I’ve been making my way through ‘Numbers don’t lie’—the latest book from Bill Gates’ favourite author, Vaclav Smil.
The subtitle of the book is ’71 thing you need to know about the world’, and it summarises a number of excellent insights across global food and energy systems, transportation, globalisation, and population.
I went for the ‘Food’ section first. Half out of interest. Half due to hunger.
What I love about this book is how the insights aren’t independent, they all weave together to form a nuanced perspective on complex systems.
For example, if we didn’t have synthetic ammonia—which is the key ingredient in synthetic fertilisers used in agriculture today—we wouldn’t be able to secure enough food for 3 billion people. That’s equivalent to the populations of China and India combined.
At the same time, the nitrates from agricultural fertiliser run-off are causing significant dead zones in our ocean. A proper catch-22.
Furthermore, 60% of crop harvests in North America and Europe are used for feeding livestock, not people. It completely shocked me that 15,000 litres of water is required to produce 1kg of boneless beef.
Add to the above the fact that humanity wastes more than one third of all harvested food, and we’ve got an insanely complex and confusing food dilemma on our hands.
It’s not all bad news though. Smil sets out some clear and data-driven changes that we can make to improve our personal lives (e.g., eating less meat), and to improve society as a whole (e.g., tighter regulation on the fishing of endangered aquatic species).