Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sumption of synthetic fertilizer was negligible, and almost all its nitrogen was derived from
organic sources. By 1996 the population was close to 1.2 billion, applications of synthetic
nitrogen had increased more than 50 fold, and 75 per cent of all nitrogen applied to crops
was synthetic, produced by the Haber/Bosch process.
In the same period average per capita food consumption increased from about 2,000 cal-
ories, to 2,700; and meat consumption increased from a reported figure of 1.4 kg per year
while, very little new agricultural land has been opened up, and in recent years the amount
of arable land has shrunk, owing to urban development and desertification.
Assuming these figures are broadly correct, and not skewed by anti-Maoist bias, this a
phenomenal achievement, even allowing that it has been accomplished with the aid of a
magic potion. The feat of feeding twice as many people off the same amount of land, with
a diet that was both more ample and contained a great deal more animal protein, Smil ar-
gues, could not have been achieved using the traditional organic techniques of the 1950s
which were already stretched to their limits. A similar, though less accentuated process has
taken place throughout the rest of the world, particularly in Asia. 'Intensive farming,' Smil
concludes, 'whose increasing harvests have depended almost entirely on additional nitro-
gen from synthetic fertilizers, now produces basic food needs for about 2.3 billion more
people than the traditional, fertilizer-free practices did … almost exactly 40 per cent of the
world's population.' Or more bluntly, without synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, 40 per cent of
the people in the world would starve.
I would like to believe that Smil is wrong, for a number of reasons. Quite apart from the
environmental problems which Smil mentions, the social effects of the so-called green re-
volution have been equally disastrous. Chemical fertilizers, and the other inputs designed
to achieve yield increases such as pesticides and irrigation, are too expensive for most peas-
ants. Wealthy farmers - those who can achieve the economies of scale necessary to justify
the investment - prosper at the expense of the poor, who are eased off their land, through
debt or by force. The autonomy and the integrity of a rural community lies in its access
to its own resources, the main one (except in maritime communities) being its soil. Impor-
ted chemical fertility cannot be had for nothing, and it requires the export of equivalent
amounts of biomass (to the city or possibly abroad), making the rural community behold-
en to the industrial economy for the functioning of its primary resource. The progressive
industrialization of the rural economy results in the majority of people being forced into
cities, where the rewards of living close to the land are supplanted by the pressure to com-
pete and consume.
It is possible that Smil could be wrong. What would have happened if the Haber/Bosch
process and all the rest of the agrochemical armoury had never been developed, either be-
cause such developments were technically impossible, or else because, in the context of a
