FIGURE 1. Agricultural trends over the past 40 years.
From the following article:
Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices
David Tilman, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson, Rosamond Naylor and Stephen Polasky
Nature 418, 671-677(8 August 2002)
doi:10.1038/nature01014
a, Total global cereal production2; b, total global use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer (except former USSR not included) and area of global irrigated land; and c, total global pesticide production3 and global pesticide imports (summed across all countries)2. Parts b and c modified from ref. 4.