Agriculture: Issues and Solutions

Issue #1: LDC’s reliant on MDC’s MDC’s had positive intent when sharing technology with LDC’s so that they could produce more food… but there were unintended consequences. What is this called? “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat forever.” (or he will just be reliant on you and will need to purchase expensive seed and fertilizer from you )

The Third Agricultural Revolution Green Revolution is the sharing of agricultural science and technology…MDC’s to LDC’s. 1930s: agricultural scientists in the American Midwest began experimenting with technologically manipulated seed varieties to increase crop yields. Norman Bourlag develops a higher yield wheat. 1960s: the focal point of the Green Revolution shifted to India (IR8 is a patented GMO rice strain). 1982: IR36 (patented GMO rice strain) was produced, bred from 13 parents to achieve genetic resistance against 15 pests and a growing cycle of 110 days under warm conditions. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of Green Rev: Dwarf varieties: plants are bred to allocate more of their photosynthetic output to grain and less to vegetative parts. Planting in closer rows, allowed by herbicides (stronger plant), increases yields. Bred to be less sensitive to day length, thus double-cropping is more plausible. Very sensitive to inputs of fertilizer and water

Problems with the Green Revolution Heavy Use of Fresh Water > Less available for human consumption. Dependent on technology and machinery from MDC’s Heavy Use of Pesticides and Fertilizer Reduced Genetic Diversity / Increased Blight Vulnerability (plants are “weaker”) (vaccine/antibiotics argument???) Questionable Overall Sustainability

Ethical Issues Starvation of many prevented, but extra food may lead to higher birth rates. (cycle of needing to provide more) Dependency on core countries increased (chemicals and equipment); rich-poor gap increased. (soil changes) Wealthy farmers and multinational companies do well, small farmers can’t afford to keep up. (“Wal-mart” farming) U.S. spends millions a year on farm subsidies, damaging farmers and markets in LDCs. (govt debt)

Issue 2: Drug Crops/Narco-agriculture in LDC’s causes less food to be grown. Drugs are a highly profitable crop for a farmer in an LDC to sell to (illegal) markets in an MDC. Examples: Opium/heroin in Asia Cocoa leaf/cocaine in South America Marijuana Latin America Drug crops cause other issues with regard to crime and instable governments. Farmer in LDC doesn’t care about legality in the MDC. Difficult to stop… why would a farmer in an LDC plant corn for a profit of $100 when he could plant opium poppies for a profit of $1,000???? He wouldn’t.

Solution: Make food agriculture more profitable Give subsidies to farmers who produce food in drug crop areas. Fair trade coffee, tobacco, sugar, etc. so that the farmer makes more of a profit. A paper trail to prove no unethical practices (child labor, slave labor, poor treatment) have gone into this product, a “seal of approval” Urge governments in LDC’s to crack down on narco-agriculture, cut out corruption