Asia

Naturally, in the 21st century, how this massive continent develops will critically impact the rest of the world. Largely under-developed, Asian nations are poised to experience many transitionsùperhaps even revolutionsùin the realm of agriculture and biotechnology. In some respects an untapped resource, there is no limit to what the Asian continent can and should produce in the coming decades.

And yet, as it stands Asia, like the world at large, contends with poverty and starvation in spite of a surfeit of food production unrivaled throughout the course of human history. However Asia, unlike other regions of the world, bears a disproportionate percentage of the many burdens associated with poverty. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2004 approximately 1.2 billion people in the world are expected to be living under a one-dollar-a-day consumption

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able as populations continue to rise. As Thomas R. DeGregori writes in Agriculture and Modern Technology, the verdict on the Green Revolution is essentially in: ôNo matter how one compares losses, the agricultural technology of the green revolution has made more food available to far more people than at any time in human history" (142). As a corollary to this, recent inroads in biotechnology promise even better solutions; where in the past the Green Revolution was perhaps too dependent upon pesticides, in the future this problem will be alleviated by the introduction of new non-chemical strategies (DeGregori 143). Additionally, biotechnology promises to introduce crop varieties that are bred or genetically modified to be more disease-resistant. In Asia specifically, the Green Revolution has, according to DeGregori, greatly benefited humankind. Referring back to the 1990s, DeGregori illustrates that throughout Asia poverty rates have declined dramatically and steadily thanks to the Green Revolution. In India, ôIn over two decades since the introduction of the green revolution technologies, the percentage of the populationàliving in absolute poverty has fallen to 35%" (DeGregori 159). This figure is down from 55%. Similarly
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Green Revolution, Mekong Delta, Asia Pacificö, China Mongolia, World Bank, South-Central Asia, East West, Trade Organization, Food Summit, Barbara Weightman, green revolution, genetically modified, modified foods, genetically modified foods, asian nations, asian continent, food production, asian farmer, crop yields, world nations, developing nations, asian farmer economic, 2002 retrieved april, april 22 2004, retrieved april 22,
Approximate Word count = 3712
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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