Some Views on Current Concerns About Pesticides

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 230-235
Author(s):  
Graham Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Green Revolution ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Variable Degree ◽  
World War ◽  
Adverse Impacts ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Second World

There is little doubt that the introduction of modern pesticides since the end of the Second World War has enabled a significant increase in the production of many crops during the green revolution, but criticism of the use of pesticides has increased because more people are claiming that their use has resulted in unacceptable adverse impacts on the health of those applying the pesticides or who live near treated farms, as well as more general impacts on the environment. When these modern pesticides were first introduced, countries established registration requirements. These were based on scientific data at that time concerning their toxicity and persistence in the environment, and have been followed to a variable degree, depending on whether individual countries or regions had adequate facilities to assess the data presented by manufacturers.

scholarly journals Nazareno Strampelli, the ‘Prophet’ of the green revolution

2012 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. SALVI ◽  
O. PORFIRI ◽  
S. CECCARELLI
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Wheat Breeding ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Plant Breeder ◽  
Breeding Programmes ◽  
Fascist Regime ◽  
High Yielding Varieties ◽  
Second World

SUMMARY23 January 2012 marked 70 years since the death of the Italian plant breeder Nazareno Strampelli (1866–1942), one of the most important plant geneticists of the 20th century. During the first 30 years of what is known as the ‘short century’, Strampelli was among the first, in Europe and in the world, to systematically apply Mendel's laws to plant breeding, particularly to wheat breeding which resulted in varieties characterized by rust resistance, early flowering and maturity and short straw. Due to Strampelli's varieties Italian wheat production doubled, an achievement that during the fascist regime was referred to as the ‘Wheat Battle’.Some of Strampelli's wheats, such as Mentana, Ardito and San Pastore, were used as parents in the breeding programmes of several countries after the Second World War; they also had a key role in the first phase of Norman Borlaug's Green Revolution, being instrumental in the development of the high-yielding varieties of the future Nobel Peace Laureate.A century after the key cross in which Strampelli, 30 years before Borlaug, used the genes for short straw and earliness in wheat breeding, his name and his work are not known and appreciated as they deserve, despite the recent evidence that the resistance to the new rust races could derive from the very same resistance genes identified by the Italian breeder at the beginning of the 20th century.

The globalization of hybrid maize, 1921–70

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-122
Author(s):  
Derek Byerlee
Keyword(s):  
Green Revolution ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Seed Systems ◽  
Wheat Varieties ◽  
Hybrid Technology ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Hybrid Maize ◽  
Second World

AbstractWell before the green revolution in the 1960s, hybrid maize technology that had originally been developed in the USA spread across the world, starting before the Second World War. This article uses a framework that analyses the type of transfer (materials, knowledge, or capacity), the roles of diverse actors, and farmer demand and its market context, to trace the diffusion of hybrid technology to Latin America, Asia, Europe, and Africa up to 1970. The article also highlights the importance of access to diverse germplasm from the Americas provided by indigenous farmers. A handful of US public institutions promoted the spread of hybrid technology, with US private seed companies sometimes playing a secondary role. However, most cases of successful transfer were led by national scientists embedded in local institutions, who were able to link to local seed systems and farmers. By the mid 1970s, the aggregate impacts of these efforts were of the same magnitude as for the well-known and much publicized green revolution wheat varieties. Nonetheless, adoption of hybrid maize across and within countries was very patchy, relating to differences in scientific capacity, type of farmer, agro-ecology, and complementary investments in seed systems and extension. Consequently, impacts were often highly inequitable.

scholarly journals Citizenship, Vulnerability and Mental Incapacity in England, 1900–1960s

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Weston
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Mental Capacity ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mental Capacity Act ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Knowledge Deficits ◽  
Second World

Over the twentieth century, the Lunacy Office (renamed the Court of Protection in 1947) was responsible for appointing ‘receivers’ to manage the property of adults in England who were found incapable of managing their own affairs. Tens of thousands of people were in this position by the 1920s, and numbers continued to grow until after Second World War. This article uses the archives of the Office to examine the evolution of the concept of mental incapacity over the first half of the twentieth century, offering a corrective to the popular impression that the time before the Mental Capacity Act of 2005 was an era of ignorance and bad practice. It examines the changing ways in which being ‘incapable’ was understood and described, with particular reference to shifting ideas of citizenship. I argue that incapacity was not always seen as absolute or permanent in the first half of the century, that models of incapacity began to include perceived vulnerability in the interwar period and that women in particular were seen in this way. From the 1940s, though, the profile of those found incapable was changing, and the growing welfare state and its principles of employment and universality saw the idea of incapacity narrowing and solidifying around knowledge deficits, especially among the elderly. This brings the history of the Lunacy Office into the twentieth century and connects it to current concerns around assessments of mental capacity today.

Gender and the Second World War

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Peniston-Bird ◽  
Emma Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Second World

Kapitalistische Krisen mit und ohne systemischer Herausforderung.

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (185) ◽  
pp. 543-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
World Market ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Deep Penetration ◽  
World War ◽  
Major Overhaul ◽  
Domestic Markets ◽  
Global Restructuring ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Class Power ◽  
Second World

This article draws on Marxist theories of crises, imperialism, and class formation to identify commonalities and differences between the stagnation of the 1930s and today. Its key argument is that the anti-systemic movements that existed in the 1930s and gained ground after the Second World War pushed capitalists to turn from imperialist expansion and rivalry to the deep penetration of domestic markets. By doing so they unleashed strong economic growth that allowed for social compromise without hurting profits. Yet, once labour and other social movements threatened to shift the balance of class power into their favor, capitalist counter-reform began. In its course, global restructuring, and notably the integration of Russia and China into the world market, created space for accumulation. The cause for the current stagnation is that this space has been used up. In the absence of systemic challenges capitalists have little reason to seek a major overhaul of their accumulation strategies that could help to overcome stagnation. Instead they prop up profits at the expense of the subaltern classes even if this prolongs stagnation and leads to sharper social divisions.

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