Distinguishing yield advances from yield plateaus in historical crop production

nature.com

13 pointschaostheory3 comments

I find these graphics by WRI particularly useful in understanding the different angles to this problem:

http://www.wri.org/blog/global-food-challenge-explained-18-g...

As a geneticist, I'm more than slightly offended that they don't include GMOs in the arsenal of solutions though.

Yes, the sensitive folk who object to GMOs will get shouted down soon, I hope, when people need food and it isn't there.

Myself, I look forward to microchips that manufacture carbohydrate and protein chains directly from electricity and air (water?). Then food, water and energy will truly become fungible commodities. And grain becomes irrelevant.

> Strong evidence of yield plateaus in some of the world’s most intensive cropping systems

They use complicated theories to explain lower yield. But they totally ignore subsidies which motivate farmers to grow less. Modern 'organic' agriculture also lowers yield and is ignored in this study.

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