Kenneth Blaxter – författare

During the fifty-year period from 1936-86 the modern agricultural revolution occurred, in which, for the first time, science was properly harnessed to the improvement in agricultural productivity. The authors of this 1995 book quantify this improvement and identify the work of scientists which was seminal to the scientific and technological advances on which the revolution was founded. The topics covered include the advances in animal nutrition (in which the late Kenneth Blaxter was an acknowledged pioneer), animal and plant breeding, soil fertility, weed, pest, and disease control, veterinary medicine, engineering (including innovations in tractor design by Harry Ferguson), and statistical measurement. In addition, this book describes how these innovations were integrated into the practical business of food production and discusses the importance of the Government in setting the scene for scientific advance.

The current problems of sub-Saharan peoples who are subject to recurrent famine and shortages of food are only one facet of a wider problem which confronts the peoples of the world. This problem, which is a vast in scale, concerns the relationship between the physical and biological resources which the world can muster and the provision of food for the adequate nutrition of its peoples. Overshadowing much of the thought about the future is the theorem propounded by Malthus almost 200 years ago, namely that population, unless checked in some way, has the capacity to outstrip the productivity of the earth in supplying food. Malthus' views are examined in this 1986 book and estimates are made of the need to increase and the possibilities of increasing both the nutritional status of the world's population and the production of food and other essentials. The enormous dilemmas that face mankind, the economic arguments that, while apparently logical, pose large moral questions, and the possible role of new scientific advances are outlined.