Over the past year, the headlines have been dominated by alarming events: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, high inflation, supply chain shortages, and the threat of food insecurity for many nations. But 2022 was also a year of milestones toward a better future, scientific breakthroughs, and stories of hope. Here’s a look at 10 stories of human progress from the last 12 months.

1. We found out that civilization reached peak agricultural land

For nearly all of human history, producing more food required more land. But starting in the early 1900s, and continuing through the next 100 years, four powerful forces—synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, synthetic pesticides, hydrocarbon-powered mechanization, and improved genetic selection—allowed humani…