Human civilization has seen extraordinary sevenfold population growth in the 21st century and the ways humans seek to support such a vast population’s food needs. Norman Borlaug, in his article “Biotech Can Feed 8 Billion”, takes a historical glance over this concern. Moseley also presents his argument concerning food production and shortage in “Why GMOs Won’t Feed the Hungry of the World” and the possible way the world can adapt to cope with this problem. This essay argues the significant developments Borlaug and Moseley assert in their articles regarding agriculture science to avert the global food hunger problem.
Borlaug, in “Biotech Can Feed 8 Billion”, interrogates the advances and challenges the global food system poses for the world’s affluent as well as poorest people. In the present overview, the surge in the global food price has impacted underdeveloped countries, which spend nearly the full or half fraction of their income on food. By contrast, affluent people use a small fraction of their resources to manage their resources sophisticatedly to their own advantage and meet their surplus food needs. Borlaug crystallizes the concern that rich nations can afford the food that environmental extremists produce or use using so-called ‘organic’ methods. The article also highlights that these environmental extremists have slowed down new applications of Biotech in undernourished nations, which are already facing the havoc of food deficiency. Therefore, they cannot accelerate their economic growth compared to the developed nations, which enjoy the luxury of plentiful “so-called organic” foodstuff. (Borlaug, 2004)
Laveaga in “Beyond Borlaug’s Shadow” appreciates the contributions of a single person Borlaug whose raw scientific knowledge sparked the Green Revolution in India which averted the mass famine of 1960. After World War II, the food crisis developed in India, and Borlaug ordered the variety of Mexican wheat seeds he had created to resist the greatest wheat disease in Mexico. (Laveaga, 2021) Furthermore, Moseley adds his contributions to the Green Revolution by interrogating his major argument in “Why GMOs Won’t Feed the Hungry of the World” through the assertion of GMO crops to possibly avert global starvation. His concern is not that GMOs are the only hunger mitigation policy but that the incorporation of all available technologies can end global hunger. Considering the increasing food production pressure, GMO proponents have touted benefits to improve crop yields all around the world. (Moseley, 2017)
To conclude, Borlaug and Moseley envision a significant development in the world’s food system by advocating the mechanization of Biotech and GMOs to end the impending food shortage. They steer the thoughts to alarm the inhabitants of the earth that in no time, the global food system will have no “organic fertilizer” to confront the fear of famine. So, Biotech and GMO crops, along with other agricultural technologies, can solve the global hunger problem by the end of the century.
References
Borlaug, N. (2004). Biotech Can Feed 8 Billion. New Perspectives Quarterly, 21(4), 97-102. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5842.2004.00706.x
Laveaga, Gabriela Soto. (2021). Beyond Borlaug’s Shadow: Octavio Paz, Indian Farmers, and the Challenge of Narrating Green Revolution. Agricultural History, 95(4), 576. https://doi.org/10.3098/ah.2021.095.4.576
Moseley. (2017). A Risky Solution for the Wrong Problem: Why GMOs Won’t Feed the Hungry of the World. Geographical Review, 107(4), 578-573. https://doi.org/10.1111/gere.12259.
Cite This Work
To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:
