>What Jim Heartfield cited below is utter nonsense.
Utter nonsense?
>In 1900, farmer made their own fertilizer, tractors [then horses], etc. With
>the refinement of the division of labor, work that was done on the farm moved
>off the farm to the factory.
Yes, and this primitive division of labour squandered resources.
>
>Also, when I wrote Farming for Profit in a Hungry World back in 1977, I found
>that for each calorie of food produced, 10 calories of fossil fuel were consumed
>in the process. Also, I found 30 pounds of soil erosion for each pound of food
>consumed.
>
>I assume that things have deteriorated since I first did my research.
I'm sure you do assume that everything just gets worse and worse. But the facts are that agricultural productivity has improved over the century. One obvious consequence of that is that the world's population has increased so much. And more than that, alongside that increase in population, the proportion of people working in agriculture has fallen. None of these things imply anything other than an increase in agricultural productivity. -- Jim heartfield