The Green Revolution Delusion ― A False Promise

The Green Revolution Delusion is a fictional depiction of a real life drama that is playing out daily where ever industrial agriculture is practiced. In two generations agriculture has been changed radically. What was once a biological process driven by sunshine and rainfall and a prime generator of wealth has become, in many cases, an unsustainable industrial process dependent upon ever increasing inputs of energy and capital. Aside from the financial aspects, agriculture practiced in the industrial mode is inherently wasteful of natural resources; soil, water and energy are consumed in untenable amounts while producing pollution of soil, water and food stuffs. What was once a very good way to live and raise a family has become an occupation filled with stress and outright danger. In far too many cases, the wholesomeness of our food supply has taken second place to the needs of industry. These situations do not have to continue; there are methods that can produce food and fiber in the quantities needed in ways that are ecologically, financially and sociologically sound. One purpose of the book is to present options to the methods and practices causing the most damage that are feasible in the real world. The Green Revolution Delusion is a portrayal of some of the real and very disturbing problems of modern agriculture. Damage is being done to farm families, to the environment and to human health. The book is not a doom and disaster tirade but rather an attempt to explain why the conventional wisdom – that we must adopt all of the current toxic technology: the confined animal feeding operations, the genetically modified organisms and the chemical fertilizers and pesticides in order for agriculture to be profitable and productive – is simply wrong. It is not a technical dissertation but it presents, without a lot of jargon, some of the scientific and economic reasons that industrial agriculture is neither sustainable nor profitable in the long term. It also provides a look at proven alternatives to some of the most damaging technology and gives examples of how these alternative methods can be applied in a practical manner. Fiction is used as the vehicle for putting forth this information in the hope that an enjoyable reading experience will bring useful knowledge to a wider audience. The book is not a how to manual but rather it tries to at least partially explain, in a non-technical manner, the functioning of the ecological processes that control the natural world and how these processes can be used to create agriculture that is financially, ecologically and sociologically sound.