The Yaqui Valley and Pesticides in Mexico In 1940, a new renewal of agricultural practices began in Mexico, later called the Green Revolution. The beginnings of the Green Revolution are often attributed to an American scientist, interested in agriculture, Norman Borlaug. After much research, Borlaug was able to develop new, disease-resistant, high-yielding wheat varieties. Coupled with new disease-resistant wheat and new mechanized agricultural technologies, Mexico was able to produce more wheat than its own citizens needed. Because of the success of the Green Revolution and Borlaug's label as “The Man Who Saved a Billion Lives,” society was willing to look away from the negative side of the Green Revolution. The use of inorganic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides would not have been a problem until the case study conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Guillette, who demonstrated with clear evidence that exposure to pesticides among children in the Yaqui Valley of Mexico had actually compromised the development of children. and motor skills. In the late 1980s, the Sonora Institute of Technology conducted studies in the Yaqui Valley and found high levels of pesticides in umbilical cord blood and breast milk. The study also concluded that Yaqui Valley children had extremely high levels of pesticides found in their hair and skin. The Mexican government stopped the study because it thought it would cause undue alarm among residents of the Yaqui Valley. Based on information from the institute, Dr. Guillette used an anthropological approach to evaluate preschool children exposed to pesticides in the valley. Two groups of four and five year old children were selected in the study, one study group resided in...... middle of paper ......around we would have to cover our mouths with our hands or go in . As I read the research on pesticides used in the Yaqui Valley, these images immediately came to mind. I have learned that the common good outweighs the risk of a few. The cost of the Green Revolution, caused by the greed of farmers and government officials, has surpassed the well-being of the valley's children. I believe that if it were not for Dr. Guillette's research, the children of the valley and generations to follow would have suffered from cognitive and developmental delays due to pesticide use. The Green Revolution was an act aimed at saving millions of people and this did not come without a high cost of sacrifices on the part of the children of the Yaqui Valley. Eventually, changes were made and the use of pesticides regulated, thus saving a surprising number of human lives.