We just lived through the period with the fastest population growth in human history. Six decades ago, there were three billion people on our planet. Since 2022, there have been more than eight billion people — an increase of five billion over this period.
It would have been impressive if food supplies had merely kept pace with population growth. But as the chart above shows, they grew even faster. On every continent, food supplies — measured by calories — grew faster than the population. This rise in food production per person was a major reason for the decline of extreme poverty and hunger.
To us, this chart documents one of humanity’s most extraordinary achievements.
so there is probably room to focus less on “more output” and more on “cleaner farming” (less fertilizer and methane, less waste) without risking *overall* food security.
I'm sure there is still local food shortage to manage.
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Edit: for anyone curious, Google "soil fertility global."
No Source provided.
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We're making progress but the world started as a really really horrible place
Edit: there is an uptick of hunger in ~ 2018 to 2022 but 2022 is still lower than 2000.
Not Optimism and/or Don't insult an optimist for being an optimist.
And yet it is nothing like even twenty years ago.
Thanks mods, glad to know that any sort of engagement that highlights the reality of the situation is not acceptable, and you just want a happy echo chamber. I didn’t insult anyone.
Malthus was WRONG and STUPID
/s (a little)
Nice comment you got there. However, it would be more accurate without that /s.
https://preview.redd.it/yg1jlwfiz4cg1.png?width=1536&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f9c10749f13430f25710f77d0c9a2cd61b42596
The first half of Progress and Poverty by Henry George is basically a complete deconstruction of Malthusian doctrine. Highly recommend the whole book.
Then why is it still so expensive?
It’s not.
Items have increased 20-30% in price in 2024 as compared to 2018. What do you mean?
So wages have been the exact same from 2018 to 2024?
The graph starts 1961. It's a very well known fact that globally the affordability of food increases while the share a household spends on housing increases. This trend goes back a few hundred years. Buying food used to be much more expensive towards all of human history. On a bigger scale food is cheap and housing is expensive right now.
I am not arguing against you at all. But in an age where there's surplus of food, conglomerates have still managed to uptick the price in the span of this last decade for higher profit margins.
That, to me, is not to be touted as optimistic.
So why does it cost so much then?
This is a long plot, food costs have increased less than inflation since the 1960s, even if they outpaced general inflation in 2022.
This isn’t optimistic- it shows we’ve had enough food to eradicate starvation for decades and yet we haven’t.
There is a lot more to starvation than merely the total quantity of food. Transportation and distribution are just as important. Surplus food made in Siberia isn’t going to help if there is a food shortage in Sri Lanka.
But with that being said, starvation is near its lowest point in all of human history. There is plenty to be optimistic about.
The existence of problems is not a reason to not be optimistic about solving those problems.
This shows the problem could be solved but we choose not to every day. That’s depressing
Only if you're committed to being depressed about it.
Some people do work to solve these problems, and progress has been made almost every year. No one can flip a switch and make the problems go away - investment in infrastructure is needed to get food where it is needed. Instead of being depressed about it, take action yourself. Every little bit of progress improves lives.
Perfect example that some people will find a way to be unhappy about anything.
Why are you choosing not to dedicate your life to eradicating hunger?
uh oh don't tell these neolibs that, they like to live in their fantasy capitalist paradise