{"id":15812,"date":"2013-08-07T11:41:24","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T17:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=15812"},"modified":"2013-08-07T11:41:24","modified_gmt":"2013-08-07T17:41:24","slug":"full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Planet, Empty Plates, Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"corn<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>\u00a0We\u2019re proud to support the Earth Policy Institute\u2019s online publication of Lester Brown\u2019s most recent book\u00a0Full Planet, Empty Plates\u00a0by publishing selections from the book. If you missed other installments, you can find them\u00a0here<\/a>; we\u2019ll add new ones every couple of weeks.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Lester R. Brown<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the beginning of agriculture until the mid-twentieth century, growth in the world grain harvest<\/a> came almost entirely from expanding the cultivated area. Rises in land productivity were too slow to be visible within a single generation. It is only within the last 60 years or so that rising yields have replaced area expansion as the principal source of growth in world grain production<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The transition was dramatic. Between 1950 and 1973 the world\u2019s farmers doubled the grain harvest, nearly all of it from raising yields. Stated otherwise, expansion during these 23 years equaled the growth in output from the beginning of agriculture until 1950. The keys to this phenomenal expansion were fertilization, irrigation, and higher-yielding varieties, coupled with strong economic incentives for production.<\/p>\n

The first country to achieve a steady, sustained rise in grain yields was Japan, where the yield takeoff began in the 1880s. But for a half-century or so, it was virtually alone. Not until the mid-twentieth century did the United States and Western Europe launch a steady rise in grain yields. Shortly thereafter many other countries succeeded in boosting grain yields.<\/p>\n

The average world grain yield in 1950 was 1.1 tons per hectare. In 2011, it was 3.3 tons per hectare\u2014a tripling of the 1950 level. Some countries, including the United States and China, managed to quadruple grain yields, and all within a human life span.<\/p>\n

Impressive though the growth is over the last 60 years, the pace has slowed during the last two decades. Between 1950 and 1990, the world grain yield increased by an average of 2.2 percent a year. From 1990 to 2011, the annual rise slowed to 1.3 percent. In some agriculturally advanced countries, the dramatic climb in yields has come to an end as yields have plateaued.<\/p>\n

For example, the rice yield per hectare in Japan, after climbing for more than a century, has not increased at all over the last 17 years. Like Japan, South Korea\u2019s rice yield also has plateaued. Interestingly, it plateaued at almost exactly the same level as the rice yield in Japan did, and while Japan\u2019s plateauing began in 1994, South Korea\u2019s began in 1996. A similar situation is developing with wheat in Europe. In France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, wheat yields have been flat for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Thus far the countries where rice or wheat yields have plateaued are medium-sized ones. What happens when grain yields plateau in some of the larger countries?<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the full report.<\/p>\n

From Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity<\/em> by Lester R. Brown (New York: W.W. Norton & Co.). Supporting data, video, and slideshows are available for free download at www.earth-policy.org\/books\/fpep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Image credit: <\/strong>CIMMYT<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have yields of major grains, such as rice, corn, and wheat, started to plateau after decades of growth? Lester Brown explores this phenomenon in Chapter 7 from his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":15815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[18,844,6381,3567,3568,1365,6545],"yoast_head":"\nChapter 7, Lester Brown's Full Planet, Empty Plates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have grain yields started to plateau after decades of growth? Lester Brown explores this phenomenon in Chapter 7 from his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chapter 7, Lester Brown's Full Planet, Empty Plates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have grain yields started to plateau after decades of growth? Lester Brown explores this phenomenon in Chapter 7 from his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/corn-seed.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Earth Policy Institute\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Earth Policy Institute\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Earth Policy Institute\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/303f42e2aea53dbc843da320af337631\"},\"headline\":\"Full Planet, Empty Plates, Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/\"},\"wordCount\":511,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"agriculture\",\"fertilizer\",\"fpep\",\"grain\",\"rice\",\"wheat\",\"yields\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sustainability\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/\",\"name\":\"Chapter 7, Lester Brown's Full Planet, Empty Plates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Have grain yields started to plateau after decades of growth? Lester Brown explores this phenomenon in Chapter 7 from his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Full Planet, Empty Plates, Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"description\":\"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":142,\"caption\":\"Sustainablog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/303f42e2aea53dbc843da320af337631\",\"name\":\"Earth Policy Institute\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ecfb05903c76424e88346ee1fd31dacc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ecfb05903c76424e88346ee1fd31dacc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Earth Policy Institute\"},\"description\":\"Earth Policy Institute is dedicated to planning a sustainable future and providing a roadmap of how to get from here to there.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.earthpolicy.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/earthpolicy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chapter 7, Lester Brown's Full Planet, Empty Plates","description":"Have grain yields started to plateau after decades of growth? Lester Brown explores this phenomenon in Chapter 7 from his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chapter 7, Lester Brown's Full Planet, Empty Plates","og_description":"Have grain yields started to plateau after decades of growth? Lester Brown explores this phenomenon in Chapter 7 from his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates.","og_url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/","og_site_name":"Sustainablog","article_published_time":"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":333,"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/corn-seed.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Earth Policy Institute","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Earth Policy Institute","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/"},"author":{"name":"Earth Policy Institute","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/303f42e2aea53dbc843da320af337631"},"headline":"Full Planet, Empty Plates, Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau","datePublished":"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/"},"wordCount":511,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"keywords":["agriculture","fertilizer","fpep","grain","rice","wheat","yields"],"articleSection":["Sustainability"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/","name":"Chapter 7, Lester Brown's Full Planet, Empty Plates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-07T17:41:24+00:00","description":"Have grain yields started to plateau after decades of growth? Lester Brown explores this phenomenon in Chapter 7 from his recent book Full Planet, Empty Plates.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/full-planet-empty-plates-chapter-7-grain-yields-starting-to-plateau\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Full Planet, Empty Plates, Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","name":"Sustainablog","description":"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization","name":"Sustainablog","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","width":200,"height":142,"caption":"Sustainablog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/303f42e2aea53dbc843da320af337631","name":"Earth Policy Institute","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ecfb05903c76424e88346ee1fd31dacc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ecfb05903c76424e88346ee1fd31dacc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Earth Policy Institute"},"description":"Earth Policy Institute is dedicated to planning a sustainable future and providing a roadmap of how to get from here to there.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.earthpolicy.org"],"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/earthpolicy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}