The New Green Revolution - Organic?

NPR has been running a series of remarkable reports by reporter Daniel Zwerdling on the course of the green revolution in India. His latest is on farmers who have gone organic, because they were exhausting their soils with fertilizers. He profiles one in the breadbasket of India, Punjab.

Green Revolution advocates have argued for decades that chemicals and intensive irrigation along with new seeds were needed to lift yields. But critics say that approach has meant more chemicals to keep yields up, the loss of biodiversity with concentrated seed supplies and dangerous depletion of water tables. Then there are troubling associations with higher cancer rates in areas where chemical use is rampant.

The approach by the organic farmer in Punjab is instructive. Following the Green Revolution dogma, he found he was depleting his soils and having to buy more and more chemicals. Since going organic, yields have been mixed; he is doing well with rice, less so with wheat. But he's only four years into it and it it often takes years to replenish depleted soils. Even more remarkable, 300,000 Indian farmers are with him, growing organically.

But the mantra of the green revolution is far from over -- indeed, it's as loud as ever  as evidenced by the Monsanto rep quoted in the piece. Fertilizers, seed breeding and intensive production are also being applied to Africa, where soil fertility is especially low. But what we haven't been hearing about are alternatives -- which is why this NPR report was welcome.

Here are links to the previous NPR reports in the series:

• May 11, 2009
  In Punjab, Crowding Onto The Cancer Train
• April 14, 2009
  'Green Revolution' Trapping India's Farmers In Debt
• April 13, 2009
  India's Farming 'Revolution' Heading For Collapse

- Samuel Fromartz

Image: Amarjit Sharma, a farmer in India's Punjab region, from NPR

Comments

[Lorrie King]

Thank you so much for posting this story and sharing the links. I have been following this series on NPR and have been thoroughly intrigued. The cancer implications sited are reminiscent of the public health affects of the tropical flower industry in South America. Sadly, it seems as though conditions will neither improve for farmers nor workers in these regions, as long as Monsanto and the like keep the dollar as the bottom line, far above human interest and biodiversity.

Lorrie
http://read-n-eat.com/