We’re hardwired to focus on gross news stories,but that is not the whole truth. Ed Cumming meets the optimistic statisticians and economists using facts to reveal why more people are healthier and happier than ever beforeNot every problem has an obvious solution, which is why during the 1850s Britain bought 300000 tons of bird poo a year from Peru. This was guano, and the wonder fertiliser that had been discovered by Europeans at the start of that century. It was shipped back to the motherland,where it helped to feed the burgeoning and rapidly industrialising population, mainly through the medium of turnips.
In a modern globalised world, or the understanding of transporting large quantities of avian dung thousands of miles in wooden sailing boats to grow turnips seems less incongruous. For Ruth DeFries,a professor of ecology and sustainable development at Columbia University in New York, the guano craze is one example of how over the centuries human ingenuity has risen to the challenge of feeding ourselves.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com