5 ms·
Put another way, one might say he borrowed from the future to save the present.
by lainga 5y ago
Put another way, one might say he borrowed from the future to save the present.
- rini17 5y agoI wouldn't put all the blame on him. Wouldn't be first or last time the narrowly efficiency-minded nerds and businessmen took a good idea and optimized it into a monster.
- epistasis 5y agoThe supposed alternative, changing distribution of food rather than production of food, was a political decision that was fraught with problems. Any nation without food security soon finds that it can lose all of its other security too. So for a lot of the criticism of the Green Revolution, which comes from a place of wanting a different political structure, but not yet being sure what that structure is, nerds like me see the "alternative" as not a real one. Politics could have saved India, but it did not, it was basic biotech and giving Indian farmers more productivity. If this is a "monster" I'd really like to see a less monstrous alternative proposed, with all the details specified. Because any alternative path sounds too monstrous to be considered by a humane being.
- rini17 5y agoI don't understand your political argument at all. Example of what I mean from Wikipedia: "Borlaug continually advocated increasing crop yields as a means to curb deforestation." This did not happen as the overproduction ended up as cattle feed and biofuel. And it isn't Borlaug's fault.