Australia’s gains in wheat-farm productivity
5 comments
·July 30, 2025skywal_l
pseudo0
A bit ironic to quote that considering how the speech was 55 years ago, and the green revolution is going stronger than ever. If anything the crisis of the next 50 years will be the economic and societal pressures crushing the childbirth rate in Western countries.
decimalenough
His lecture was in 1970 and the "three decades" elapsed 25 years ago. People are still starving, but not for lack of agricultural production.
XorNot
Most countries on Earth have declining birth rates, many first world countries have negative population growth.
Overpopulation isn't a thing.
dinkblam
> Australia has among the lowest agricultural subsidies
other countries would be wise to adopt that, but there is zero chance of that happening.
"The green revolution has won a temporary success in man’s war against hunger and deprivation; it has given man a breathing space. If fully implemented, the revolution can provide sufficient food for sustenance during the next three decades. But the frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed; otherwise the success of the green revolution will be ephemeral only."
Norman Borlaug
Nobel Prize lecture [0]
[0] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1970/borlaug/lecture...