Encyclopedia Entries
Questions of
Green Revolution.
Borlaug is credited with Mexico’s self-sufficiency in wheat production.
Some say his efforts in the 1960s to introduce genetically-modified seeds into agricultural production in Pakistan and India saved over a billion lives from starvation.
Others say this "green revolution" salted the earth, dropped water tables, poisoned land and water with chemicals, destroyed the genetic variability of major food crops, took farming away from the poor and turned it over to mechanized commercial farms and has set the stage for environmental disaster. Many more billions will die because of the short sighted introduction of genetically modified organisms
Reading
The View from Biotechnology Sector:
Norman Bourlag on The Promise of Biotechnology and the Threat of Antiscience Zealotry
The View from the Biodiversity Sector:
Vandana Shiva Globalization Causes Poverty
Writing available on the net
Commentaries
Pro
- The Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation (http://www.normanborlaug.org/)
- Curriculum Vitae (http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech_info/topics/borlaug/borlaug-cv.html)
- Forgotten benefactor of Humanity (http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jan/borlaug/borlaug.htm)
- Norman Borlaug: A Billion Lives Saved (http://www.aworldconnected.org/article.php/311.html)
Con
Vandana Shiva