Kuka ylläpitää myyttiä vihreän vallankumouksen epäonnistumisesta?

[Heikki Jokipii]

Tämä lyhyt kiistakirjoitus sopii luontevasti tähän triidiin:

Viewpoint: Anti-biotechnology activists claim Western corporations ‘colonize’ the developing world. Here’s why they are wrong

Some crop-improvement projects, Golden Rice being the most prominent example, required the cooperation of Western biotech companies. African farmers also grow “local” varieties of corn that originated elsewhere in the world, but so what? This isn’t “colonialism” in any meaningful sense. The better term to use is “trade,” which has a long track record of making the world wealthier.

None of this negates the historic evils of colonialism or excuses the misdeeds of powerful corporations and nations. But the narrative that paternalistic Westerners have foisted unwanted technologies on the developing world is nonsense. It doesn’t square with the facts and, more importantly, offers no serious solutions to the genuine problem of food insecurity, which still affects more than 700 million people worldwide. Instead of calling Western corporations “colonizers,” let’s feed more people however we can.

Alimpana pylväikkö nälkäkuolemien historiallisesta kehityksestä.

[Heikki Jokipii]

Melkeinpä hän muistaa vielä, miten se oikein tapahtui:

JAYARAJ: Climate Change Transformed India into an Agricultural Superpower — Just Ask My Grandparents

My grandparents survived a nationwide famine in the 1960s that pushed many Indians into abject poverty. Little did they know then that they would go on to become farmers producing some of the best rice and coconuts on the planet.

Starting with purchases of small paddies, my grandparents supplemented income from professional occupations and other businesses with profits from rice and eventually invested in coconut farms. Their story is part of India’s agricultural revolution — a transformation partly made possible by the warmer temperatures and higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide of today’s climate.

According to researchers, poverty and a scarcity of food grains caused the famine of 1960-65, which had been preceded by many similar calamities that killed tens of millions over the centuries.

However, much changed in the 1970s when India’s government invited American agronomist Norman Borlaug to work alongside Indian scientists to introduce genetically modified crop varieties that were more resistant to diseases and produced higher yields.

Tai hän ehkä isovanhempiensa kertomuksista. Mutta minä muistan — tietysti seurasin asiaa täältä kaukaa — miten Intian nälänhätä tuolloin oli yleisen kauhistelun kohteena.

Mutta on ihmisiä — intialaisiakin! — jotka haluavat aktiivisesti unohtaa tuon vaiheen.

[Heikki Jokipii]

Tämä kirjoittaja näkee, aavistaa uuden Vihreän vallankumouksen:

A ‘New Green Revolution’ is brewing — just in time, as the world population breaks past the 8 billion mark

Ylistää vanhaakin:

Back in the 1960’s, the global population topped 3 billion—and many experts worried about the ability of farmers to improve their production and keep up. Enter Norman Borlaug, the agronomist who made it his mission to find a solution. In India, he worked with M.S. Swaminathan and M.S. Randhawa to develop new seed varieties, which gave a big boost to the yield and total production of cereals, especially wheat in India.

At a time when pessimists were ready to surrender in the war on hunger, Borlaug showed the power of human ingenuity to solve problems with science and technology. He went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements as an agronomist.