THE TECHNOLOGY OF MORE FOOD AT LESS COST AND A BETTER ENVIRONMENT
October is traditionally the time for harvest festivals in communities throughout the US and here in Britain. In fact, the word “harvest” comes from Old English hærfest, meaning “autumn.”
I have just taken a ride on the combine harvester cutting wheat on my farm in Northumberland. It is such a sophisticated threshing machine that long gone are the days when I could be trusted to take the controls during the lunch break.
A screen showed how the GPS was steering it, inch-perfect and hands-free, along the edge of the unharvested crop; another screen gave an instant readout of the yield. It was averaging over five tons (kilotons, 1,000 kilos or 2,200 lbs) per acre (or 12 tons per hectare) — a record.
This is Precision Farming. It and other hi-tech developments have resulted in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index now well below where it was throughout the 1960s and 1970s: that is to say, it’s proving cheaper and easier to feed seven billion today than it was to feed three billion in 1960. And on much less land. The Eco-Doomsters are of course unhappy.
