Feeding the Ten Billion: Plants and Population GrowthCambridge University Press, 05.11.1998 - 247 Seiten At the current rate of increase, the world's population is likely to reach ten billion by the middle of the twenty-first century. What will be the challenges posed by feeding this population and how can they be addressed? Written to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of Malthus' seminal Essay on the Principle of Population, this fascinating book looks at the intimate links between population growth and agricultural innovation over the past 10,000 years, illustrating how the evolution of agriculture has both shaped and been shaped by the course of world population growth. This historical context serves to illuminate our present position and to aid understanding of possible future paths to food security for the planet. This volume is a unique and accessible account that will be of interest to a wide audience concerned with global population, food supply, agricultural development, environmental degradation and resource depletion. |
Inhalt
Introduction timebomb or treadmill? | xiii |
Reaching five million TO 8000 BC | 5 |
22 Australian aborigines | 9 |
23 The Kung San of Dobe | 11 |
24 Tell Abu Hureyra | 13 |
Towards fifty million 8OOO BC2OOO BC | 16 |
32 Shifting cultivation | 20 |
33 The Neolithic Revolution | 24 |
75 A heritage of erosion a hope of conservation | 122 |
the discovery of 24D | 124 |
the insecticide revolution | 126 |
Trojan horse for things to come | 128 |
The fourth billion 19601975 | 131 |
82 The dwarfing of wheat and rice | 135 |
83 The rise of the harvest index | 137 |
the gathering storm | 139 |
34 Wheat a complex crop | 27 |
35 The agricultures of China | 29 |
36 Rice an adaptable crop | 31 |
37 The Americas | 34 |
38 Maize the improbable domesticate | 36 |
centres or noncentre? | 38 |
The first halfbillion 2000 BC1500 AD | 42 |
42 The diffusion of agriculture into Europe | 45 |
43 Passage to India | 47 |
44 Pastoral nomadism and the horse | 50 |
45 The plough | 52 |
46 Sumerian grain yields | 55 |
47 Terracing the hills | 58 |
48 Chinampas and the collapse of the Maya | 60 |
49 The fabled Nile | 62 |
410 The maintenance of soil fertility | 65 |
411 European agriculture in the Middle Ages | 67 |
Towards the first billion 15001825 | 70 |
52 The impact of Columbus | 73 |
53 The potato in Europe | 76 |
54 High farming in the Low Countries | 78 |
55 The Norfolk agricultural revolution | 79 |
56 Malthus and his Essay on population | 82 |
57 The Irish potato famine | 84 |
The second billion 18251927 | 88 |
62 Justus von Liebig and plant nutrition | 92 |
63 Mineral fertilizers and microbial inoculants | 95 |
the chemical control of plant disease | 97 |
65 Crop plant improvement before and after Mendel | 99 |
66 Daylength and soybeans | 100 |
67 The trace nutrient gold rush | 103 |
68 Biological control of pests and weeds | 105 |
69 Botanic gardens and plant introductions | 108 |
The third billion 19271960 | 112 |
72 Mechanization replaces men and horses | 115 |
73 Cheaper nitrogenous fertilizers | 117 |
society wedding or shotgun marriage? | 119 |
85 The protein gap and high lysine maize | 141 |
86 Latitude and the Green Revolution | 144 |
87 The internationalization of agricultural research | 145 |
The fifth billion 19751986 | 149 |
92 Energy use in agriculture | 151 |
93 Minimum tillage systems | 153 |
94 Genetic resources | 156 |
changing the paradigm | 158 |
96 The genetic engineering of plants | 160 |
The sixth billion 198619989 | 163 |
102 Agronomic innovations | 165 |
103 The challenge of improving photosynthesis | 168 |
104 The dilemmas of irrigation | 170 |
105 Sustainability the new watchword | 173 |
What the world eats now | 176 |
112 Food production and our global diet | 178 |
113 Regional variations in food supply | 181 |
114 Hunger malnutrition and poverty | 184 |
115 Animal food and feed | 186 |
116 Food trade aid and stocks | 189 |
117 Some projections into the future | 191 |
Feeding the ten billion | 194 |
122 Will there be enough arable land? | 196 |
123 Intensification | 201 |
124 The imperative of further increase in yield | 202 |
125 The resources for future food production | 205 |
126 Old and new crops | 207 |
127 Global climate change and food supply | 209 |
128 What chance a brown revolution? | 212 |
129 Alternatives in agriculture | 215 |
1210 Dilemmas for agriculturists young and old | 217 |
1211 Food health education and work for how many? | 220 |
Epilogue | 223 |
References | 226 |
Acronyms and abbreviations | 240 |
| 241 | |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Abu Hureyra adaptation Africa agrichemicals agricul agricultural research Agronomy America animal arable area arable land Asia average barley billion century cereals China chinampas climate CO₂ conservation crop plants crop yields culture developing countries diet domesticated early East effects energy environmental environments erosion Europe extent fallow famine farmers farming feed Fertile Crescent Figure food production food supply genes global grain greater Green Revolution harvest hectare herbicides horses human hunter-gatherers hunting and gathering hybrid impact improvement increase India innovations inputs insecticides intensification introduction irrigation K years ago latitudes legumes less maize Malthus manures millet minimum tillage Neolithic Neolithic Revolution nitrogenous fertilizers nutrients photosynthesis plant breeding plough population growth potato problems protein reduced regions rise rotation seed shifting cultivation sorghum soybean species spread staple sustainability teosinte tillage tion tonnes tropics varieties Washington D.C. weeds wheat and rice world food world population yams yield potential