
How much food did the world produce in 2024?

The combined area devoted to food production is now more than twice as large as it was a century ago, but in all affluent economies the land under cultivation has either stabilized or has slightly decreased, while the overall global growth of new farmland has slowed down considerably.[23] Given the continent’s still-high fertility rates, further ex
... See moreVaclav Smil • How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
China could thus absorb all of the world's grain exports and still satisfy less than two-thirds of its demand.
Vaclav Smil • Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years
So forget arithmetic ratios: over the past century, grain yields per hectare have swooped upward while real prices have plunged. The savings are mind-boggling. If the food grown today had to be grown with pre-nitrogen-farming techniques, an area the size of Russia would go under the plow.19 In the United States in 1901, an hour’s wages could buy ar
... See moreSteven Pinker • Enlightenment Now
In 2005, affluent Western nations had about 800 million people, or some 12% of global population, but they cultivated nearly one-quarter of the world's farmland, averaging about 0.5 ha per capita