Smil — “Between 1800 and 2020, we reduced the labor…”

Source: How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future — Vaclav Smil

Book page: smil-how-the-world-really-works

From: How the World Really Works — Quotes

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Between 1800 and 2020, we reduced the labor needed to produce a kilogram of grain by more than 98 percent—and we reduced the share of the country’s population engaged in agriculture by the same large margin.50 This provides a useful guide to the profound economic transformations that would have to take place with any retreat of agricultural mechanization and reduction in the use of synthetic agrochemicals.