How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

by Vaclav Smil

rising food production reduced the malnutrition rate from 2 in 3 people in 1950 to 1 in 11 by 2019.[4]

This impressive achievement is even more noteworthy if expressed in a way that accounts for the intervening large-scale increase of the global population, from about 2.5 billion people in 1950 to 7.7 billion in 2019. The steep reduction in global undernutrition means that in 1950 the world was able to supply adequate food to about 890 million people, but by 2019 that had risen to just over 7 billion: a nearly eight-fold increase in absolute terms!