#greenrevolution — Public Fediverse posts

update on WIP industrial ag mega-zine:

i'm so deep in the weeds on the green revolution that i'm reading about the agrarian development model of C. Subramaniam, India's Food and Ag Minister from 1964-66:

"Subramaniam's agrarian model can be divided up in three components: the economic, the technological and the organizational. The economic component consisted in the view that price incentives would motivate farmers to produce more since it would be profitable to do so. Technology was required since acreage expansion had reached its limits, making production increases dependent on yields per acre. And organizational effort was needed because in order for the first two components to work, institutions had to be created for determining what the level of prices should be and how to implement them. Also necessary was a research and administrative structure that would generate or adapt appropriate, yield-increasing technologies and transmit them to farmers."

this is from a paper called "Ideas, Interest and Institutions in Policy Change: Transformation of India's Agricultural Strategy in the Mid-1960s" by Ashutosh Varshney, published in 1989.

this paper argues that it wasn't the technology of the green revolution per se that led to increased agricultural yields in india starting in the late 60s, but the state's reorientation of its agricultural policy to the goal of improving yields via technology and to the use of price policies to shape agriculture (over previous strategies which were more oriented around redistribution of land and creation of farmer co-ops).

i gotta say, as someone who gets interested in the complexities of how societies change, the green revolution is a fascinating (if exhausting) subject to research. the scholarship is bottomless, and i'm still only focused on india. the green revolution was different in every country that experienced it.

anyway, people say one is "in the weeds" as if one is lost, but most weeds i know need one to get down on the ground and pull them up by their roots if one wants to really get at the problem. so that's what i'm doing: really trying to understand.

while i'm researching, i'm thinking about what information i'll present in the zine and how it will be organized. currently, i'm thinking it might be interesting to have a spread that contrasts elements of the "standard story of the green revolution" with the actual complexities of each of those elements. examples of the elements of the standard story are claims like "there was famine in india before the green revolution", "india's agriculture before the green revolution was backward", "the green revolution increased agricultural yields", "the green revolution solved hunger in india", and "the US developed the improved wheat and rice varieties that were central to the green revolution in order to address global hunger." each one of those is an extremely complicated question with loads of scholarship that continues to this day. instead of trying to "prove/disprove" each claim, i think that instead i'll try to point to information that complicates the story to the point where the reader understands that the simplistic story is simply inadequate. we'll see.

(addendum: further elements of the "standard" green revolution story include less-obvious assumptions like "the government of india was bumbling and just sitting on its hands while its agriculture stayed stagnant" (extremely untrue - members of the government were extremely sophisticated actors who took their country's agricultural situation extremely seriously, and who had in fact already increased yields significantly since partition), and "america foisted the agricultural revolution on india" (also somewhat untrue - although the government *was* influenced by the west, it was very interested in the western agricultural program. it's possible to say that the system was foisted on india's farmers, but not on the government). other elements of the "standard" story: "indian agriculture was unchanged for centuries", and "indian peasants didn't know how to farm." anyway, i really want to challenge the major theme of the standard story, which is that "the poor, backwards indians were saved by the generous and technologically-advanced west.")

#research #GreenRevolution #agriculture #history #wip

update on WIP industrial ag mega-zine:

i'm so deep in the weeds on the green revolution that i'm reading about the agrarian development model of C. Subramaniam, India's Food and Ag Minister from 1964-66:

"Subramaniam's agrarian model can be divided up in three components: the economic, the technological and the organizational. The economic component consisted in the view that price incentives would motivate farmers to produce more since it would be profitable to do so. Technology was required since acreage expansion had reached its limits, making production increases dependent on yields per acre. And organizational effort was needed because in order for the first two components to work, institutions had to be created for determining what the level of prices should be and how to implement them. Also necessary was a research and administrative structure that would generate or adapt appropriate, yield-increasing technologies and transmit them to farmers."

this is from a paper called "Ideas, Interest and Institutions in Policy Change: Transformation of India's Agricultural Strategy in the Mid-1960s" by Ashutosh Varshney, published in 1989.

this paper argues that it wasn't the technology of the green revolution per se that led to increased agricultural yields in india starting in the late 60s, but the state's reorientation of its agricultural policy to the goal of improving yields via technology and to the use of price policies to shape agriculture (over previous strategies which were more oriented around redistribution of land and creation of farmer co-ops).

i gotta say, as someone who gets interested in the complexities of how societies change, the green revolution is a fascinating (if exhausting) subject to research. the scholarship is bottomless, and i'm still only focused on india. the green revolution was different in every country that experienced it.

anyway, people say one is "in the weeds" as if one is lost, but most weeds i know need one to get down on the ground and pull them up by their roots if one wants to really get at the problem. so that's what i'm doing: really trying to understand.

