The Capitalist Rhetoric of the Green Revolution (GR): Between Persistent Hunger and Agrochemical Dependence

Abstract

Agriculture emerged in human history as a strategy to overcome difficulties in acquiring food. Since then, its technologies have developed, but starting with the Green Revolution (GR) in the 1950s, there was an intensification in the use of machinery and agrochemicals under the argument of ensuring food security and eradicating hunger. However, this process mainly strengthened agrochemical industries and boosted agribusiness, resulting in the contamination of soils, water sources, and crops, as well as increasing deforestation and the expansion of large-scale agriculture. Based on a bibliographic analysis, this article seeks to discuss the impacts of the Green Revolution, establishing a parallel between agribusiness and the reality of hunger eradication. It is concluded that the GR did not represent merely a scientific advancement, but primarily a policy of transforming global agriculture, marked by a central contradiction: while it increased food production, it also intensified environmental pollution and did not eliminate hunger. Thus, it becomes evident that the focus of the GR was more closely tied to economic growth than to social justice, since hunger is more directly related to policies of distribution, access, and equity than to technology.