The Road to Mexico’s Green Revolution: Maize Research, 1940–55

Abstract

The term Green Revolution was first coined in the 1960s, and used as a political metaphor in a Southeast Asian context (Spitz 1987, 56). But the Green Revolution began in earnest in Mexico, and its roots are found in the United States (see last Chapter). The changes that took place in Mexico were no less devoid of a political dimension than the events that took place in Southeast Asia (Cleaver 1975, 54). The similarities in the cases do not begin and end there. In both cases, the so-called Green Revolution made its most dramatic impact in areas that were well-irrigated. Along with the environmental critique related to the increased use of chemical inputs occasioned by the use of new, uniform crop varieties, a regional bias and the focus on a narrow range of crops proved to be enduring criticisms of the Green Revolution as international agricultural research came under the occasionally one-eyed microscopes of social scientists.