Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Potato_Octopi t1_ir1sl8e wrote

Reply to comment by Sininenn in Global Agricultural Land Use v. Agricultural Production [OC] by rosetechnology

You're feeding people with less land. You could drop the $ line, but it's nice to have some output benchmark.

4

Sininenn t1_ir288vb wrote

But we don't know that, because this graph doesn't say anything about the amount of food produced per land area unit.

It only says that the overall monetary value of all food produced has increased, while the land use decreased.

Saying it's because we're farming food more efficiently is an assumption, that cannot be supported by this data.

2

Potato_Octopi t1_ir2vhso wrote

Did humanity suffer a mass starvation over the past two decades and no one told me?

2

Sininenn t1_ir337wc wrote

No one is saying that we're not getting better at producing food.

But this graph does not show food production efficiency, it shows agricultural products' overall monetary value...

As such, saying it is all attributed to efficiency increase in farming from this visualization is pure assumption. There are many more factors which contribute to monetrary value, other than productivity or efficiency.

1

Potato_Octopi t1_ir3euqv wrote

It's as good as any other shorthand. Weight, volume and calories are all insufficient, as different crops output different values. $ value of an agricultural commodity index hasn't changed radically over the decades.

1

Sininenn t1_ir3uftd wrote

It's not good enough.

And it sure as hell does not give a clear picture, as hiking prices would have the exact same effect than production efficiency.

And from this graph, you have no way of distinguishing which reason it actually is.

That's why it is a wrong metric to choose.

1

Potato_Octopi t1_ir3v5ax wrote

What would you prefer? Corn or wheat yields as a proxy?

1

Sininenn t1_ir402ub wrote

Overall yield, either average or median of all grown crops, in tonnes or calories, for example.

To show efficiency, possibly along with water usage needed and normalized per square kilometer.

1