Sometime in the 1980s, an unprecedented change in the human condition occurred. For the first time in known history, the average person on Earth had enough to eat all the time.
Depending on their size, adult humans need to take in about 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day to thrive. For as far back as historians can see, a substantial number of Earth’s inhabitants spent much of their lives below this level. Famine and want were the lot of many — sometimes most — of our species.
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Almost one out of ten people still do not get enough to eat. But hunger today is generally due to low incomes and poor food distribution, rather than failing to grow enough food. Farmers produce enough for everyone, but not all get what they need. Still, our daily lives are nothing like those of previous generations.
What happened? Modern agriculture.
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Today, Farming-2.0-style agriculture — which began with innovations in field crops like wheat but spread to other parts of farming, such as cattle ranching and chicken-raising — is by almost any measure the world’s most critical industry.
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The sheer scale of Farming 2.0, with its giant farms and giant firms, has led food consumers increasingly to mistrust the industry. They don’t believe these enormous, profit-making enterprises have their best interests at heart. The mistrust is aggravated by the very success of modern agriculture, which has made it possible for much of the world’s population to live without having any connection to the farms and farmers who provide their food.
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The next task for the next generation of farmers, researchers, and agricultural companies will be to maintain the gains of the past for all these new people while preserving the environment for the future.
