"We can feed the world," Norman Borlaug declares in a recent Wall Street Journal commentary. The Nobel Laureate advocates the 1960s "Green Revolution" of "high crop yields" through "chemical fertilizers, improved seeds and pesticides" on single-crop fields. By "improved" he means genetically engineered.
The alleged benefits of the Green Revolution are touted by Borlaug. But he does not consider its substantial costs and risks, some of which are hidden and unintended consequences. Small family farmers like myself question Borlaug's assumptions, which provide cover for industrial agriculture's problems, and the long-term impacts of
chemical farming.
"Today, we are faced with an...enormous task," Borlaug writes. "We must learn to produce nearly three times as much food for the more populous and more prosperous world of 2050, and from the farmland we are already using."
"Borlaug doesn't consider the long-term implications of his proposed solution," notes Eric Storm, the coordinator of the Sustainable Sonoma County group. "A better long-term goal would be a secure and sustainable food supply to feed a stabilized population. We need strategies that address the underlying causes. We must get our consumption and population under control. And we must do all of this without causing more problems than we solve," Storm contends.
The alleged benefits of the Green Revolution are touted by Borlaug. But he does not consider its substantial costs and risks, some of which are hidden and unintended consequences. Small family farmers like myself question Borlaug's assumptions, which provide cover for industrial agriculture's problems, and the long-term impacts of
chemical farming.
"Today, we are faced with an...enormous task," Borlaug writes. "We must learn to produce nearly three times as much food for the more populous and more prosperous world of 2050, and from the farmland we are already using."
"Borlaug doesn't consider the long-term implications of his proposed solution," notes Eric Storm, the coordinator of the Sustainable Sonoma County group. "A better long-term goal would be a secure and sustainable food supply to feed a stabilized population. We need strategies that address the underlying causes. We must get our consumption and population under control. And we must do all of this without causing more problems than we solve," Storm contends.