One of humanity's biggest achievements in the last century was making a huge increase in food production. From 1900 to 2000, there was a six-fold jump in crop harvests while the global population increased less than four-fold, meaning that on average people today have around 50% more food available than their great, great grandparents.
Most of the increase in production came from farmers growing more food from each hectare of land. The extraordinary progress is due to the Green Revolution that turbo-charged modern inputs for farming.
It has been estimated that Nobel Peace Prize-winning agronomist Norman Borlaug, who spearheaded the intensification of modern farming methods, saved more than one billion people from starvation. As well as feeding people, the Green Revolution made societies much richer. And, as agriculture becomes more efficient, people are freed from backbreaking labour and are able to engage in a much broader range of productive activities.
