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green revolution 
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Thu Nov 03, 2011 at 17:24:13 PM PDT
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I recently read The Philippines: The Political Economy of Growth and Impoverishment in the Marcos Era, which provides a very readable expert economic analysis of what happened following the Green Revolution in the Philippines. Based on what I saw while I was there, the author hit the nail on the head - and sadly, little has improved for the poor since Marcos left in 1986.
What follows is more of a summary of what I learned in the book than a book review. I've included page numbers of each quote and fact as references. This is part one of two. It focuses on the impact of Green Revolution rice and land reform. The second part will cover foreign debt, logging, and export crops.
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Sat Apr 16, 2011 at 20:35:50 PM PDT
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Troubled Harvest: Agronomy and Revolution in Mexico, 1880-2002 by Joseph Cotter is on a crucially important topic and, unfortunately, it's not a very well-written book. The author did absolutely extensive research and succeeds in providing details I have not found anywhere else. However, my major complaint is that much of the book is written as strings of disjointed facts of minute examples (such as the number of Mexican agronomists who graduated in a given year). Here's an example of what I mean by that:
Green Revolution technologies had their greatest impact in the northwestern irrigation districts, but by 1950 the Corn Commission had promoted hybrids in 9 states, and the MAP had conducted experiments in 19 and distributed new seed in 22 and over 100 kilograms of it in 10. By 1949 the MAP conducted corn research at Chapingo, Celaya, Guadalajara, and Morelos; worked on hybrids for the tropics; and tested wheat in Chapingo, Sonora, and La Laguna. Responding to commercial farmers and other interests, the MAP studied seed potatoes, safflower, an African oilseed, insect pests of tomatoes, potato diseases, soybeans, and sorghum. - p. 194
MAP stands for Mexican Agricultural Program, which is the name of the Rockefeller Foundation project in Mexico that was the start of what later became known as the Green Revolution. The author also constantly brings up names of individuals, often by their last names only, without explaining who they are.
To be fair, the author did all the research and most of the writing and then dropped dead at the age of 46 just before the book was completed. Someone else had to finish it for him. And if that isn't enough, the footnotes are written in a frustrating format, in which several pieces of information are grouped together into one footnote which lists several sources. Since many of the sources are at the Rockefeller Archives and thus impossible to get unless you go to New York, it's very difficult to determine which fact or quote comes from which source.
The book is full of useful nuggets of information, certainly worth reading, but frustrating. A summary of the first part of the book follows below.
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Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 02:30:50 AM PDT
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In this diary, I'd like to continue summarizing the book Foundations of International Agricultural Research: Science and Politics in Mexican Agriculture by Bruce H. Jennings, which is essential for anyone seeking to understand the Green Revolution.
In previous chapters, Jennings examines the Rockefeller Foundation in general and then their work in Mexican agriculture from 1940-1950 (see Part 1 and Part 2 of this series). In this chapter, he takes on their work in Mexico from 1950-1960. A summary of his findings follows.
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 at 13:01:37 PM PDT
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In this diary, I'd like to continue summarizing the book Foundations of International Agricultural Research: Science and Politics in Mexican Agriculture by Bruce H. Jennings, which is essential for anyone seeking to understand the Green Revolution.
Following the chapter in which Jennings examines the Rockefeller Foundation in general (see Part 1 of this series), he takes on their early work in Mexico. A summary of his findings follows.
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 at 00:24:47 AM PDT
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Perhaps not surprisingly, gaining a full understanding of the Green Revolution involves understanding the institutions and figures that began it: Henry A. Wallace, the United States government, the Mexican government under President Manuel Ávila Camacho, and the Rockefeller Foundation. And if you want to understand the Rockefeller Foundation and its activities in Mexico, you ought to read Foundations of International Agricultural Research: Science and Politics in Mexican Agriculture by Bruce H. Jennings.
This book, published in 1988, is cited by many papers and books about the Green Revolution, and yet it's nearly impossible to find. Fortunately, I located a copy in PDF which I am happy to share. (While perhaps that counts as violating copyrights, I think that it's significant that few, if any, of us could locate this book and pay for it if we wanted to.)
I've written a summary of the book's chapter 2 below. Future diaries on the book will follow.
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Sat Feb 19, 2011 at 13:44:45 PM PST
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If you follow this blog, you know about the recent efforts to have a "Second Green Revolution." The word "Green" in Green Revolution has NOTHING to do with environmentalism. It just means that a lot of chemicals and hybrid or GE seeds will make fields of green plants grow. Over the past several weeks, there's been a new round of pro-Second Green Revolution campaigning in some major publications. I'd like to juxtapose them here with a piece by the Rodale Institute on having an Organic Green Revolution and a second piece by Eric Holt-Gimenez of Food First about corporate efforts to solve world hunger.
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