| Recently, I had a piece up on Alternet called The Ploy to Promote Genetically Engineered Seeds and Pesticides to Poor Mexican Farmers Is Impoverishing Their Communities. Unlike my daily diaries of the trip, in this piece, I was more analytical about what I saw and what that means for the big picture of helping end hunger among subsistence farmers around the world. Specifically, I examined the Green Revolution technologies that are being pushed in the efforts for a Second Green Revolution.
This morning, I was pleased to see that Devinder Sharma linked to my piece on his blog. He added his own comments, with a damning editorial on the international push for another Green Revolution:
While the 2nd generation-environmental impacts of Green Revolution have played havoc with the natural resource base across continents, the destruction of the farm lands, and the plight of the dying farmers, is being hastily buried under the aggressive launch of the Second Green Revolution. To avoid the finger of suspicion pointing towards them, the international scientific community in collaboration with the agribusiness industry and the policy makers, are in a desperate hurry to create a smokescreen that hides the great tragedy.
I especially appreciated this line by him:
Those who promoted Green Revolution, it is now becoming clear, were not aware of the hidden design. The complete take over of agricultural research and education across the globe by the US land grant system came in handy to programme the scientific mindset. The USAID has to be admired the way it helped change the scientific brains to the virtues of the intensive farming systems as the only way forward.
Also linked to on his blog are a few other pieces worth reading:
1. Michelle Obama Can Lead a Global Movement for Organic Food
2. Feeding India is Becoming a Difficult Task |
