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23 Brown J. World Aff. 177 (2016)
The New Green Revolution for Africa: A Political Ecology Critique

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The New Green Revolution for

Africa:

A Political Ecology Critique


              WILLIAM G. MOSELEY
              Professor of Geography
              Macalester College


IN HIS REMARKS AT THE launch of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
(AGRA) at the 2007 World Economic Forum in Cape Town, South Africa,
former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan noted:

     AGRA is answering the call of many African leaders to build on the
     achievements and lessons learned from the Green Revolution in Asia
     and Latin America that began more than a generation ago. That                   177
     campaign-initiated by the Rockefeller Foundation-saved hundreds
     of millions of lives and more than doubled cereal production.'

He later concluded his speech by saying, let us do our part to help Africa's
small-scale farmers end chronic poverty.'2 While well-intentioned, Annan's praise
of this humanitarian effort obfuscates the politics and political economy that
shaped both the original Green Revolution and the more contemporary New
Green Revolution for Africa. The first Green Revolution was a concerted attempt
to improve food production in many areas of the Global South (namely, the

WILLIAM G. MOSELEY is Professor of Geography and Director of African Studies at Macalester College in
Saint Paul, Minnesota. He specializes in political ecology, tropical agriculture, environment and develop-
ment policy, and food security. He is a regular contributor in Aljazeera English and has written op-eds
that have appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. He is the author of over 80 peer-reviewed
articles and book chapters, as well as eight books, including: Africa' Green Revolution: Critical Perspectives
on New Agricultural Technologies and Systems (2016); Land Reform in South Africa: An Uneven Transforma-
tion (2015); Understanding World Regional Geography (2015); An Introduction to Human-Environment
Geography: Local Dynamics and Global Processes (2013); four editions of Taking Sides: Clashing Views on
African Issues (2004, 2006, 2008, 2011); and African Environment and Development: Rhetoric, Programs,
Realities (2004). He previously served as editor of the African Geographical Review and currently serves as
associate editor of Food Policy.
Copyright © 2017 by the Brown Journal of WorldAffairs


SPRING/SUMMER 2017 - VOLUME XXIII, ISSUE II

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