Enduring Issues Essay Practice Full Essay

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The Industrial Revolution began in England around 1750 and continued into the 19th century,

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bringing about signifi cant changes in the British way of life. This excerpt is from an essay that

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explored themes from the temporary exhibition, at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in 2008–2009 entitled “The Industrial Revolution and the changing face of Britain”.

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 The industrial and economic developments of the Industrial Revolution brought

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signifi cant social changes. Industrialization resulted in an increase in population and the

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phenomenon of urbanization, as a growing number of people moved to urban centres

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in search of employment. Some individuals became very wealthy, but some lived in

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horrible conditions. A class of prosperous industrialists, ship owners and merchants

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dominated, accumulating great wealth, but at the same time the working classes had to

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live with minimum comforts in overcrowded environments. Children were sent to work

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in factories, where they were exploited and ill-treated; women experienced substantial

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changes in their lifestyle as they took jobs in domestic service and the textile industries,

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leaving the agricultural workforce and spending less time in the family home. This period

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also saw the creation of a middle class that enjoyed the benefits of the new prosperity.

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People started spending their free time entertaining themselves in theatres, concert halls

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and sports facilities or enjoying the countryside in long promenades [walks]. . . . 

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On September 8, 2000, thirty years after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in food

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production and hunger relief, Laureate Norman Borlaug gave an anniversary lecture at the

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Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. This is an excerpt from his lecture.

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Norman Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, September 8, 2000

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. . .I am now in my 56th year of continuous involvement in agricultural research and

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production in the low-income, food-deficit developing countries. I have worked with

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many colleagues, political leaders, and farmers to transform food production systems.

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Despite the successes of the Green Revolution, the battle to ensure food security for

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hundreds of millions of miserably poor people is far from won.

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Mushrooming [fast-growing] populations, changing demographics* and inadequate

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poverty intervention programs have eaten up many of the gains of the Green Revolution.

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This is not to say that the Green Revolution is over. Increases in crop management

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productivity can be made all along the line – in tillage [land under cultivation], water

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use, fertilization, weed and pest control, and harvesting. However, for the genetic

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improvement of food crops to continue at a pace sufficient to meet the needs of the

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8.3 billion people projected in 2025, both conventional breeding and biotechnology

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methodologies will be needed. . . .

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Had the world’s food supply been distributed evenly, it would have provided an

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adequate diet in 1998 (2,350 calories, principally from grain) for 6.8 billion people –

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about 900 million more than the actual population. However, had people in Third World

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countries attempted to obtain 70 percent of their calories from animal products – as in

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the USA, Canada, or EU [European Union] countries – only about half of the world

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population would be fed.

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These statistics point out two key problems. The first is the complex task of

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producing sufficient quantities of the desired foods to satisfy needs, and to accomplish

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this Herculean [difficult] feat in environmentally and economically sustainable ways. The

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second task, equally or even more daunting, is to distribute food equitably. Poverty is the

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main impediment [obstacle] to equitable food distribution, which, in turn, is made more

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severe by rapid population growth . . . .

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This passage discusses changing population patterns in Brazil and in the Amazon region.

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. . .Some countries such as Brazil are seeing signifi cant internal migration. Most

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countries, including Brazil, have seen signifi cant migration from rural areas into cities.

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But in Brazil, millions of people are also moving into the Amazon region, a vast resourcerich rain forest drained by the largest river on Earth, the Amazon. These people and the

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companies they work for are in quest of valuable resources such as timber, gold, oil, and

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land that can be ranched or farmed. To exploit these resources means cutting down rain

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forest land and displacing rain forest peoples. . . .

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The related demographic issue is that much of this land is not actually empty of

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human beings. Rather, indigenous peoples from many tribes live there. These Native

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Americans are mainly hunter-gatherers who rely on hunting game and gathering

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berries and other edible foods across large stretches of land. They migrate through

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these areas, rather than staying in fi xed locations as agricultural peoples do. One of

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the indigenous rain forest groups is the Yanomami. According to current estimates,

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only about thirty thousand Yanomami remain in an area roughly three times the size

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of Switzerland around Brazil’s border with Venezuela. Their way of life is in serious

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jeopardy as they are being displaced by population pressures from outside their culture

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and traditional homelands. For example, about forty thousand independent gold miners

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have overwhelmed Yanomami territory in recent decades. The Brazilian government has

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worked with the Yanomami to preserve some land for indigenous peoples, much like the

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reservation system in the United States. . . .