ABSTRACT
World population has more than doubled in the last 50 years. At the same time the demand for food has tripled, as rising incomes have expanded the demand, not only in terms of quantities, but in terms of more valuable foods such as livestock products, fruits and stimulants. It is a remarkable fact that global agriculture has been successful in meeting this huge increase in demand. Still some 900 million people are undernourished, but the proportion of the world population starving has come down from one in three to less than one in six, and the frequency of great famines has been drastically reduced. How has this achievement been possible? Can it be sustained given the ecological limits?