while i'm researching, i'm thinking about what information i'll present in the zine and how it will be organized. currently, i'm thinking it might be interesting to have a spread that contrasts elements of the "standard story of the green revolution" with the actual complexities of each of those elements. examples of the elements of the standard story are claims like "there was famine in india before the green revolution", "india's agriculture before the green revolution was backward", "the green revolution increased agricultural yields", "the green revolution solved hunger in india", and "the US developed the improved wheat and rice varieties that were central to the green revolution in order to address global hunger." each one of those is an extremely complicated question with loads of scholarship that continues to this day. instead of trying to "prove/disprove" each claim, i think that instead i'll try to point to information that complicates the story to the point where the reader understands that the simplistic story is simply inadequate. we'll see.

(addendum: further elements of the "standard" green revolution story include less-obvious assumptions like "the government of india was bumbling and just sitting on its hands while its agriculture stayed stagnant" (extremely untrue - members of the government were extremely sophisticated actors who took their country's agricultural situation extremely seriously, and who had in fact already increased yields significantly since partition), and "america foisted the agricultural revolution on india" (also somewhat untrue - although the government *was* influenced by the west, it was very interested in the western agricultural program. it's possible to say that the system was foisted on india's farmers, but not on the government). other elements of the "standard" story: "indian agriculture was unchanged for centuries", and "indian peasants didn't know how to farm." anyway, i really want to challenge the major theme of the standard story, which is that "the poor, backwards indians were saved by the generous and technologically-advanced west.")

#research #GreenRevolution #agriculture #history #wip

update on my WIP mega-zine about industrial ag:

i think i've had a good breakthrough in my research on the green revolution.

the book is called "Geopolitics and the Green Revolution: Wheat, Genes, and the Cold War" by john h. perkins.

he covers the scientific development of the dwarf varieties of wheat in USA, mexico, UK, and india; and the spread of these varieties that is commonly referred to as the green revolution.

he writes: "Between 1945 and 1955 a series of events, studies, and conceptual syntheses created a climate in the United States that saw plant breeding and all of the modern agricultural sciences as a critically important adjunct in the battle between capitalist freedom and the tyranny of communism."

he spells out the theory that they were operating under: "The American intellectual and political climate from 1945 to 1955 was critically shaped by the development of the cold war, a part of which included a theory that purported to link causally overpopulation, resource exhaustion, hunger, political instability, communist insurrection, and danger to vital American interests. As a convenient shorthand, the theory can be called the population-national security theory (PNST)." 🤯

i read that and i was like "yesssssss this is it".

he even made a nice little graphic (see below).

i've been reading a lot of primary sources, and PNST thinking was in a lot of them, but having a historian lay it out so clearly and succinctly is soooo helpful.

additionally, i found the full text of a speech by allen dulles (head of the CIA at the time) on "the communist challenge to free government." it's a rich example of the kind of paranoid thinking that was happening at the top of the US political structure at the time. in the speech, he asserts that communists are everywhere, trying to turn the various recently-decolonized peoples toward communism...soviets put out propaganda on the radio, via printed materials, and *secretly* via various unions and international associations, and via the world peace council.

he writes that communism is (of course) not very enticing to those of us in the free world, because of our material plenty and our forefathers' commitment to liberty or whatever. BUT, to a subject of a newly-decolonized nation, who is hungry and desperately trying to catch up to the modern world, communism is very appealing (supposedly). 🙄

the whole speech really helped me get inside the thinking that i think perkins would describe as PNST. i don't know if any quotes from the dulles speech will make it into the zine (if i have room, hopefully!), but it's still a really helpful primary source (i like a good primary source).

if you want to read the text of the dulles speech, it's available here: archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp62s00545a000100090040-3

as a bonus, i've included the cover of a publication called "man, land, and food", from USDA in 1963. yes, it shows a rough graphic of a naked black person holding up an empty bowl, with a graphic of the globe behind them. so yea, that's where these guys were at. they saw the recently decolonized peoples as a sort of undifferentiated mass of hungry mouths. extremely dehumanizing.

