Section Three: Green Revolution Production Benefits Have Declined and Societal Costs
Increased The old Green Revolution was never very green. Since the 1940s, the fossil fuel-based Green Revolution has greatly increased the production of a few selected commodity grain crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans and rice, achieved through high-input,monoculture cropping practices. The unintended consequence of this Green Revolution experiment is that the focus on chemical crop fertility inputs, pest protection, and weed control has increased toxicity in the environment and degraded the planet’s finite soil and water resources (Khan et al. 2007).