Re:Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World
by sampo on Tuesday February 13, 2018 @04:49PM
(#16371130)
> The amount of crops one can grow is directly tied to how much nitrogen can be provided.
This is only half true. You also needed to breed new crop varieties that were able to put all that abundance of nitrogen to good use. Older crops varieties, adapted to grow well in the less nitrogen-rich soils, would not simply double their output even when given double nitrogen.
So there is another man, plant breeder Norman Borlaug, who is equally responsible for feeding most of our 8 billion people today.
This is only half true. You also needed to breed new crop varieties that were able to put all that abundance of nitrogen to good use. Older crops varieties, adapted to grow well in the less nitrogen-rich soils, would not simply double their output even when given double nitrogen.
So there is another man, plant breeder Norman Borlaug, who is equally responsible for feeding most of our 8 billion people today.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-macaray/the-man-who-sav...