The first took place 10,000-12,000 years ago when people living in the Fertile Crescent, a region in the Middle East, ceased being hunter-gatherers and began growing wild varieties of crops.

The second took place in the 18th century. Starting in Britain, it was a gradual transformation of the traditional agricultural system.

The third agricultural revolution or ‘the Green Revolution’ began 80 years ago in Mexico and involved new developments in the production of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides to achieve increased food production.

In Ireland our Government reacted quickly to these new developments and instigated many new farming courses and even used television shows such as Telefis Feirme to ‘educate’ Irish farmers on how to farm intensively and increase output.

Unfortunately, many traditional good farming practices were soon abandoned in this rush to grow more and more food.

The result is that after 10,000 years of producing food naturally, in just 80 years the ‘Green Revolution’ has seriously damaged much of our natural environment, including delicately balanced ecosystems.

As we struggle with the consequences of this damage, it appears that we are witnessing the birth of a second Green Revolution or fourth agricultural revolution — something politicians and scientists refer to as a ‘bioeconomy’.

The EU in its ‘ Bioeconomy Strategy’ (updated in 2018) claims that a ‘bioeconomy’ could end our dependence on fossil fuels by using renewable biological resources from land and sea, like crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms to produce food, materials and energy.

While these are commendable aspirations, it appears that the bioeconomy hinges on biotechnology, particularly a new gene editing technology called CRISPR, which is poised to change the world

Worryingly, an investigation of biotechnology developments such as CRISPR in mouse and human cells discovered that the technique appears to frequently cause unexpected side effects, including extensive mutations and genetic damage.

It also claims that changes in the DNA of living organisms were seriously underestimated in the past, casting doubt on the safety of the technology.

Thankfully, the European Court of Justice ruled in July 2018 that organisms obtained through CRISPR gene-editing will face the same rules as GMOs, which are banned in the EU.

But this “world-changing” bioeconomy could be much closer to us than we imagined.

​John Heney farms in Kilfeackle, Co Tipperary