The Green Revolution Had Many Causes and Consequences from 1945 to the Present Essay Example

in his Nobel Lecture of 1970, stated that the land is tired, worn out, depleted of plant nutrients causing the crop yields to be low and near starvation level. He said that the Green Revolution was their hope for the future. (Doc. 3, Doc. 4) The Green Revolution also brought competition. Chidambram Subramaniam stated that nations competed with each other to show that he was the best able to use the new technology. They competed especially with Punjab, and left it filled with discontent and violence. Around 1879, a newsletter published hat the Green Revolution created limited women’s wage-earning opportunities through mechanization, thus causing competition for women. (Doc. 5, Doc. 7, Doc. 8) Dr. Vandana Shiva stated that the Green Revolution had lead to reduced genetic diversity. The Guatemalan National Coordinating Committee of Indigenous Peasants said that the diversity of the native seeds was the heritage of the indigenous people at the service of all humanity, but the revolution sterilized and contaminated the seeds. They were upset to see the loss of their seeds. (Doc. 8, Doc. 10) Dr. Vandana Shiva also stated that the Green Revolution also caused water shortages.

There was times of severe drought and the revolution only caused conflicts over diminishing water sources. Intensive irrigation led to large-scale storage systems, centralizing control over water supplies and leading to local and interstate water conflicts. (Doc. 10) One of the social consequences of the Green Revolution was changes in lifestyle. The Human Development Report, issued by the government of the State of Punjab, India in 2004, states that one important social consequence of the Green Revolution was the disappearance of caste rigidities and the

emergence of the middle and rich peasants as the dominant peasantry in the state.

The traditional “extended family” was gradually replaced with the “nuclear family”. Mrs. Dula, the wife of a Mexican agricultural official stated in 1970 that there were never before seen houses with swimming pools in Mexico City. The people had so much money and the wives of these rich Mexican farmers would save up once a month to go shopping. (Doc. 9, Doc. 6) One additional document that would’ve been helpful in this analysis of the Green Revolution would’ve been a scientific and social representative of Europe to show the effects the Green Revolution had.

There were multiple representatives of India and the United States, but there weren’t any representatives of any part of Europe to say that the land was in bad condition or that there was any kind of famine. The Green Revolution had it’s share of benefits for different parts of the world, but it also had it’s negatives, such as diminishing water resources. The revolution was successful in providing more food, but it in turn damaged some more land. The Green Revolution also changed the way of living of the entire world. Nuclear families replaced the, once common, extended families.