Lengthy but worthwhile history of global food production, and how it explains almost everything else in the human world.

Scientists have a name for the total amount of plant mass created by Earth in a given year, the total budget for life. They call it the planet’s “primary productivity.??? … we humans, a single species among millions, consume about 40 percent of Earth’s primary productivity, 40 percent of all there is. This simple number may explain why the current extinction rate is 1,000 times that which existed before human domination of the planet. We 6 billion have simply stolen the food, the rich among us a lot more than others. [more]

The piece includes what I would guess is the oldest extant account of environmental degradation as a result of human activity, written by Plato almost 2500 years ago. This article was originally posted in Harpers, February 2004, but somehow it’s come bubbling to the surface via Jason Kottke a few days ago…