Page 54 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

green revolution 873

A Mixed Legacy helped fuel industrialization. In other countries it merely
Opponents and proponents alike admit that the benefits increased the urban slum-dwelling poor. Internationally,
of the Green Revolution are unevenly spread.Wealthier South Korea, China, India, and Mexico reduced or elim-
farmers with dependable access to water and credit pros- inated food dependence, and India became a net food
pered, whereas those farmers who skimped on fertilizer exporter. Other nations did not fare so well: Until 1981
and irrigation because of the extra costs did not do well, the developing world was a net exporter of food; after
and their yields were no greater than before. Agrochem- 1981 it was a net importer.
ical industries, banks, large petrochemical companies, Although India is the Green Revolution success story,
manufacturers of agricultural machinery, dam builders its Punjab region has experienced all of the revolution’s
and large landowners have been major beneficiaries.The negative ecological and social consequences, and Indian
social results in the United States and elsewhere have children are suffering from a vitamin A deficiency that is
been a reduction in the number of small family farms, the causing blindness in forty thousand children a year. Enthu-
concentration of agricultural wealth in fewer hands, grow- siasts of the new “Gene Revolution” report that scientists
ing social inequality, and migration to cities. In the case are genetically altering rice so that it contains beta-carotene,
of Taiwan, South Korea, and Indonesia, producing more which enzymes in the intestine convert to vitamin A
food with fewer people and the exodus of people to cities when needed. Critics argue that vitamin A deficiency is

Graffiti on a wall in Venice, Italy, in 2003 attacking biotech food.