Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - Kootenay Local Agricultural Society

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increases in crop production. “If the high-yielding dwarf wheat and rice
varieties are the catalysts that have ignited the Green Revolution, then
chemical fertilizer is the fuel that has powered its forward thrust.” 9 In 1950
high-income countries in the developed world accounted for more than 90
percent of nitrogen fertilizer consumption; by the end of the century, lowincome
developing countries accounted for 66 percent.
In developing nations, colonial appropriation of the best land for export
crops meant that increasingly intensive cultivation of marginal land was
necessary to feed growing populations. New high-yield crop varieties
increased wheat and rice yields dramatically in the 1960s, but the greater
yields required more intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides. Between
1961 and 1984 fertilizer use increased more than tenfold in developing
countries. Well-to-do farmers prospered while many peasants could not
afford to join the revolution.
The green revolution simultaneously created a lucrative global market
for the chemicals on which modern agriculture depended and practically
ensured that a country embarked on this path of dependency could not
realistically change course. In individuals, psychologists call such behavior
addiction.
Nonetheless, green revolution crops now account for more than threequarters
of the rice grown in Asia. Almost half of third-world farmers use
green revolution seeds, which doubled the yield per unit of nitrogen fertilizer.
In combination with an expansion of the area under cultivation, the
green revolution increased third-world agricultural output by more than a
third by the mid-1970s. Once again, increased agricultural yields did not
end hunger because population growth kept pace—this time growing well
beyond what could be maintained by the natural fertility of the soil.
Between 1950 and the early 1970s global grain production nearly doubled,
yet per capita cereal production increased by just a third. Gains
slowed after the 1970s when per capita grain production fell by more than
10 percent in Africa. By the early 1980s population growth consumed grain
surpluses from expanded agricultural production. In 1980 world grain
reserves dropped to a forty-day supply. With less than a year’s supply of
grain on hand, the world still lives harvest to harvest. In developed nations,
modern food distribution networks typically have little more than a few
days’ supply in the pipeline at any one time.
From 1970 to 1990 the total number of hungry people fell by 16 percent,
a decrease typically credited to the green revolution. However, the largest
drop occurred in communist China, beyond the reach of the green revolu-
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