The Green Revolution came about as the result of the science-based transformation of Third World agriculture. In the 1960s, cereal-grain yields were dramatically increased in many developing countries, due to the use of genetically enhanced varieties. The Green Revolution began in Mexico in the 1940s, moved in a progressive pattern throughout the globe for decades to come, and while doing so, changed the face of agriculture forever. Various studies (Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Union of Concerned Scientists) have yielded much criticism that Green Revolution agriculture depends on fertilizers, irrigation, and other factors that poor farmers cannot pay for and that may be ecologically unsafe; and that it promotes monocultures and loss of genetic diversity. There are many issues associated with Green Revolution agriculture but none greater than genetically modified organisms (GMOs). For the purpose of this paper, genetically modified or engineered foods and its effects will be the core issue. Consumers in many European countries, Japan, and parts of the US have resisted consumption of genetically engineered foods pending further research into their effects. Statistics show that worldwide, the areas planted to transgenic crops jumped more than twenty-fold in the past six years, from 3 million hectares in 1996 to nearly 44.2 million hectares in 2000 and in the United States, Argentina, and Canada, over half of the average for major crops such as soybean, corn and canola are planted in transgenic varieties. Green Revolution agriculture is embodied with a two way street. Its utmost advance is also its greatest failure: the creation of genetically modified foods. The purpose of this paper is to explore the controversial issue of genetically engineered foods and to address the impact that these foods have had upon human health, the environment, and agricultural farmers.
