Green Revolution in Africa

Many in the sustainable agriculture and food systems community - farmers, scientists, and community food system leaders - are concerned about the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) initiative of the Gates and Rockefeller foundations. While the actual expenditure of the $150 million is not yet public, the announcement that they would create a second "green revolution" focused on Africa raises a lot of questions stemming from analyses of the impact of the first green revolution on poverty, hunger, and ecosystems.

From a sustainability perspective, a green-revolution approach could easily result in an increase in the use of expensive and toxic herbicides and pesticides, and encourage the development of soil-depleting, mono-cropping-for-export agriculture. The creation of agricultural systems that decrease biodiversity, increase chemical use, and depend on shipping food around the world is not in the short- or long-term interests of humanity or global ecosystems. The global warming implications of industrial agriculture - oil for production, oil for shipping, oil for processing, and massive waste at every step of the process - have been projected at 30-40% of global warming emissions by some researchers.

At a minimum, at this point in our history as a civilization, we should understand that every technical fix, magic bullet, new technology should be measured for its net impact over time on the ecological limits of the biosphere. Corporations promote the commercialization of new technologies without such measurement; governments don't evaluate long term systemic net impacts on ecological limits of the biosphere prior to approving new technologies; the market doesn't yet have a way to measure or internalize such costs.

It is entirely possible that new agricultural technologies could be developed that would meet the needs of humanity while reducing the net impact on the biosphere. Philanthropy should focus on the challenge of understanding the net impact on the biosphere of new technologies before promoting their adoption. Let's hope that the Gates/Rockefeller initiative leads the way and creates a truly green revolution that promotes sustainable agriculture and food systems in Africa.