历史小径·世界史英语精读30篇（4）

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绿色革命及其不均衡收获

Beginning in the 1940s, agricultural scientists developed high-yield wheat and rice varieties adapted to chemical fertilizers and irrigation.
Funded by U.S. foundations and Cold War-era development agencies, the Green Revolution prioritized productivity over ecological resilience or local seed sovereignty.
In Punjab and Central Luzon, yields doubled within a decade—but smallholders often lacked capital to afford new inputs, deepening rural inequality.
Monocultures expanded rapidly, increasing vulnerability to pests and reducing dietary diversity despite calorie surpluses.
Groundwater tables dropped sharply in India and Mexico as subsidized electricity encouraged excessive pumping for irrigation.
Women’s labor intensified without corresponding recognition in land titles or extension services, reinforcing gendered divisions in agrarian knowledge.
Critics argue the model displaced agroecological practices that had sustained soil health and pest resistance for centuries.
Yet food insecurity declined dramatically in targeted regions, enabling urbanization and industrial growth previously constrained by subsistence limits.
Today’s climate-smart agriculture initiatives explicitly reject top-down transfer, instead co-designing solutions with farmer cooperatives and indigenous knowledge holders.
The Green Revolution endures as both cautionary tale and pragmatic precedent for scaling innovations amid structural inequity.