Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Rajiv Shah says: This is a dense read by a wonderful leader in the field of agriculture. It's probably one of the more important stories in human history
Roger Thurow says: This book basically takes a look beyond the green revolution and at what needs to happen next in terms of securing food supplies and ending hunger. So, it explores the next stage of the agricultural revolution that must go beyond just responding to demand and has to take into account both productivity and natural resource management.
Tell me about The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the 21st Century by Gordon Conway.
Gordon was the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, and earlier the Rockefeller Foundation had been one of the backers of the original green revolution, started by Norman Borlaug, a plant breeder from Iowa. This book basically takes a look beyond the green revolution and at what needs to happen next in terms of securing food supplies and ending hunger. So, it explores the next stage of the agricultural revolution that must go beyond just responding to demand and has to take into account both productivity and natural resource management.
I’m incredibly ignorant and don’t even know about the green revolution, so will you tell me about that first?
Sure. The green revolution was in the 50s and 60s and at that time the epicentre of hunger and famine was in Asia, in India and Pakistan. There was tremendous hunger in that part of the world. Norman Borlaug, from Iowa, was working for a research institute in Mexico, developing and working on wheat strains to help the agriculture productivity in Mexico. This was end of the World War II period and these new strains were coming to fruition as this horrible hunger and famine was going on in the subcontinent, and he decided that these wheat strains might be just what they needed over there. So they did indeed take his seed technology to India and Pakistan and that took off and really helped the small farmers, increased their yields and, within a reasonably short time in terms of agriculture, those countries became fairly self-sufficient and made progress on hunger and malnutrition and became emerging agriculture powers. The green revolution spread to other countries in Asia and to Latin American but never got to Africa for various reasons – we go through all this in our book. One criticism that arose from the green revolution is that the increased use of fertiliser created new pollution problems. So, The Doubly Green Revolution is saying that, if the green revolution is to continue in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, we need to look at these other aspects, not just productivity but also natural resources management and working with the farmers themselves – what would work best on your farms with your soil conditions? Looking at everything that is required to deal with poverty, hunger and environmental degradation.
Is it an optimistic book?
Yes, it is. and it provides inspiration. I selected this because Gordon brings all this knowledge from the Rockefeller Foundation and from his work in science and development circles in the UK, which was focused on increasing food production and ending hunger. The book says: here is what we need to consider to make a second wave of the green revolution, putting the farmers at the centre of efforts. The inspiration aspect is that it’s all achievable. When you talk to people who are on the frontline of the fight against hunger, many say that one of their inspirations is this book.
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Roger Thurow joined The Chicago Council on Global Affairs as senior fellow for global agriculture and food policy in January 2010 after three decades at The Wall Street Journal. He is the editor and principal contributor to the Council’s Global Food for Thought blog, part of the Global Agricultural Development Initiative. For 20 years he served as a foreign correspondent, based in Europe and Africa. In 2003, he and Journal colleague Scott Kilman wrote a series of stories on famine in Africa. Their reporting on humanitarian and development issues was honoured by the United Nations. Thurow and Kilman are authors of the recent book ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty. In 2009 they were awarded Action Against Hunger’s Humanitarian Award.
The challenge of balancing development against conservation leads us directly to your next choice, The Doubly Green Revolution by agricultural ecologist Gordon Conway.
This is a dense read by a wonderful leader in the field of agriculture who went on to become president of the Rockefeller Foundation. It's probably one of the more important stories in human history. After World War II, it was common to suggest that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death. It was acceptable to nod in agreement with Malthus that people die because of lack of food and that’s a part of life we must accept. [The American biologist] Paul Ehrlich wrote a 1968 book called The Population Bomb which spread that notion. This is the counter-story.
It’s about how scientific breakthroughs helped countries like India become food secure and laid the groundwork for rapid economic growth. One of the stories is that of [American agronomist] Norman Borlaug, who invented a new form of wheat that helped feed the world. His invention saved hundreds of millions of people from starvation – combined with a focus on bringing farmers together with scientists, local governments and private sector partners. It’s one of the most important success stories in global development. A USAID administrator at that time used the term Green Revolution to refer to the spread of new agricultural technologies. Now we are implementing a programme called Feed the Future to replicate that kind of dramatic success in parts of Africa and South Asia.
How can foreign assistance encourage doubly green development?
The book talks about knowing your customer. In areas in most need of agricultural assistance, customers farm one, two or maybe five acres of land. They grow six or seven different crops. Most of their yield goes to feed their families. Some excess production might get into local markets, if they can get there. These farmers tend to produce a quarter to an eighth of what they could produce if they used some very basic things – fertiliser, better seeds and modern planting methods.
Foreign assistance and development partnerships can help farmers get access to better seeds and locally appropriate fertiliser. Development partners can help farmers learn how to improve their practices. They can bring private companies and other potential food buyers to those communities. By doing these simple things, we can help entire countries and entire continents become more food secure and dramatically reduce child malnutrition. That's what we're doing through our Feed the Future programme. And we think we can do it in a manner that is very environmentally responsible.
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Dr Rajiv Shah has led America’s international development agency since 2010. Prior to heading USAID, Shah was undersecretary and chief scientist at the US Department of Agriculture. Before joining the Obama administration, Shah piloted the Gates Foundation’s public health and agricultural development programmes. He received his medical degree and a master’s degree in health economics from the University of Pennsylvania
