World grain output tripled in sixty years while farmland barely grew
Between 1964 and 2023 cereal production rose by 213 percent, yet the area harvested grew only about 10 percent. Nearly all the gain came from squeezing more grain from each field. Those grasses, named after the Roman goddess Ceres, are the largest crops on Earth and the foundation of cities.
A cereal is a grass grown for its grain, which botanically is a small fruit whose seed coat has fused with its outer wall. Grasses grow their leaves from the base, a trick that protects the growing tissue from grazing animals, and most are pollinated by wind. The list runs from wheat, rice and maize to barley, oats, rye, sorghum and millet. Buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth look similar but come from other plant families, so they are called pseudocereals. Cool-season types such as rye and barley tolerate cold and stall above about 30 degrees Celsius, while millet and sorghum need heat and cannot survive frost.
People ground wild grass seeds at Cuddie Springs in Australia perhaps 30,000 years ago, and charred wild wheat and barley at Ohalo II in Israel are about 19,000 years old. Farmers first tamed wheat and barley in the Fertile Crescent; East Asia gave us domestic rice and millets, Sudan gave sorghum, and Mexico produced maize about 9,000 years ago. Early farmers enriched soil with manure, fish, compost and ash, an idea that arose separately in Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley and East Asia.
Grain surpluses made complex societies possible, because part of each harvest could be taken from farmers to support rulers in cities. Religion followed the harvest: a Mesopotamian myth begins civilisation with the grain goddess Ashnan, and several ancient deities, including the Roman Janus, combined farming with war.
The Green Revolution of the 20th century lifted wheat and rice yields with machinery, monocultures, nitrogen fertiliser and new seed strains, helping to avert famine. The price was nutritional: high-yield varieties tend to be heavy in carbohydrate and short of good-quality protein, vitamins and minerals. Ancient and heirloom grains became fashionable in the early 21st century, though they yield less per plant. Intensive monocultures harm soils and wildlife, and practices like no-till farming and intercropping can soften the damage.
Source: Cereal
