tallbuilder on Nostr: The interesting thing about that chart is that much of the improvement is from corn- ...

The interesting thing about that chart is that much of the improvement is from corn- an important feedstock for CAFO livestock.
Wheat and rice are more direct food sources and haven’t benefited as dramatically from the types of innovation we see in corn and soybeans.

I absolutely believe wheat yield can be pushed in high management systems, but instances of doing that are rare, and often rotational to achieve other ends.

Another thing of note- Stock to Use ratio really hasn’t changed much over the timeline. So we are raising more crop on fewer acres to feed and fuel a greater number of people. At the same time, urban sprawl is steadily chewing into some the most productive lands- hardly the highest and best use from an agronomic point of view.

I would love to visit with a mob theory or chaos theory person about where this all goes. Some market theory states “Resources will find their highest and best use in an unregulated system”. That is an impossibility. Every system is regulated by a number of factors- ecological, climate, finance, time, capacity, and so forth then eventually bias and preference which we can call human policy. This might be a great topic for your podcast, if you can find an interesting person to visit with.