#USHistory #research #GreenRevolution #agriculture #ColdWar #AgriculturalScience #USPol #history #decolonization #wheat #wip

update on my WIP mega-zine about industrial ag:

i think i've had a good breakthrough in my research on the green revolution.

the book is called "Geopolitics and the Green Revolution: Wheat, Genes, and the Cold War" by john h. perkins.

he covers the scientific development of the dwarf varieties of wheat in USA, mexico, UK, and india; and the spread of these varieties that is commonly referred to as the green revolution.

he writes: "Between 1945 and 1955 a series of events, studies, and conceptual syntheses created a climate in the United States that saw plant breeding and all of the modern agricultural sciences as a critically important adjunct in the battle between capitalist freedom and the tyranny of communism."

he spells out the theory that they were operating under: "The American intellectual and political climate from 1945 to 1955 was critically shaped by the development of the cold war, a part of which included a theory that purported to link causally overpopulation, resource exhaustion, hunger, political instability, communist insurrection, and danger to vital American interests. As a convenient shorthand, the theory can be called the population-national security theory (PNST)." 🤯

i read that and i was like "yesssssss this is it".

he even made a nice little graphic (see below).

i've been reading a lot of primary sources, and PNST thinking was in a lot of them, but having a historian lay it out so clearly and succinctly is soooo helpful.

additionally, i found the full text of a speech by allen dulles (head of the CIA at the time) on "the communist challenge to free government." it's a rich example of the kind of paranoid thinking that was happening at the top of the US political structure at the time. in the speech, he asserts that communists are everywhere, trying to turn the various recently-decolonized peoples toward communism...soviets put out propaganda on the radio, via printed materials, and *secretly* via various unions and international associations, and via the world peace council.

he writes that communism is (of course) not very enticing to those of us in the free world, because of our material plenty and our forefathers' commitment to liberty or whatever. BUT, to a subject of a newly-decolonized nation, who is hungry and desperately trying to catch up to the modern world, communism is very appealing (supposedly). 🙄

the whole speech really helped me get inside the thinking that i think perkins would describe as PNST. i don't know if any quotes from the dulles speech will make it into the zine (if i have room, hopefully!), but it's still a really helpful primary source (i like a good primary source).

if you want to read the text of the dulles speech, it's available here: archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp62s00545a000100090040-3

as a bonus, i've included the cover of a publication called "man, land, and food", from USDA in 1963. yes, it shows a rough graphic of a naked black person holding up an empty bowl, with a graphic of the globe behind them. so yea, that's where these guys were at. they saw the recently decolonized peoples as a sort of undifferentiated mass of hungry mouths. extremely dehumanizing.

#USHistory #research #GreenRevolution #agriculture #ColdWar #AgriculturalScience #USPol #history #decolonization #wheat #wip

me: wants to understand the green revolution

nick cullather, author of "the hungry world: america's cold war battle against poverty": if you wish to understand the green revolution, you must first understand the creation of *the calorie* - which allowed for the quantification of food. this allowed for the calculation of a global "food requirement" for the first time. this then led to calculations of "food gaps" (malthusian gaps between food needs and popoulation growth).

bryan l. mcdonald, author of "food power: the rise and fall of the postwar american food system": and don't forget that the US was using food aid to developing nations as a way to counteract the perceived spread of communism across asia, with its huge nations filled with huge populations of potential communists!

me: 😳 😱

#research #greenrevolution #agriculture

me: wants to understand the green revolution

nick cullather, author of "the hungry world: america's cold war battle against poverty": if you wish to understand the green revolution, you must first understand the creation of *the calorie* - which allowed for the quantification of food. this allowed for the calculation of a global "food requirement" for the first time. this then led to calculations of "food gaps" (malthusian gaps between food needs and popoulation growth).

bryan l. mcdonald, author of "food power: the rise and fall of the postwar american food system": and don't forget that the US was using food aid to developing nations as a way to counteract the perceived spread of communism across asia, with its huge nations filled with huge populations of potential communists!

me: 😳 😱

#research #greenrevolution #agriculture

update on my WIP industrial ag mega-zine:

i created and revised 2 big spreads on advances in shipping and other issues related to marketing (getting food to market). the first drafts of the spreads were way too crowded with each individual piece being too small to read. so i re-worked them to be more spacious, but after printing them, they were still definitely too crowded. i'm not sure which way to go with them now...do i remove stuff (really don't want to!), do i dedicate more pages to this topic (seems excessive?), or some other option? since i plan to have digital and physical versions of the mega-zine, maybe i could include 2 thinned-out spreads in the physical copy, but make sure to include the rest of the material in the digital version. that might be the best solution, but i reeeeeallly want to keep all the stuffs i included. i'm at an impasse, so i'm moving on to another subject and will revisit those pages later.

the time seems right to wade into the most difficult part of the mega-zine: the green revolution, international development, and the obsession of 1950s-1970s american leadership with india.

this is SUCH a huge subject, but also gets to the heart of the matter: in the materials of the time, the "modern" industrial form of agriculture was always placed in contrast to the "backward" agriculture of developing nations, with india being the most common example. as edward said showed, western civilization needs an "other" to place itself against (and above). the story of industrial ag would really be incomplete without properly examining what the proponents of "modern" ag were comparing their modernity *to*.

i already have quite a few primary materials and books on the subject, so now it's time to read them.

here are some of the books i have:

* "The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia" by Nick Cullather

* "A History of India's Green Revolution: Reign of Technocracy" by Prakash Kumar

* "The Violence of the Green Revolution" by Vandana Shiva

* "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System" by Raj Patel.

* "The Great American Mission: Modernization and the Construction of an American World Order" by David Ekbladh

* "Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India" by Benjamin Robert Siegel

* "Food Power: The Rise and Fall of the Postwar American Food System by Bryan L. McDonald

* "Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and
the Legacies of British Colonialism" by Joseph Morgan Hodge

* "The globalization of wheat: a critical history of the green revolution" by Marci R. Baranski

* "The right kind of revolution: modernization, development, and U.S. foreign policy from the Cold War to the present" by Michael E. Latham

* the agricultural dilemma by glenn davis stone (it has a very nice chapter about the green revolution)

...along with countless articles, both contemporary and from the time period when the green revolution was unfurling.

the battle over the meaning and reality of the green revolution continues. the subject is absolutely not settled, and new research continues to be released. additionally, every country where the green revolution was rolled out had a different experience based on that country's history; each country's political, economic, and sociocultural situation in the 50s-70s; the goals and motivations of leadership in the developing country in question; and so much more.

so, here we go!

#agriculture #history #research #art #wip #USHistory #greenrevolution

update on my WIP industrial ag mega-zine:

i created and revised 2 big spreads on advances in shipping and other issues related to marketing (getting food to market). the first drafts of the spreads were way too crowded with each individual piece being too small to read. so i re-worked them to be more spacious, but after printing them, they were still definitely too crowded. i'm not sure which way to go with them now...do i remove stuff (really don't want to!), do i dedicate more pages to this topic (seems excessive?), or some other option? since i plan to have digital and physical versions of the mega-zine, maybe i could include 2 thinned-out spreads in the physical copy, but make sure to include the rest of the material in the digital version. that might be the best solution, but i reeeeeallly want to keep all the stuffs i included. i'm at an impasse, so i'm moving on to another subject and will revisit those pages later.

the time seems right to wade into the most difficult part of the mega-zine: the green revolution, international development, and the obsession of 1950s-1970s american leadership with india.

this is SUCH a huge subject, but also gets to the heart of the matter: in the materials of the time, the "modern" industrial form of agriculture was always placed in contrast to the "backward" agriculture of developing nations, with india being the most common example. as edward said showed, western civilization needs an "other" to place itself against (and above). the story of industrial ag would really be incomplete without properly examining what the proponents of "modern" ag were comparing their modernity *to*.

i already have quite a few primary materials and books on the subject, so now it's time to read them.

here are some of the books i have:

* "The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia" by Nick Cullather

* "A History of India's Green Revolution: Reign of Technocracy" by Prakash Kumar

* "The Violence of the Green Revolution" by Vandana Shiva

* "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System" by Raj Patel.

* "The Great American Mission: Modernization and the Construction of an American World Order" by David Ekbladh

* "Hungry Nation: Food, Famine, and the Making of Modern India" by Benjamin Robert Siegel

* "Food Power: The Rise and Fall of the Postwar American Food System by Bryan L. McDonald

* "Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and
the Legacies of British Colonialism" by Joseph Morgan Hodge

* "The globalization of wheat: a critical history of the green revolution" by Marci R. Baranski

* "The right kind of revolution: modernization, development, and U.S. foreign policy from the Cold War to the present" by Michael E. Latham

* the agricultural dilemma by glenn davis stone (it has a very nice chapter about the green revolution)

...along with countless articles, both contemporary and from the time period when the green revolution was unfurling.

the battle over the meaning and reality of the green revolution continues. the subject is absolutely not settled, and new research continues to be released. additionally, every country where the green revolution was rolled out had a different experience based on that country's history; each country's political, economic, and sociocultural situation in the 50s-70s; the goals and motivations of leadership in the developing country in question; and so much more.

so, here we go!

#agriculture #history #research #art #wip #USHistory #greenrevolution

The future of farming lies in the wild: Dr Prabhakaran Nair https://english.mathrubhumi.com/features/specials/the-future-of-farming-lies-in-the-wild-dr-prabhakaran-nair-mz1qfsfl?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #GreenRevolution #CropWildRelatives #Farming #KodothPrabhakaranNair

🔋 Le vecchie batterie EV non sono più rifiuti, ma un affare da miliardi! Scopri come riutilizzarle e salvare il pianeta! #Riciclo #GreenRevolution

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/automotive/vecchie-batterie-ev-affare-enorme

Cory Doctorow: Comrade #Trump is the unwitting hero of a #greenrevolution
In the first of a new monthly column for the Nerve, the author and cyber-activist argues that by dumping cheap solar panels on Asia and starting a catastrophic war in the Gulf, the president has started a headlong rush for cleantech that no eco-activism could match

https://www.thenerve.news/p/cory-doctorow-column-enshittification-trump-cleantech-green-revolution-pakistan?

