and this is way off topic, but this sort of thing really boils my blood. For those who aren’t bothered to read the article, a woman in India is blasting many modern farming practices and is pushing for organic farms in India. What I don’t think she understands is that the genetic engineering, fertilizers, and chemical pesticides of the green revolution tripled yields and increased food consumption and life expectancy among the world’s poor by decades. Yes, there are health concerns regarding pesticides that have inspired the whole organic farming trend. There are even organic weed control solutions being developed to increase crop yield while still keeping organic.
My argument is not pro or con on certain farming practices, I am more concerned on the economic impact. Some of us are rich enough to start worrying about the side effects of chemical plant treatments – as rich people should. Not everyone has the budget to start a vertical farm or 3D seaweed growing operation. India is simply not rich enough to cover the increased cost that organic farming has. Many people are poor and the price difference between an organic and inorganic product is a more critical difference to us than them. And this woman is pushing organic farming for India?
Furthermore, where is she going to get the land? She’s an elitist crank. Meanwhile here’s the NYT obituary of Norman Borlaug. And here’s data from irri.org on Indian rice yields, per hectare. You can see the green revolution regression discontinuity in the raw data.
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