As a food science major, I was very interested in the work of Jane Zeigelman. Her talk about food during The Great Depression was extremely informative, especially the information about Flora Rose’s role in quantifying and standardising the food system across the US.

Although the Great Depression required a great deal of innovation in the way we handle food, there is another related aspect that helped with managing the food system during the 1930s: the Green Revolution. As the name may indicate, the revolution is linked with plants or to be more specific, agriculture. The revolution, which lasted till the 1960s, was a period of intense scientific inquiry into increasing the efficiency of agriculture.

In specific, scientists advocated the development and use of high-yield varieties of cereal crops (Which were an integral part of nutrition during the 1930s). More importantly, it focused on the use of nitrogen fertilisers to boost crop growth and reduce the time required till harvest. Although the Green Revolution was undoubtedly important is establishing food security in the early 20th century, it is also partially responsible for environmental and economic concerns that plague the current food industry.

The use of fertilisers was promoted ever since the Green Revolution, however it lead to an accumulated pollution of water bodies, creating an unsafe ecosystem. The commercialisation of high yield crops has lead to the development of companies like Monsanto, that have a monopoly on the market for seeds . Another issue would be that the increased output is harmful to the farmers themselves as it reduces the cost of the crop and the subsequent revenue for the farmer.

Quantifying the food industry has been very useful in maintaining a secure food supply. However, it left the food industry in an area of monotony: vast monocultures and processed foods composed entirely of a few cereals and so on. As a result, a big challenge that currently faces the food and agriculture industry is sustainability and diversity.