Cory Doctorow: Comrade #Trump is the unwitting hero of a #greenrevolution
In the first of a new monthly column for the Nerve, the author and cyber-activist argues that by dumping cheap solar panels on Asia and starting a catastrophic war in the Gulf, the president has started a headlong rush for cleantech that no eco-activism could match

https://www.thenerve.news/p/cory-doctorow-column-enshittification-trump-cleantech-green-revolution-pakistan?

🔌Decidere di passare tutti all'auto elettrica? Ma il nostro sistema lo reggerebbe? Scopriamo la risposta insieme! #GreenRevolution #EcoMobility 💡

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/business/litalia-non-ha-la-spina-signal-pirate

“It’s the bell curve again”*…

Joseph Howlett on how the central limit theorem, which started as a bar trick for 18th-century gamblers, became something on which scientists rely every day…

No matter where you look, a bell curve is close by.

Place a measuring cup in your backyard every time it rains and note the height of the water when it stops: Your data will conform to a bell curve. Record 100 people’s guesses at the number of jelly beans in a jar, and they’ll follow a bell curve. Measure enough women’s heights, men’s weights, SAT scores, marathon times — you’ll always get the same smooth, rounded hump that tapers at the edges.

Why does the bell curve pop up in so many datasets?

The answer boils down to the central limit theorem, a mathematical truth so powerful that it often strikes newcomers as impossible, like a magic trick of nature. “The central limit theorem is pretty amazing because it is so unintuitive and surprising,” said Daniela Witten, a biostatistician at the University of Washington. Through it, the most random, unimaginable chaos can lead to striking predictability.

It’s now a pillar on which much of modern empirical science rests. Almost every time a scientist uses measurements to infer something about the world, the central limit theorem is buried somewhere in the methods. Without it, it would be hard for science to say anything, with any confidence, about anything.

“I don’t think the field of statistics would exist without the central limit theorem,” said Larry Wasserman, a statistician at Carnegie Mellon University. “It’s everything.”

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the push to find regularity in randomness came from the study of gambling…

Read on for the fascinating story of: “The Math That Explains Why Bell Curves Are Everywhere,” from @quantamagazine.bsky.social.

Howlett concludes by observing that “The central limit theorem is a pillar of modern science, ultimately, because it’s a pillar of the world around us. When we combine lots of independent measurements, we get clusters. And if we’re clever enough, we can use those clusters to find out something interesting about the processes that made them”– which follows from the story he shares.

Still, we’d do well to remember that there are limits to its applicability, both descriptively (as Nassim Nicholas Taleb points out, “because the bell curve ignores large deviations, cannot handle them, yet makes us confident that we have tamed uncertainty”) and prescriptively (as Benjamim Bloom argues, “The bell-shaped curve is not sacred. It describes the outcome of a random process. Since education is a purposeful activity….the achievement distribution should be very different from the normal curve if our instruction is effective).

For (much) more, see Peter Bernstein‘s wonderful Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

* Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

###

As we noodle on the normal distribution, we might send curve-shattering birthday greetings to Norman Borlaug; he was born on ths date in 1914. An agronomist, he developed and led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the voluminous increases in agricultural production we call “the Green Revolution.” Borlaug was awarded multiple honors for his work, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal; he’s one of only seven people to have received all three of those awards.

source

“It’s the bell curve again”*…

Joseph Howlett on how the central limit theorem, which started as a bar trick for 18th-century gamblers, became something on which scientists rely every day…

No matter where you look, a bell curve is close by.

Place a measuring cup in your backyard every time it rains and note the height of the water when it stops: Your data will conform to a bell curve. Record 100 people’s guesses at the number of jelly beans in a jar, and they’ll follow a bell curve. Measure enough women’s heights, men’s weights, SAT scores, marathon times — you’ll always get the same smooth, rounded hump that tapers at the edges.

Why does the bell curve pop up in so many datasets?

The answer boils down to the central limit theorem, a mathematical truth so powerful that it often strikes newcomers as impossible, like a magic trick of nature. “The central limit theorem is pretty amazing because it is so unintuitive and surprising,” said Daniela Witten, a biostatistician at the University of Washington. Through it, the most random, unimaginable chaos can lead to striking predictability.

It’s now a pillar on which much of modern empirical science rests. Almost every time a scientist uses measurements to infer something about the world, the central limit theorem is buried somewhere in the methods. Without it, it would be hard for science to say anything, with any confidence, about anything.

“I don’t think the field of statistics would exist without the central limit theorem,” said Larry Wasserman, a statistician at Carnegie Mellon University. “It’s everything.”

