How Green Revolution built global food empire (2 – 5)
Dr Ashraf Abul Saud
When people talk about the Green Revolution, they usually focus on the big jump in food production and how it helped fight hunger.
There is, however, another side to the story, one about money, big markets, giant companies, and quiet control over poorer countries.
Farming used to be a local thing, based on traditional seeds and handed-down knowledge. Now, it is part of a massive global industrial system.
It started in 1943 when the Rockefeller Foundation funded a big agricultural project in Mexico to create high-yielding wheat.
By the 1960s, these new seeds were spreading to India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
As the Green Revolution grew, so did the need for products from big international companies like Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, BASF, and Syngenta.
Millions of hectares of farmland across Asia, Africa, and Latin America became hooked on their seeds, fertilisers, and chemicals.
Organisations like the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development, meanwhile, poured billions of dollars into dams, irrigation, and other infrastructure.
These projects were not neutral, but they tied to the new farming model that relied on improved seeds, chemical inputs, and imported technology.
While poor countries bought these inputs, the profits, patents, and advanced know-how flowed back to rich countries in the North. Developing nations got pulled deeper into a global system they did not control.
In 1954, the US started the Food for Peace programme (officially called PL-480). The public goal was to use American food surpluses to help countries facing shortages.
But government documents showed it also served diplomatic and strategic purposes during the Cold War.
Food aid became a tool of influence. Historians and researchers have long questioned the real motives. Countries that depended on American wheat became more open to US political and economic pressure.
Some governments realised their food security was now decided far away in Washington.
As the saying goes: whoever controls the food can shape the choices of those who need it.
By the mid-1960s, India was in deep trouble after years of drought and dangerously low food stocks. Washington saw this as a chance to apply serious pressure.
President Lyndon Johnson dropped long-term food deals and introduced the “short tether” policy, keeping aid on a tight leash to influence India’s policies.
When the new high-yield seeds and heavy fertilisers started working, it looked like a huge success story.
But the deeper change was that large parts of Indian farming were being woven into global networks of finance, technology, and supplies. India found its food security increasingly tied to decisions made outside its borders.
Many researchers have concluded that the Green Revolution was not just about better farming. It was also a key part of reshaping global power during the Cold War.
That said, the evidence is clear: the Green Revolution did massively boost food production and helped prevent major famines in many developing countries.
Those real gains should not be dismissed. But it’s also impossible to ignore the bigger picture.
Development was not separate from geopolitics. Food was not separate from the fight for influence. And seeds were not just seeds. They were part of a tough global power game.
Dr Ashraf Abul Saud is a writer and an international relations scholar.
