Moving Towards Modern Agriculture: The Green Revolution
Modern Agricultural Revolution
After World War II (WW II), advances in science led to a boom in cereal-grain crop production, called the Green Revolution. The massive increases in production were significant. Prior to WW II, it took a hundred years - between 1820 and 1920 - for agricultural production across the world to double. It only took 30 years for production to double worldwide during and after WW II (between 1920 and 1950), only 15 years to double after that (between 1950 and 1965), and then only 10 years to double again after that (between 1965 and 1975).WW II was a key step towards the Green Revolution, since the use of chemical warfare during the war led to the development of most of the agrochemicals that we have today. Along with the Green Revolution came the industrialization of the agricultural industry, which has led to the increased use of agrochemicals and genetic engineering for crop production, as well as the industrial containment of and the use of antibiotics and supplemental vitamins for livestock. Nowadays, 74% of the world's poultry, 43% of beef, and 68% of eggs are produced in factories where animals are contained in controlled conditions.
Limitations of the Modern System
The current large scale agricultural system is usually referred to as industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture is considered technoscientific, economic, and political in nature, and pressure to continuously innovate for increased production is maintained. It is argued that productivity must continue to increase in order to feed the continuously growing world population AND satisfy consumer demands (especially for more meat). Production, however, has not increased as it has in the past due to various factors such as land degradation, social and political conflicts, and economic market volatility.The push of industrial agriculture to lower costs and increase productivity comes with many consequences. In the next section, we will look at how fertilizers, pesticides, and now climate change have led to issues such as water pollution, pesticide resistance in pests and weeds, and changing conditions for crops.
One woman in the United States dedicated her life to waking up her nation and the world regarding the problems associated with industrial agriculture. Her work focused mainly on the consequences of using chemical pesticides such as DDT to eradicate insect pests. Her name was Rachel Carson and her work, “Silent Spring”, led to the establishment of governmental agencies such as the US's Environmental Protection Agency and Canada's Environment Canada to create better environmental norms and to enforce them.