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the push to find regularity in randomness came from the study of gambling…

Read on for the fascinating story of: “The Math That Explains Why Bell Curves Are Everywhere,” from @quantamagazine.bsky.social.

Howlett concludes by observing that “The central limit theorem is a pillar of modern science, ultimately, because it’s a pillar of the world around us. When we combine lots of independent measurements, we get clusters. And if we’re clever enough, we can use those clusters to find out something interesting about the processes that made them”– which follows from the story he shares.

Still, we’d do well to remember that there are limits to its applicability, both descriptively (as Nassim Nicholas Taleb points out, “because the bell curve ignores large deviations, cannot handle them, yet makes us confident that we have tamed uncertainty”) and prescriptively (as Benjamim Bloom argues, “The bell-shaped curve is not sacred. It describes the outcome of a random process. Since education is a purposeful activity….the achievement distribution should be very different from the normal curve if our instruction is effective).

For (much) more, see Peter Bernstein‘s wonderful Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

* Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

###

As we noodle on the normal distribution, we might send curve-shattering birthday greetings to Norman Borlaug; he was born on ths date in 1914. An agronomist, he developed and led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the voluminous increases in agricultural production we call “the Green Revolution.” Borlaug was awarded multiple honors for his work, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal; he’s one of only seven people to have received all three of those awards.

source

...👉There simply is no other possibility if we are to withstand once more the #Kassandra predictions👈 like mine here, or e.g. quite some time ago, about the #Overshoot, the #PopulationBomb, the #GreenRevolution, and the importance of the so-called #PhantomCarryingCapacity:

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112047709692840344.

As I summed up in this in this thread here, I guess, is the best example of 👉the imminent reality of this #PhantomCarryingCapacity is deep-well...

@DoomsdaysCW

...👉There simply is no other possibility if we are to withstand once more the #Kassandra predictions👈 like mine here, or e.g. quite some time ago, about the #Overshoot, the #PopulationBomb, the #GreenRevolution, and the importance of the so-called #PhantomCarryingCapacity:

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112047709692840344.

As I summed up in this in this thread here, I guess, is the best example of 👉the imminent reality of this #PhantomCarryingCapacity is deep-well...

@DoomsdaysCW

any recommendations for modernist depictions of agriculture and food production?

i've included some example images below.

some keywords:
* mechanized agriculture
* industrial farming
* industrial food production
* farm as factory
* farm modernization
* chemical agriculture
* green revolution

i've got the following materials on my to-read list:

* "every farm a factory: the industrial ideal in american agriculture" by deborah fitzgerald
* Ch. 8 of "seeing like a state": "Taming Nature: An Agriculture of Legibility and Simplicity" by james c. scott
* "Farming according to 'the laws of beauty': Aesthetics and agriculture" by david cooper (https://www.academia.edu/14380031/Farming_according_to_the_laws_of_beauty_Aesthetics_and_agriculture)
* "the american technological sublime" by david nye (not sure if it has anything about agriculture specifically)
* "the machine in the garden: technology and the pastoral" by leo marx (update: i've now skimmed this work and it seems to be concerned with an earlier era, not the high modernist period)

if you're familiar with any written works looking at this kind of aesthetic specifically, i'd love to hear about it.

also, if you have suggestions for archives (online or irl) that might have more materials like this, i'm all ears.

#sundaylibrarian #history #art #ArtHistory #agriculture #GreenRevolution #food #aesthetics #modernism #industrialization #ResearchLibrarian

any recommendations for modernist depictions of agriculture and food production?

i've included some example images below.

some keywords:
* mechanized agriculture
* industrial farming
* industrial food production
* farm as factory
* farm modernization
* chemical agriculture
* green revolution

i've got the following materials on my to-read list:

* "every farm a factory: the industrial ideal in american agriculture" by deborah fitzgerald
* Ch. 8 of "seeing like a state": "Taming Nature: An Agriculture of Legibility and Simplicity" by james c. scott
* "Farming according to 'the laws of beauty': Aesthetics and agriculture" by david cooper (https://www.academia.edu/14380031/Farming_according_to_the_laws_of_beauty_Aesthetics_and_agriculture)
* "the american technological sublime" by david nye (not sure if it has anything about agriculture specifically)
* "the machine in the garden: technology and the pastoral" by leo marx (update: i've now skimmed this work and it seems to be concerned with an earlier era, not the high modernist period)

if you're familiar with any written works looking at this kind of aesthetic specifically, i'd love to hear about it.

also, if you have suggestions for archives (online or irl) that might have more materials like this, i'm all ears.

