784 



Technological Opporty/nities Opened hy Plmxt Genetics 



The hopes of the world that the food/population crisis might be 

 nearer a solution were raised considerably with the advent of the 

 "Green Revolution." The Green Revolution has been defined by Bar- 

 bara Ward Jackson as "the new farm technology based on hybrids, 

 v\ ater, and fertilizer which can double and treble food and work for 

 the Avorld's developing peoples." ^^ But Lester Brown, who has been 

 closely identified with the Green Revolution, warns that this "break- 

 through" "foreshadows widespread changes in the economic, social, 

 and political orders of the poor countries." " 



The Green Revolution began in Mexico in 1943 with a cooperative 

 program between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican Gov- 

 cniincnt aimed at improving Mexican wheat production. A number 

 of years later the so-called "Mexican wheats" were developed, wheats 

 with a short stiff straw that could stand up with the added load of 

 grain resulting from the application of fertilizers. The first to produce 

 a sturdy short-stra wed wheat were actually the Japanese, and seeds 

 from their strains were brought back to the'United States, where they 

 were used in wheat-breedipg programs at Washington State Univer- 

 sity. World record yields were produced with these seeds in the ir- 

 rigated and high rainfall conditions of the Pacific Northwest. Even- 

 tually these strains were sent to the Rockefeller team in Mexico, where 

 further experimentation produced a variety of dwarf wheat adaptable 

 to a wide variety of growing conditions. The Mexican wheats began 

 tlie process of the Green Revolution in yielding redoubled harvests by 

 lesponding to water and fertilizers. 



Recocjnizing that rice, rather than wheat, is the staple of much of the 

 underdeveloped world, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations joined 

 to establish the International Rice Research Institute at Los Banos, in 

 the Philippines. Organized in 1962, the Institute produced results 

 within two years. Two strains, IR5 and IR8. also with a short, stiff 

 strav/, demonstrated that they too could hold a heavier yield without 

 falling over before the grain was ripe. Like the Mexican wheat, the 

 new rice when properly managed can double the yield of the old. It 

 is more responsive to fertilizer than the old rice seeds, and it has a 

 shorter growing cycle. IR8 matures in 120 days, whereas old varieties 

 took 150-180 days. This means there is time during the year to plant 

 an extra rice crop, or some other crop altogether. Thus the potentiali- 

 ties of each acre of land throughout the rice growing area of the tropics 

 have been dramatically increased. 



The same cooperative program of the Mexican Government and 

 the Rockefeller Foundation which had developed the new high-yield 

 wheat applied the same methods to research on corn, another staple 

 food of the LDCs. Although less spectacularly successful than the new 

 wheat and rice, nevertheless corn yields have increased significantly. 



Successes of the Green Revolution 



Revolutionary increases in agricultural production resulting from 

 the introduction of the new varieties of wheat and rice have occurred 

 in many countries. Mexico, a country whose population has doubled 



-a Comment quoted on rear dust jacket of : Lester R. Brown, "Seeds of Change. The Green 

 ^^111".**°° *°*^ Developments In the 1970's" (New York, Praeger Publishers. 1970). 

 =" Ibid., page 6. 



