Paul C. Mangelsdorf

Dr. Paul C. Mangelsdorf was a geneticist and plant breeder from Harvard University. He was part of the initial research team, along with Richard Bradfield and Elvin C. Stakman, that spent six months in Mexico to make a recommendation to the Rockefeller Foundation on how to implement the Mexican Agricultural Program (which would later be called the Green Revolution). In 1967, Stakman, Bradfield, and Mangelsdorf wrote a book about the Green Revolution together called Campaigns Against Hunger.

During the 1940's, Mangelsdorf observed the Mexican practice of intercropping corn, beans, and squash and noted that he thought farming would be more productive if corn and beans were each grown as a monoculture.


 * "Mangelsdorf knew that many campesinos intercropped corn and beans, and the MAP's scientists too this "ancient custom" into account when they began working on beans, believing that "it was likely to persist for generations to come," but they also said that it lowered yield of both crops. Bean research targeted commercial growers who monocropped and used insecticides."

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Rockefeller Foundation
 * Mexican Agricultural Program
 * Green Revolution
 * Elvin C. Stakman
 * Richard Bradfield