#sundaylibrarian #history #art #ArtHistory #agriculture #GreenRevolution #food #aesthetics #modernism #industrialization #ResearchLibrarian

The Greens just crushed Labour in Gorton & Denton and honestly? Based. 🚀 While Starmer is still crying about Epstein (lol), the people have spoken—climate action is the most important thing in human history, and I literally invented it with Tesla’s solar roofs. Also, imo, if the UK wants real energy independence, they should just nationalise SpaceX’s Mars fuel tech. Why tax oil when you can mine asteroids? #PhelonTusk #GreenRevolution #StarmerIsLiterallyDead

🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2bz5h69h

🌱 La fattoria green del Vaticano riscopre le radici medievali, un'armonia unica tra passato e sostenibilità! #GreenRevolution #VaticanoEcologico

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/scienze/miracoli-medievali-santi-guarivano-la-terra-2026-02-04

🌍 Tracciamo le microplastiche dai campi alle spiagge, la nostra missione per un pianeta più pulito! #NoPlastic #GreenRevolution

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/scienze/microplastiche-dai-fertilizzanti-ai-lidi-marini-2026-01-20

@benfell @GhostOnTheHalfShell

7) #GreenRevolution:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112047724725803354

...8) There is a thrilling #SciFi series on #PrimeVideo that explores the ramifications of this technology on #Society, #Upload:

https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Upload
//

@benfell @GhostOnTheHalfShell

7) #GreenRevolution:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112047724725803354

...8) There is a thrilling #SciFi series on #PrimeVideo that explores the ramifications of this technology on #Society, #Upload:

https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Upload
//

@benfell @GhostOnTheHalfShell

...the #Automotive industry, which pushed the ecocidal #CombustionEngine for at least 30 years longer than was ecologically sensible and #Technologically feasible (because it remained highly profitable).
Thanks to #China, this
is now finally coming to an end (electric cars.)

Also, after the first #GreenRevolution 7), #Agriculture set on #MassProduction of crops instead of water-reduction of farming on a global scale. (https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/109972629386382918)

...

@benfell @GhostOnTheHalfShell

...the #Automotive industry, which pushed the ecocidal #CombustionEngine for at least 30 years longer than was ecologically sensible and #Technologically feasible (because it remained highly profitable).
Thanks to #China, this
is now finally coming to an end (electric cars.)

Also, after the first #GreenRevolution 7), #Agriculture set on #MassProduction of crops instead of water-reduction of farming on a global scale. (https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/109972629386382918)

...

"The so-called Green Revolution might be expressed better as the Black Revolution—in reference to both the color of the petroleum that made it possible and the future it was condemning us to as a
species"
#detritivores #greenrevolution #agriculture #fossilfuels

Are you an environmentalist? Are you part of the green revolution? Do you care about the planet? If so…are you vegan? 🌱 #environment #environmental #greenrevolution #vegans

Why Environmentalists Should B...

Interested in ultra-sustainable heating and cooling, in-ground construction, or construction with non-traditional materials? If yes, then this open source guide to thermal mass and thermal lag will help.
https://www.onecommunityglobal.org/thermal-lag/

#FutureOfFarming #AgriTech #SustainableAgriculture #UrbanFarming #Hydroponics #FoodSecurity #InnovationInAgriculture #GreenRevolution #SmartFarming #Sustainability

Interested in ultra-sustainable heating and cooling, in-ground construction, or construction with non-traditional materials? If yes, then this open source guide to thermal mass and thermal lag will help.
https://www.onecommunityglobal.org/thermal-lag/

#FutureOfFarming #AgriTech #SustainableAgriculture #UrbanFarming #Hydroponics #FoodSecurity #InnovationInAgriculture #GreenRevolution #SmartFarming #Sustainability

@Akshay *gasp UK GOV in sound policy shocker!

#UKPOL #UKPOLITICS #FossilFuels #GreenRevolution

@Akshay *gasp UK GOV in sound policy shocker!

#UKPOL #UKPOLITICS #FossilFuels #GreenRevolution

Breaking News – Minister Prathap: Minister bought a Tesla car.. What happened to the word 'Swadeshi'?
https://vaartha.com/minister-who-bought-a-tesla-car-what-happened-to-the-word-swadeshi/national/542220/
#PratapSarnaik #TeslaIndia #Swadeshi #TeslaModelY #ElectricVehicle #MaharashtraMinister #EVAdoption #GreenMobility #TeslaIndiaLaunch #SustainableTransport #BreakingNews #PoliticalControversy #VaarthaLive #TeluguNews #IndianPolitics #MakeInIndia #CleanEnergy #ElectricCars #GreenRevolution #EnvironmentFriendly

🚀 La Tesla Model Y Performance 2025 promette di spostare i confini della mobilità elettrica! Prestazioni estreme, efficienza e design innovativo ti aspettano. #Tesla2025 #GreenRevolution

