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The Big Ratchet
Book

The Big Ratchet

How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis: A Biography of an Ingenious Species

Basic Books, 2014 подробнее...


Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

In this fair, thorough look at how modern agriculture changed the world, Columbia University professor Ruth DeFries explains the “ratchet-pivot-hatchet” mechanisms behind the Green Revolution and the human ingenuity driving each step. Her descriptions prove simple enough for the uninitiated; her exhaustive notes and references should satisfy the pickiest academic. DeFries neither issues a call for returning to subsistence farming nor champions modern agriculture. She strikes a balance while explaining the pros and cons of chemical fertilizers and modern, selectively bred crops. The second chapter is sometimes tedious, but provides valuable background and resources. DeFries – for better or worse – falls short of suggesting paths for the future. getAbstract recommends her history and analysis to anyone concerned about food production, agriculture, global hunger and environmental issues.

Take-Aways

  • Globally, on average, people spend less of their income on food than ever before.
  • People can – to a point – bend nature to their will but cannot escape nature. Humanity depends on the sun, the Earth and the natural cycles of life.
  • The Green Revolution – which enabled world population to swell to more than seven billion people by 2010 – is the “Big Ratchet.”

About the Author

Ruth DeFries, a professor of ecology, evolution and environmental biology at Columbia University in New York, studies how people transform the world around them.


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