5 ms·

I 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

• epistasis 5y ago
  The 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 ago
    I 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.