The Green Revolution

Common Myths

Lets take a look at a couple of the more common myths surrounding the Green Revolution, with an attempt to bring to light the the truth regarding these particular situations.

Fact: Although the world population is growing and has undergone dramatic expansion with in the past few years, there is still ample food being produced to feed everyone. In fact there is a currently a surplus of food now since agriculture and governments are operating under the false assumption that there isn't enough being produced.

According to calculations based off of information provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization's 1992 FAO Yearbook vol. 46 there is enough food to provide everyone on earth with at least 3,500 calories a day!(1) It should also be noted that this figure does not account for some foods such as nuts, fish, and grass-fed meat. What can really be said to account for the amount of hunger in the world is a flawed system of distribution for food resources. Pursuit of profit and poorly implemented government regulations are the primary causes, not a food shortage.

Fact: Small farmers have been time and again shown to produce higher yield per unit of output than lager industrialized farms. The sheer quantity of output of large scale farms masks their inherent inefficiencies. The small farmer is more likely to take care in planting and harvesting their crops, as they are dependant upon them for their lively hoods. Also factors that are over looked by those suggesting that traditional methods are inefficient is that small scale farms are capable of growing server crops in conjunction with one another to make the most of their land.

But small farmers everywhere are increasingly becoming disadvantaged as governments and creditors give preference to large scale industrialized farms. The small farmer does not have the capital to invest into expensive farm equipment, chemical fertilizers, and water resources.(2)

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