Plant. Biology
Term Paper
The Green Revolution: What Lies Beyond
Summary
As a result of rapid population increase, the world today is facing a threat of massive famine. In the 1960s, the globe prematurely heralded the solution to feeding the growing number of people. Dr. Borlaug's development of high-yielding wheat varieties was seen as the ultimate solution to solving the world hunger. However, the "Green Revolution," as the enormous yield increases in crops were tagged, also introduced a problematic high-intensity farming, which is adversely affecting the environment to this day. Moreover, the Green Revolution is no longer able to keep up with the growing population. Thus new approaches to farming and the development of new technologies are necessary in order to sustain the human population in the future. The new methods in agriculture discussed here, include the use of old and new biotechnologies: plant breeding and genetic engineering. Also discussed are alternative farming strategies that can reduce the harmful effects on environment, while sustaining high crop yields.
Introduction
The growth of human population is becoming unsustainable to earth's resources, most importantly food resources. The solutions provided by the Green Revolution are only temporary, as the population growth is outracing the amount of food produced by high-yielding crops. Moreover, the high-intensity farming, which requires intensive use of fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, and irrigation, is heavily polluting the environment and destroying the fertility of the soil. Thus new methods of food production are needed to manufacture enough food for future generations, and maintain the usability of land. Several references from books and journal articles were used to investigate the problems presented.
Discussion.
The human population today is growing at a rapid rate, which soon promises to outrace the earth's capacity fo...