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With the rapid growth of our global population pouring into the next millennium, we will witness an ever-growing hunger rate around the world. The Green Revolution which already sprouted in the early part of the century, only needs to add a bit more momentum and we will see a bright future for the human race, a future without hunger and starvation- hopefully. Citizens believe that the miracle seeds of the Green Revolution will enhance grain yields and therefore are a key to ending world hunger. Higher yields mean more income for unfortunate farmers, helping them to get out of poverty and more food means less hunger. Although the new seeds helped tens of millions of extra tons of grain a year harvest, the Green Revolution has not actually proven to be a successful strategy for ending the worlds food supply issue. With these fertilizers our world economy and small farmers do much better and they provide us with good nutrition, although they do cause sicknesses and diseases.
Our own health is also being threatened by the use of chemicals and pesticides. Genetically engineered food is not the answer to the worlds food supply problem and it will not end world hunger. The Green Revolution of the 60 s and 70 s goal was to increase the number of crop production so that more food would be supplied for hungry people of the developed Countries. A majority of the food produced was exported as cash crops, so that local diet did not always improve. In terms of production, the green revolution was initially successful in South East Asia. India doubled its wheat yield in fifteen years and the rice yield in the Philippines rose by 75 %.
This issue tended to benefit primarily those landowners who could afford the investment necessary for such intensive agriculture. With out a dosage of 70 - 0 kg/ 154 - 198 lb of expensive nitrogen fertilizers per hectare, the high yields will not grow properly. Hence, rich farmers tended to obtain bigger yields while small holders were unable to benefit from the new methods. The World Watch Institute argues that if one tried to calculate the hidden costs associated with intensive agriculture, they would sum to numbers like $ 112 per hectare in the United States, $ 337 per hectare in the United Kingdom, and $ 274 per hectare in Germany. These estimates are based on costs such as removing pesticides from drinking water, repairing damage to rivers, and roads, etc which is caused by soil erosion, air pollution, dealing with illnesses such as mad cow disease, and so forth. As well as drinking water, pesticides can be absorbed through the skin and lungs.
The World Health Organization expects poisonings to increase as pesticide use in developing countries, now concentrated on cash crops, rice, cotton and coffee. Varieties with nicknames like Super Soybean and Magic Maize invented with private patents in capitalist countries are fine for the rich mans plate, but do not help many poor world farmers grow traditional subsistence crops. Pesticides should not be viewed as the only answer to a pest problem. Pesticides would not be overused if farmers had the proper knowledge of how to use them. The Green Revolution may be providing a large amount of crops to help prevent starving people. However, the fertilizers that are put in the soil and the grass to produce these crops are threatening our health and killing thousands of animals and insects.
The pesticides are getting into our drinking water and are causing some serious health problems. A common used herbicide named Atrazine is also showing up in the United States and Europe's water as well. Between 4, 000 and 19, 000 people die each year in developed and developing countries. Diseases such as cancer, dermatitis, nervous disorders, liver and kidney disease and gastritis are occurring due to the use of these pesticides that are being used to grow our vegetables and wheat. A common used Herbicide has been detected to cause Non-Hodgkins lymphatic cancer. I dont think that it is worth it to be using all of these pesticides and fertilizers if it is killing and causing these large amounts of health problems.
Why cant farmers just let natural predators help fight the pests that are diminishing the amount of crops in the farmers fields? This way it is not costing them anything so they stay financially stabled and its not damaging or hurting the environment. Beyond the Green Revolution, there is now an ever green revolution using eco-farming techniques aimed at bridging the ever-widening gap between man and nature. Keeping chemical fertilizers and pesticides at bay, organic agriculture ensures quality agricultural produce and helps sustain the ecological balance of the region. This has been assisting thousands of farmers produce coffee, tea, cardamom, white and black pepper and lemon grass without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These products are the two highest qualities and have excellent repute in the international market where there is a need for organically grown crops.
The Green promise is to provide a support system for a poison and chemical free environment. This way it will help enhance human health and reduce rural poverty. Not only are humans and farmers crops affected by the use of pesticides, but also wild life takes the most beating. One to two million birds die in a year thinking that the small pebbles lying in the fields are food. All this can be put to an end by stopping the use of pesticides and fertilizers on farmers crops and fields. In conclusion, if the history of the Green Revolution has taught us one thing, it is that it has not yet solved our worlds food supply problem, and it is now causing other un-needed problems.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for the planet to support its overwhelming population. Since the amount of arable land available is becoming scarce, we must seek ways to dramatically improve crop yields of existing cropland. We do not have much time and room to speculate on this issue. The turn of the century is approaching quickly and so is overpopulation. What we should be speculating on is how the development process proceeds not should it precede. The Industrial Revolution altered the world one step ahead.
The Green Revolution will take the next. I do feel strongly about the starving people and how the farmers are only doing their jobs to double or triple the amounts of crops in a year are very important. The only down fall to all of this is that it is killing off other things that are important to our society. Our world right now is over-populated as it is, so I feel that there will always be starving people out there, and that we should not be wasting all the good stuff in life to make up for the worlds food supply problem. So there for I do not think that the Green Revolution is the answer to this problem. It can be resolved and fixed by many other different alternatives.
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Research essay sample on Green Revolution Chemical Fertilizers
