By 2050, the human population of our planet could reach 10 billion people for the first time. That is a lot of mouths to feed and we currently don’t know if our planet can sustain that many people. There is a precedent, however, that we can look to for hope: The Green Revolution. In the days following the various wars of the 1940s, food was incredibly scarce in many parts of the world. There were severe famines and droughts which struck many nations, creating even more problems with the food supply. People were going hungry at record rates. Then the Green Revolution came along. By using new fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, farmers could produce better yields. Selective breeding practices, along with genetic modification, allows crops to produce more with fewer resources. This gave us food to eat. It also created a number of pros and cons to consider, as we were changing the very landscape of how we grow food. List of the Pros of the Green Revolution1. It allowed us to create a consistent food supply. 2. It creates cheaper consumer prices. 3. It gives us a chance to protect the environment. 4. It eliminates the need for fallowing. 5. It gives us predictability within the food supply. 6. It created more jobs. 7. It creates more harvests from a single field. 8. It encourages growth in multiple economic sectors. List of the Cons of the Green Revolution1. It creates the potential for environmental harm. 2. It has created high levels of food waste. 3. It creates resistance issues within the food supply. 4. It may create seed sterility in certain staple crops. 5. It comes with a financial cost. 6. It has changed the emphasis of farming. 7. It can change the land. 8. It only creates positive impacts in difficult climates. The pros and cons of the Green Revolution give us hope for the future. We still have challenges to face when working to stop hunger, such as improving our food distribution networks. There are legitimate concerns about soil health to consider as well. We solved this problem once. We can solve it again. |