Global Agricultural Land Use v. Agricultural Production [OC]Submitted by rosetechnology t3_xvgmuw in dataisbeautiful
Potato_Octopi t1_ir2vhso wrote
Reply to comment by Sininenn in Global Agricultural Land Use v. Agricultural Production [OC] by rosetechnology
Did humanity suffer a mass starvation over the past two decades and no one told me?
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.
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.
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.
Potato_Octopi t1_ir3v5ax wrote
What would you prefer? Corn or wheat yields as a proxy?
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.
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