5. Food Flashcards
1
Q
What was the Green Revolution?
A
- Use of science and technology to improve wellbeing
- Western counties introduced series of agricultural developments to global South from 1940s
- Started by Rockefeller in Mexico, then to Latin America, then South Asia, along with support of US government and Ford Foundation in the 50s and 60s
- Aimed at increasing productivity of maize, rice and wheat by improving seeds, fertilisers and pesticides
- Introduced high yield hybridised seeds
- Improved irrigation and there was modernisation of labour management
2
Q
Who was Norman Borlaug and how did he contribute to the Green Revolution?
A
- Developed glue to keep delivery boxes sealed in WWII
- Then worked on collaboration project of USA and Mexico to increase Mexican wheat yield
- Produced several new varieties of wheat eg. two season in ten years
- Was invited to speak in India and Pakistan, and after some reluctance due to cultural differences, agreed
- This occurred against the background of Ehrlich’s Population Bomb
- In the 1960s, Borlaug imported high yield grain to India and Pakistan, saving many from starvation, and won the 1970 Nobel Prize
3
Q
Describe the mixed legacy of the Green Revolution.
A
- Saved people from starvation
- Borlaug hypothesis: it’s better to change species than engage in deforestation
- Emphasis on population growth rather than social inequality
- Biology is better than social science as it has resulted in tangible progress
- Destroyed traditional agricultural lifestyle with creation of monocultures
- Intensive farming encouraged emphasis on capital, labour and chemicals
- Widened social inequality as early uptake areas are now very wealthy
- Roads negatively impact ecosystems
- Trading towns became major cities
- Brought about nutritional issues and risk associated with GMO
4
Q
What were Jon Harwood’s criticisms of the Green Revolution?
A
- Ignored social and ecological impacts
- Green Revolution did not reduce rural poverty
- More appropriate for commercial farming than small farms in the developing world
- More hunger developed, just in different places
5
Q
What did the critical literature of the 1970s-90s reveal about the Green Revolution?
A
- Droughts led to hunger
- Programmes should be decentralised and farmers better organised to fight for their livelihood rights
- Foreign experts ignorant of managing local farming and relied heavily on science, leading to questions about how to transport food when fossil fuel prices increased
- Local elites we often beneficiaries of programme due to admin arrangement and profited from money intended for communities
- State sponsored assistance had been available, but then ignored post WWII and relied on foreign aid instead
6
Q
How did the emphasis on profit open the Green Revolution up to criticism?
A
- Profit only if technology implemented on large scale
- Multinationals make no profit on smallholder sales
- Agricultural science increasingly controlled by multinationals
- USAID and the World Bank would only provide aid to developing countries if their own government was not providing sufficient help
- LEDCs slashed aid and power of local governments reduced
- The U.S. government used this as a way of manipulating the political and social state of these countries
- Food convinced the US to fund more involvement in developing countries
- The World Bank’s credit approval was dependent on farmers adopting new technologies and particular crops, buying insurance and selling to specific buyers ie. money donated must go to people who will generate profits for multinationals eg. seed producers
- Some believed that the Green Revolution was a fix for stopping potential communist revolution, as the number of hungry began to rise
- Borlaug responds that it is about helping people, however no one is independent of political influence
7
Q
How did the Green Revolution lead to the Gene Revolution?
A
- More science can fix Green Revolution problems
- Breeding resistant plants means fewer pesticides can be used
- This is carried out by genetic engineering in the lab
- This is small-scale compare to the Green Revolution
8
Q
What are the benefits of GMO’s?
A
- Increase in production, nutrition and better taste
- Can produce environmentally resistant plants
- Mess dependence on pesticides
- Grow faster
- Desirable traits for example potatoes that absorb less fat
- Overall economic benefit as food lasts longer
9
Q
Why have GMO’s been controversial in recent years?
A
- As globalisation occurs transnational companies become more powerful and some countries and so ignore regulations
Two. In 2003 botulinum resistant caterpillar was found eating GMO botulinum crop cotton, in other words adaptation occurred - 2011 – Bt toxins found transferred to fetus in pregnant women
- 2012 – Paul François won a legal battle against Monsanto for use of roundup pesticide
- Could beconsidered reflexive modernity as should be beneficial but is now creating problems we must deal with
- World hunger is worse than ever
- Is scientific reasoning really better than non-scientific reasoning?
10
Q
Why have GMO’s been criticised?
A
- Undermine food security as GMO is outcompete other crops and lead to extinction of original species
- Unpredictable health effects
- Decreased food quality
- Agricultural communities are dependent on global companies
- Destroy native agricultural practices
- Incentives for patenting and privatising
11
Q
What food security issues are we currently facing?
A
- Lack of food due to population growth and increased demand due to growing middle classes in developing countries
- High prices
- Public health issues relating to quality and nature of food eg. malnourishment and obesity
- Climatic variability and climate change leading to an increase in the necessity of agricultural zoning
- GMO and related heal risk
- Politics of food waste
- The future of farming and rural areas
