In 1920 plant breeders developed a vigorous and hardy new variety of wheat, ‘Marquis’, by crossing a Himalayan and an American plant, which could survive further north in Canada. So thanks to tractors, fertilisers and new varieties, by 1931, the year in which Crookes had chosen to place his potential future famine, the supply of wheat had so far exceeded the demand that the price of wheat had plummeted and wheat land was being turned over to pasture all over Europe.
