What Was the Green Revolution?

In mankind’s ancient history, up until civilization emerged about 12,000 years ago, our primary food sources were meat and fish. This high-protein diet was necessary to sustain human growth and power our unusually large brains. Other foods, such as berries, nuts, and roots, served as small snacks to tide us over between meat-based meals.

After a time, agriculture began to take off, allowing us to exploit the nutrient sources in plants far more effectively than mere gathering would allow. Today, grains supply 70% of the food energy that feeds humanity. In the mid 20th century, farmers were already exploiting about 10% of the earth’s landmass for growing crops, and further expansion seemed doubtful, as the new lands have poor characteristics for farming. The only alternative was to increase yields on the farmland we already had.

In the decades after WWII, we developed techniques to permit higher crop yields, significantly increasing worldwide food production and allowing our global exponential population growth to continue unhindered. The two main fields that experienced rapid advancements were plant genetics and synthetic fertilizers. These advancements and their consequences are so significant that they were given a name: the green revolution.

As part of the green revolution, synthetic fertilizers were mass produced using new nitrogen-fixation techniques, mainly derivatives of the Haber-Bosch process. In the Haber-Bosch process, atmospheric nitrogen is processed into usable fertilizer at high temperatures and pressures. This released our dependency on preexisting sources of fixed nitrogen, such as bat guano, which had to be exported all over the world from South America prior to synthetic fertilizers. The green revolution changed all this.

Beginning in the mid-1940s, botanists experienced breakthroughs in their understand of plant genetics and began to breed strains of wheat that vastly increased production. Mexico alone experienced a threefold growth in wheat production between 1944 and 1964. The 1970 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Norman E. Borlaug for his work on increasing crop productivity. In the 1960s, the so-called “miracle rice,” IR-8, was planted worldwide, allowing rice production like never before - the green revolution.

Part of the advantage of these new plants was that they flowered more easily than previous strains. Wheat and rice require a certain number of light hours per day – called the photoperiod – in order to flower and begin producing grain. New strains developed as part of the green revolution decreased the necessary sun exposure per day, allowing crops to be planted and harvested more quickly, and in a wider range of climactic and seasonal conditions. These advances particularly benefited the poorer nations of the world, who lack advanced agricultural technology but have ample farmland to plant any seeds available on the world market. These nations benefitted the most from the green revolution.

The Green Revolution refers to a period, primarily from the 1940s to the late 1960s, when significant advancements in agricultural science led to increased crop yields worldwide. It involved the development and adoption of high-yield crop varieties, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and improved irrigation methods, transforming food production, particularly in developing countries.

The Green Revolution was significant because it helped to alleviate hunger and prevent famine in many parts of the world. By dramatically increasing food production, it supported rapidly growing populations, especially in Asia and Latin America. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, global cereal production tripled between 1961 and 2014, partly due to these innovations.

Key technologies of the Green Revolution included the development of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of crops such as wheat and rice. These HYVs were often more responsive to fertilizers and required controlled water supply, leading to the widespread adoption of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation systems to maximize agricultural output.

One of the main figures behind the Green Revolution was Norman Borlaug, an American agronomist whose work on developing high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. His contributions, along with those of many scientists and institutions worldwide, were pivotal in the movement's success.

Criticisms of the Green Revolution include its environmental impact, such as soil degradation, water shortages, and loss of biodiversity due to reliance on monoculture practices. Additionally, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has been linked to health problems and ecological damage. Socially, it also widened the gap between wealthy landowners and poor farmers, as the latter could not always afford the new technologies.

Yes, the Green Revolution had a lasting impact on global agriculture by setting the stage for modern farming practices. It demonstrated the potential of scientific research to enhance food security and influenced agricultural policies worldwide. However, it also highlighted the need for sustainable practices, leading to the current focus on environmentally friendly and socially equitable food production methods.