The First Green Revolution: Debt Peonage and the Making of the Nitrogen Fertilizer Trade, 1840–1930

TO MANY HISTORIANS, SCIENTISTS, AND agricultural experts, the term "Green Revolution" refers to the controversial array of programs and policies that introduced high-yield seeds, intensive irrigation techniques, herbicides, pesticides, mechanization, and petrochemical fertilizers to parts of the developing world during the 1960s and 1970s. Among the most profound consequences of this recent agricultural transformation was a vast increase in the amount of nitrogen available to farmers in Asia and Latin America. Through the application of imported synthetic fertilizers, these cultivators achieved increased yields of staple crops such as corn, rice, and wheat.