THE PARADIGM OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION NEEDS TO BE CHANGED, BUT WILL IT CHANGE?

 

Reading Tim Folgar’s article titled The Next Green Revolution was interesting to me because the location in the article is a neighbouring country to the country from which my parents originated from, and I have visited Tanzania once. Although I did not grow up in a rural area, the rural area where my father’s family comes from and I visited regularly is heavily reliant on cassava, due to the climate which is not as favourable to other African staple crops like corn.  I truly understood what Juma meant in the article when he said cassava is everything.

I completely agree with what the proponents of a different vision of agriculture have to say about genetically modified crops and share the same sentiments-that the expensive genetically modified crops are a costly input into a broken system.[1] The way Monsanto does not allow farmers to save seeds for planting in the next season, but to only buy patented crops instead is not user-friendly for the poorest farmers, who can barely afford the costs of inputs. As the proponents of a different vision of agriculture state, it is a broken system, and it benefits those that already have abundant resources while restricting those that face financial constraints.  Although World Food Prize Laureate Hans Herren rightly states that the paradigm of the green revolution needs to be changed in ways such as finding means of deterring pests and increasing yield that are user-friendly for people like Juma, whether it will change in the direction Herren talks about is uncertain due to the interests that corporations like Monsanto have. While it might seem that their main interest is to enhance food security, profit and financial gain are their topmost priority.  Having genetically modified crops that are resistant to a pesticide created by the same company is a sure way to maximise profits, and if profits are being made there is no incentive to those making the profits to change the system. It is encouraging that there are people like Hans Herren who have the welfare of the poor at heart, even establishing a non-profit (Biovision) that is focused on Sub Saharan Africa[2], and rightly so because the levels of human suffering in some communities are unacceptable. When ending food insecurity becomes the topmost priority for everyone, perhaps change in the direction that Hans Herren and other proponents of a different agriculture have in mind-change that is more mindful of the environment, a farming system that deviates from the current heavy input method of agriculture can take place. It will be good for every living organism on the planet if methods of agriculture that do not pollute the environment and are easily accessible to farmers. The works of non-profits like the IRRI, though controversial to many are commendable because they seek to combat food insecurity without the monetary incentive big corporations have and should be part of the new green revolution, without throwing caution to the wind.

 

-Wongani

 

REFERENCES

Folger, Tim. The Next Green Revolution, October 2014. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/green-revolution/

 

[1] Folger, Tim. The Next Green Revolution, October 2014. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/green-revolution/

 

[2] https://www.biovision.ch/en/about-us/who-we-are/strategy/

 

 

 

As a black person myself, I found the article by Aph Ko titled ‘3 Reasons Black Folks Don’t Join the Animal Rights Movement – And Why We Should’ to be intriguing. I knew that my approach to this blog would be to test the author’s views by applying it to a case of my own choosing.

Although I was born in Edmonton, from the age of five I grew up in a tiny Sub-Saharan African country. To be very honest, all the main animal conservationists were white people. Being an animal advocate was considered to be a “white people thing,” or in the local language, “za azungu.”

I personally found it interesting that the black people in the country I grew up in and the black people in the US have the same sentiments. I think one of the biggest reasons why black people think that way is not because we do not want to care about animals, but because we are overwhelmed by some unique problems. For example, at one point Western countries withheld aid from the country I was in, and a shortage of basic necessities such as medication and car fuel followed. People were queueing at gas stations from as early as 3AM till later in the evening. By the time one got the fuel, advocating for animals would be the last thing on one’s mind. White people were never on the queues as they could afford to send their employees. In addition, where I grew up, many people reared their own chickens or quails, or bought live chickens. When buying the chickens, everyone chose the chickens that seemed the healthiest, and so for most sellers it was particularly important that the chickens were well taken care of. Industrial scale animal exploitation such as electrocuting birds to lay eggs is unheard of. The chickens were not overcrowded and beaten in the manner depicted in the Meet your Meat video. That was despicable and I could not stomach the video.

I cannot speak for the black people who struggle to find food, lack money for education or shelter in the country I grew up in. In dire poverty, one’s survival is the priority. I know that those problems consume them, and for the poorest, having chicken or beef for dinner is a luxury. Many of those people are unaware of how badly animals are treated in certain societies. However, for those of us who are privileged to have the basic necessities of life and are aware of the cruelty animals face, there is no excuse. I strongly agree with the following statements by Will Kymlicka and Sue Donaldson: the idea that the treatment of animals could be invoked to support Western superiority is puzzling, given that the West is responsible for inventing and then diffusing the techniques of industrial‐scale animal exploitation, whereas many non‐Western societies have historically had more respectful relations with animals. Respect for animals is clearly not the exclusive property of any one race, culture, or civilization—and certainly not the West. (Kymlicka and Donaldson, 2014).

To sum it up, we all ought to care for animals. It should be a natural instinct.

 

RERERENCES

Ko, A. (2015), 3 Reasons Black Folks Don’t Join the Animal Rights Movement – And Why We Should. https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/09/black-folks-animal-rights-mvmt/

Kymlicka, W. and Donaldson, S. (2014), Animal Rights, Multiculturalism, and the Left. J Soc Philos, 45: 116-135. doi:10.1111/josp.12047