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Health impacts of the Green Revolution: A retrospective look.

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Syed Hasan at University of Missouri - Kansas City
Syed Hasan
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Abstract

The Green Revolution of the 1960s that helped alleviate world hunger during the following five decades has also left a horrible legacy of serious health and adverse environmental impacts in many developing countries. India was in the forefront of such countries to fully embrace the Green Revolution that greatly benefitted its agricultural output, providing food security; but the heavy reliance on use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has resulted in high incidence of cancer, hyperthyroidism, blue-baby syndrome, and birth defects in a sizable segment of the population, notably in the agricultural state of Panjab. Recorded cases of deformed babies, low birth weight, low cognitive abilities of school children are some of the additional health impacts that have affected two generations. The presentation draws attention to the horrible plight of innocent people, children included, who have been suffering because of hastily implemented policies by national governments in India and other developing countries, who were encouraged to adopt the Green Revolution by the chemical manufacturing corporations in the developed countries. While these countries themselves took steps to ban DDT from agricultural use, they were setting up factories in India and other countries to mass produce toxic agricultural chemicals that have been affecting people’s health, and contaminating the land and water supplies. A brief historical review of the Green Revolution, the toxicology of pesticides and other harmful farm chemicals and its impact on human and ecological health, using examples from India, are discussed in the presentation, along with a need for global assessment of the extent of damage and call for mobilizing international resources to minimize adverse impacts. The key question—whether this food security has been worth the toll it has taken in terms of human health and a degraded environment—begs deep reflection by one and all. Keywords: Green Revolution, pesticides, farm chemicals, cancer, birth defects.
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Health impacts of the Green Revolution: A retrospective look
Syed E Hasan
Professor Emeritus of Geology
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City MO 64110-2499, USA
hasans@umkc.edu
The Green Revolution of the 1960s that helped alleviate world hunger during the following five
decades has also left a horrible legacy of serious health and adverse environmental impacts in
many developing countries. India was in the forefront of such countries to fully embrace the
Green Revolution that greatly benefitted its agricultural output, providing food security; but the
heavy reliance on use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has resulted in high incidence of
cancer, hyperthyroidism, blue-baby syndrome, and birth defects in a sizable segment of the
population, notably in the agricultural state of Panjab. Recorded cases of deformed babies, low
birth weight, low cognitive abilities of school children are some of the additional health impacts
that have affected two generations. The presentation draws attention to the horrible plight of
innocent people, children included, who have been suffering because of hastily implemented
policies by national governments in India and other developing countries, who were encouraged
to adopt the Green Revolution by the chemical manufacturing corporations in the developed
countries. While these countries themselves took steps to ban DDT from agricultural use, they
were setting up factories in India and other countries to mass produce toxic agricultural
chemicals that have been affecting people’s health, and contaminating the land and water
supplies. A brief historical review of the Green Revolution, the toxicology of pesticides and other
harmful farm chemicals and its impact on human and ecological health, using examples from
India, are discussed in the presentation, along with a need for global assessment of the extent of
damage and call for mobilizing international resources to minimize adverse impacts. The key
question—whether this food security has been worth the toll it has taken in terms of human
health and a degraded environment—begs deep reflection by one and all.
Keywords: Green Revolution, pesticides, farm chemicals, cancer, birth defects.
Submit abstract by Jan 15 at: http://medgeo15.web.ua.pt/call-for-abstracts/
... Despite the global hype accorded to the green revolution in the late 1960s and 1970s 3 , the environmental and social costs of the rapid expansion and intensification of farming activity soon began to emerge. The spread of chemicals that accompanied green revolution high yielding varieties had a harmful impact on the environment and health (Hasan, 2015;Pimentel, 1996), as Rachel Carson's 1962 influential Silent Spring (Carson, 2000) had anticipated. Also, green revolution technological solutions were not scale neutral but benefited social groups and locations unevenly (Beck, 1995;Niazi, 2004). ...
Food politics and development
Article
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... 3 With organic methods, even resource-poor farmers can use fewer external inputs in to regenerate nutrient-deficient soils. The health impacts of conventional agriculture on Indian farmers are demonstrably clear (Hasan, 2015) and its disruption of local biodiversity has reduced agroecological tolerance to climate stresses (Hansen et al., 2018). Even still, various accounts of shifts to organic farming suggest it is no fail-safe for farmers: lower yields, pest outbreaks, insufficient safety nets, and improper resource management call for an integrated agricultural policy. ...
Ensuring climate resilience and social empowerment for Dalit farming communities in rural Tamil Nadu
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Feb 2019
From October – November 2018, Space2Live with its local partner organization Integrated Rural Development Society (IRDS) researched the relationship between Dalits’ land rights and land use under the context of climate change. In six villages – three villages where projects are running and three earmarked for pilot projects – villagers were asked about: a. perceived livelihood barriers, b. the availability and accessibility of credit and social support schemes, c. the effectiveness of government-sponsored work programmes, d. local knowledge and understanding of climate change, e. local opportunities for building resilience. Under increasingly insecure conditions for farmers in lower income countries, it is imperative that they are equipped with the necessary knowledge and tools to respond accordingly. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to assess the feasibility of integrating climate and development priorities under the same project framework. The study also looked at the effectiveness of Space2Live’s previous GPS technology and mapping software workshops to understand partnership and capacity constraints with IRDS. These objectives combined will better inform funders on priority issues the Dalit community is facing.
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