Via
Marginal Revolution, I read an article
from 1900 on how the world might end. One of the possibilities was starvation:
"Should all the wheat-growing countries add to their area to the utmost
capacity, on the most careful calculation the yield would give us only
an addition of some 100,000,000 acres, supplying at the average
world-yield of 12.7 bushels to the acre, 1,270,000,000 bushels. Adding
2,324,000,000 to 1,270,000,000 we get 3,594,000,000 bushels, or just
enough to supply the increase of population among bread-eaters till the
year 1931.
But:
"Since by the year 1931 the area of cultivation can be no further
extended, the farmer must endeavour to raise the average yield per acre.
If atmospheric nitrogen could only be made generally available as
manure in accordance with Nikola Tesla's great scheme, then the ground
might be made to bear twice as large crops as it does at present."
The hopes for progress were rather limited: doubling the yield.
No comments:
Post a Comment