If you’re looking for a good activity that discusses the drawbacks of the Green Revolution, there is a documentary that I’ve used since 2009, though the story is still the same.

I show the Frontline video clip called, Seeds of Suicide, that focuses on the problem of rising farmer suicide in Punjab India as debts rise.

First, I have students read a short article online (homework) called, the Green Revolution in the Punjab, written by Indian agricultural activist, Vandana Shiva. The next day I give students a notecard where we practice one FRQ prompt that reads: “Identify three reasons why the Green Revolution can be considered a failure in Punjab, India.” I am able to collect and grade these quickly.

Next, students watch the video, Seeds of Suicide, originally available on Frontline, as part of their Rough Cut series. It is now available on Vox (12:49).

An alternative to this video is another called Bt Cotton, Seeds of Suicide (7:56) in which you will hear Vandana Shiva speak towards the end.

Both videos discuss the plight of the Indian farmer in Punjab, and the Whitefly that plagues cotton crops. Farmers were introduced to agribusiness solutions with limited success and the added burden of debt.

There is yet another video that I think is pretty good in it’s delivery (26:35), but is put out by Rt studios from Moscow. So if you’re worried about how it will be perceived, then don’t show it, but I think it actually does the best job, is most current, even though a bit longer.

Next, I review the relevance of thinking through various “SPEED” lenses. I remind them of the meaning of the acronym; Social, Political, Economic, Environmental, and Demographic. and remind them these are often asked on Free Response Questions. I have students draw out the following chart in their interactive notebook:

You can do these drills with just about any Human Geography topic/issue and it reaps massive rewards. I did this one as a quick pair/share, brainstorming session, but you can also make this into a competition where, after 3 minutes, they need to switch notebooks with someone for “grading.” When someone raises their hand and offers one of their causes or impacts as original, it is given a point if no one else in the classroom says that have it. If it is NOT original, everyone in the room who has it will cross it off. The person with the most original points at the end wins. These are great ways to start or end a class period.

If you want to veer into another direction with this lesson, I also have 16 events from the video that they weave together into a larger “order-of-operations” list.

Lesson Plan Option #2:

Print out the 16 pages that include cause and effect events surrounding the issue and hand out to students in groups of 3-4. Students are to place them in order in which they feel the events took place (because you scrambled them when you took them out of the printer).

Let students sprawl out and work in small group to arrange the 16 events in order, on the ground. There are some situations where they might be able to justify an event happens before another, but in general, the order I created is what I stick with. It is your discretion whether you accept their explanations or not.

Once students are finished, students will practice identifying a SPEED category for each. They are to tell you whether each issue is SOCIAL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL, OR DEMOGRAPHIC.

Here are the instructions that are included:

This is a really good lesson because it gets students collaborating about causation and impact, as well as understanding the differences between the SPEED adjectives.

Seriously, try this one out with your students, I think they will like it.