Today more than three quarters of a billion people go hungry in a world where food is plentiful. A distinguished scientist here sets out an agenda for addressing this situation. Initially published in 1997 in the United Kingdom, the book is now available in the first edition produced for the Western hemisphere. In it, the author has updated information to reflect current economic indicators. This volume includes a foreword written for the previous edition by Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank. The original Green Revolution produced new technologies for farmers, creating food abundance. A second transformation of agriculture is now required--specifically, Gordon Conway argues, a "doubly green" revolution that stresses conservation as well as productivity. He calls for researchers and farmers to forge genuine partnerships in an effort to design better plants and animals. He also urges them to develop (or rediscover) alternatives to inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, improve soil and water management, and enhance earning opportunities for the poor, especially women.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shows what can be done, how to do it, and why.,
By "akgen" (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century (Comstock Book) (Paperback)
Participation in agricultural production, it has been repeatedly demonstrated, is the only clear guarantee of participation in food consumption. The author's central theme is that it is possible to raise yields three-fold on most smallholder farms worldwide by practicing sustainable agriculture. As an architect of the original Green Revolution he can acknowledge its failings (and its successes) better than most. The book's title refers to a need to move beyond the original Green Revolution to a new and more environmentally friendly agenda. The basic goals outlined in the book are: -Increase crop yields of small-scale farmers threefold per farm. -Do so at very low cost by making maximum use of indigenous resources: physical, biological, and human -thereby allowing even the very poor to benefit from improved methods. -Improve the health of families living on small farms by raising nutrition levels. -Expand access to food, energy, and water. -Expand access to economic resources. Disregard the neo-communist rhetoric of the first reviewer and buy this book - easily earns 8 stars on a scale of 1 to 5.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Purchase,
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This review is from: The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century (Comstock Book) (Paperback)
Book was in great condition and arrived quickly. Overall, it was a great purchase!
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Now it includes the ecology, but where is the justice?,
This review is from: The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century (Comstock Book) (Paperback)
The original "Green Revolution" was presented by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations as a way to put off imminent starvation worldwide, buying time while humanity tackled the problem of population increase. While crop yields surely increased in the 1960s-1980s (though much less since then), efforts to limit population growth (outside China) mostly faltered. Worse, many of the chemical-intensive practices of the GR proved to be ecologically unsound. Worse still, the focus on yields and population effectively erased the question of food ACCESS from mainstream debates. While we have had food stocks adequate to feed every human on the planet for many decades, we have lacked the will and mechanisms to insure the poor access to that food. Indeed, millions of formerly self-sufficient smallholder farmers have "become" poor in the GR era because they no longer have access to land, nor access to sufficient cash.This book rightfully states that future green-revolutionaries will need to pay far more attention to the environment, to ensure ecologically sustainable production in the future; and that agricultural scientists will need to work in genuine partnership with farmers (though previous efforts at so-called "partnerships" by such organizations as the World Bank or International Rice Research Institute have been laughably one-sided and dominated by elites). This is (nowadays, at least) relatively uncontroversial. But until and unless we make large political changes regarding food distribution -- food justice, if you will -- we're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as far as the poor are concerned. More production, more ecologically done -- you bet. Population control -- crucial. Greater participation of farmers in agricultural decision-making -- essential. Food justice -- politically difficult, but indispensible. This book tackles elements of the food problem, but leaves a few things out as well.
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