occurred. The largest benefits to the poor were mostly indirect, in the form of lower food prices, increased migration opportunities, and greater employment in the rural nonfarm economy.

The Green Revolution also was groundbreaking to existing schools of economic thought on issues of population growth: classical economists David Ricardo (whose models are still used today) and Thomas Malthus had both assumed technology as unchanging and constant, leading to views that population growth would outpace food production, resulting in famine/boom cycles. The Revolution illustrated that the application of modern science and technology led to an output in which food production actually increased faster than world population growth. Such a result illustrated that the world population was not constrained by food production (as previously thought), and so, at least theoretically, it should be possible to end famine. This sentiment and its implications are well illustrated by Nobel peace prize winner Norman Borlaug ("father of the Green Revolution") in a lecture in Oslo in 2000:

"I now say that the world has the technology – either available or well advanced in the research pipeline – to feed on a sustainable basis a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this new technology? While the affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra low-risk positions, and pay more for food produced by the so-called “organic” methods, the one billion chronically undernourished people of the low income, food-deficit nations cannot."