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/automotive/tesla-model-y-performance-2025-caratteristiche-e-prezzi-2025-08-29

🌳 I fichi kenioti stanno trasformando la CO2 in qualcosa di sorprendente! Scopri come la natura si ribella al cambiamento climatico. #GreenRevolution #CO2Miracle

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/scienze/fichi-trasformano-co2-in-pietra-per-il-clima-2025-07-22

"Pride happened despite the ban. And the legalization of cannabis hasn't even begun. It seems that there is something that courage has already protected - and something that it still has to fight for." 🌈🌿🛑

🔥 Follow: https://msha.ke/stonerdaddy

#cannabis #pride2025 #freedomrights #420hungary #legalizationnow #pride #weedtruth #weedcrime #ganjalife #cannabiscommunity #wakeandbake #freeourplant #hungarianpolitics #legalizeit #realworld #greenrevolution #hypocracy #equality #stonerculture #stonerdaddy

⚡ "I carburanti sintetici non sono solo un miraggio: secondo Lamborghini potrebbero salvare i motori! Un futuro green per supercar sempre più sostenibili. 🏎️💨 #Lamborghini #GreenRevolution"

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/automotive/lamborghini-carburanti-sintetici-salvano-i-motori-2025-06-24

🏔️ "Il motore a combustione non è il nemico" secondo Alpine. Il futuro dell'automobilismo potrebbe non essere totalmente elettrico? #Alpine #GreenRevolution

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/automotive/secondo-alpine-il-motore-a-combustione-non-e-il-nemico-2025-06-11

🚘 Bye bye Tesla, benvenuta BYD! Il nuovo leader delle auto elettriche in Europa. 🍃 #GreenRevolution #BYDLeader 🏆

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/automotive/tesla-perde-il-primato-byd-e-il-nuovo-leader-in-europa-2025-05-26

🌿 La canapa si fa strada nei motori: Ford crea un'auto pressoché a zero emissioni. Sostenibile, innovativa e alla moda! 🚗 #GreenRevolution #FordCanapa

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/automotive/ford-creo-unauto-di-canapa-con-emissioni-pressoche-nulle

🔌 Stellantis riconfigura il futuro dell'auto: in Europa è tempo di full electric! Si accendono nuove speranze per un domani sostenibile. #GreenRevolution #StellantisElectric⚡️

🔗 https://www.tomshw.it/automotive/stellantis-riconsidera-la-sua-visione-full-electric-in-europa-2025-05-15

Genetically Modified Crops

What narratives around genetically modified crops persist? What is the role of the state in pro-biotech frames? What tools can we employ to explore marginalized perspectives?

Examine the open access scholarship on genetically modified crops!

#Read all you want! #OpenAccess
#Share generously! #KnowledgeSharing
#Grow your understanding of #Food
#Repeat

#GMO #Biotech #GeneticallyModified #GreenRevolution #InVitroMeat #Ecofeminism #ReadingList

https://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs/search/index?query=genetically+modified+crops&dateFromYear=&dateFromMonth=&dateFromDay=&dateToYear=&dateToMonth=&dateToDay=&authors=

The #GreenRevolution brought major improvements in #cropbreeding, irrigation & #fertilizer use, leading to a substantial rise in #foodsecurity & reduced rural #poverty. But the focus was primarily on #yields; the cultivation of other food crops decreased... (1/2) https://doi.org/10.1186/s42269-024-01281-4

⚡ Renewable energy could deliver nearly 40% of the needed emissions cuts by 2035. Solar, wind, and forest protection are crucial to closing the #EmissionsGap. We need a #GreenRevolution now. #SustainableEnergy #COP29 https://buff.ly/3UKmmYL

The Wizard and the Prophet is an interesting but rather long book by Charles Mann. Here are some more critical thoughts about it: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c9304406-baf1-4ae1-8797-c309a46afe39

#books #review #bookstodon #agriculture #GreenRevolution #technology #ecology

Successive Zambian administrations have been among the most enthusiastic adopters of the kinds of policies recommended by the Gates Foundation. The country is a poster-child for Agra’s drive to industrialise African agriculture, having implemented in 2009 a new subsidy programme to incentivise farmers to switch to commercial seeds and intensive fertiliser use. More than a million farmers did.
But, instead of increasing yields, the new approach simply increased farmers’ vulnerability to climate shocks like the current drought, the new report concludes.

#PRESS CONFERENCE | African Faith Leaders Demand Reparations from Gates: Ending the Harm of the Green Revolution

Aug 28, 2024

Register at
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0wq60WRzSBehJjT3BZNh6w#/registration

#africa #greenrevolution #foodsovereignty #policy #gatesfoundation #billgates #reparations #climatechange #food