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Brazil’s ‘Green Revolution’: Economic growth at any cost
photo by meiaponte farm (Flickr CC)
The original Green Revolution was essentially a Cold War tactic of the United States to win over Third World countries by supplying them with agricultural technology, thereby dramatically increasing their food production. The main recipients of Green Revolution techniques were India, Mexico and the Philippines, as well as some African countries (with markedly less success).
Although the Green Revolution increased food production, it has its drawbacks and criticisms: unsustainable population growth – leading to mass starvation; genetically weak and less biodiverse monoculture farming – meaning crop failures are more likely, requiring more chemical pesticides to compensate for this risk. Monoculture is also a profit-driven, industrial farming model. It is dependent on trade, industrial fertilizers and chemicals, intensive water usage, transportation and even globalization. Traditional polyculture, on the other hand, evolved to serve the complete needs of local populations.
Brazil is currently in the throws of its own Green Revolution, with monocrop agriculture taking over vast amounts of biodiverse regions such as the Amazon and the Cerrado. The Cerrado accounts for 21% of Brazil’s land and whopping 5% of the Earth’s entire biodiversity, yet it is rapidly being converted into industrial soya and eucalyptus plantations.
From the Telegraph:
The Cerrado is rich in biodiversity and yet, alarming[ly], it has almost halved in size since, because of wild fires and the demand for agricultural products. If we’re going to stop the loss of biodiversity, we need to protect our forests – which house the majority of the world’s wildlife. We won’t succeed in tackling climate change unless we deal with deforestation.
–Caroline Spelman, UK Environment Secretary
The Green Revolution, whether as an American anti-communist measure or as a method of ‘economic growth at all costs’ in Brazil, is by no means ‘Green’. While its economic benefits are clear – albeit short-sighted – pollution, human rights issues, biodiversity loss, the loss of carbon sinks and risks of sustainability, in terms of population and local communities’ ability to feed themselves, make it seem like a very bad bargain in the long run.
Watch photographer Peter Caton’s excellent audio slideshow ‘Disappearing Cerrado: Brazil’s untold environmental disaster’ in the Guardian for more.
Tags: biodiversity, Brazil, Cerrado, farming, Green Revolution, monoculture
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Yup! Thanks for the local input.
http://countrystudies.us/philippines/62.htm
Looks like the Green Revolution didn’t work out so well in the Philippines in terms of rice.
I think that monoculture thing has been tried here but a lot of sector especially the agriculture took a stand, polyculture has been practiced here for so long..there are just some areas like ‘ Bukidnon’ which known for growing pineapples, ‘Davao’ for cacao, ‘zambales and ‘ Guimaras’ for mangoes…..Seriously if you’ll just study the history of the agriculture here in the Philippines you’ll be amazed that some of the tech-nics that most of the Southeast Asian nations as well as some of the Asian countries like Japan and India are using were learned here… All varieties of rice, corn , sugar cane are being studied in UP LOS BANOS in Laguna…Unfortunately those countries who learned from the Philippines like Vietnam, Laos,, Thailand already outgrew us in terms of the economy , and ironically often than not we import from those countries such as sugar and rice….coz sometimes especially when the country was hit by a typhoon Vietnam rice is cheaper to buy….I heard that Philippines will be the major supplier of Coconut in America, I just wish we will indeed benefit from it…