Reviews for The Violence of Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics

The average rating for The Violence of Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-01-18 00:00:00 Charles Carpenter It feels like a scientific journal article, especially in the beginning. Very fact heavy, table heavy, and goes over the same ideas several times. As an environmental engineer some of these ideas and facts were obvious, but overall I appreciate the deep dive into the history of the green revolution beginning in about 1970 in Punjab. And given some of the references in the book, I'm sure these experiences can be extrapolated to the Philippines and Mexico and more. A good intersectional look at science as a whole, biotechnology and some overall trade and intellectual property laws we in the U.S. have. Criticizes the modern scientific thought on agriculture and other aspects of life.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-05-25 00:00:00 Paul Duncan First of all kudos to author for her unbiased ,courageous and intensified research on Punjab Agriculture. The complex intricacies and adverse consequences resulted from Green and Biotech revolutions were explained in layman terms . The primitive or indigenous farming was replaced by high responsive and over utilization of natural resources.Green revolution is meant to bring peace and better livelihood by increasing productivity and profits for farmers. Instead it encouraged monoculture , of course increased productivity by increasing input costs to buy fertilizers, pesticides and seeds. Hi-Bred seeds in Green revolution brought imbalance in Ecology, economy ,power and water disputes. Instead of balancing or taking into account of all kinds of aspects,GR(Green revolution) has only increased productivity by destroying soil fertility, plant's life style . In grand scheme of things, the way we do agriculture has been changed. We cannot find the actual primitive type of seeds today. MNC's had masked truth on the basis of increased productivity but not on profit margins. They have polluted eco-system and nature in very hellish ways that it takes decades to revert the effects. The lessons learned from GR helped policy makers to reduce the impact of Bio-tech revolution. Increasing productivity in staple foods makes us self dependent ,instead of relying on commercial crops like vegetables and fruits. Exploitation made by MNC's for their profits resulted in collapse of African countries and latin America.These countries promoted single crops and exported to industries/countries by reducing harvest of staple foods.This made them not only to Import staple food from other countries but also decreased demand for their production . Now-a-days altruistic farmer has been ripped off and thriving for survival .We all are obliged to fix this issue and save nature, food and next generations. It would have been more useful , if Author had concentrated on Indian Agriculture rather than on one state.While she was able to explain in laymen terms about the consequences of centralized agriculture, she failed to explain on how we can increase profit margins for Framers. I wouldn't agree with her view on negative impact of technology on farming. We have to use technology by balancing and undisruptive ways to other fields. There are few major methods to save farmers: 1. provide MSP for their produce 2. provide crop insurance during crop destruction from natural calamities. 3. supply continuous energy resources to farmers. 4. Revert farming methodology to prior 1965 ways (organic farming). Artificial intelligence can bring a huge change in the way farming has been done. We should make sure to decrease input costs and increase profit margins. Framers should not rely on labour. There should be innovative ways to make them self reliant on using energy (electricity) by introducing renewable energy sources . There should be technology to calculate resource consumption by plant basis and provide that data to farmers. This way, we can optimize water and electricity consumption. Instead of waiting for government to provide MSP, e-commerce websites like e-bay and Alibaba should be introduced in farming. At the end of the day introduction of technology or new methods should be cheaper and they should not disturb primitive cultivation.