Food scarcity is a bigger problem than ever as human population
numbers continue to swell, putting additional stress on already fragile
food production and distribution systems. And it's not just happening in
far away places: A recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
found that the number of U.S. homes "lacking food security" rose from
4.7 million to 6.7 million in just the last five years.
Meanwhile,
the United Nations' World Food Program reports that a billion people
around the world-one in seven of us-don't have enough to eat. And
projections of food prices doubling by 2080 turned out to be gross
understatements: Some key crops have doubled in price in just the last
decade. Food scarcity leading to hunger kills more people today than
AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
"World population growth
is outpacing food production, particularly with the four crops that
provide the bulk of the world's nutrition: wheat, rice, corn and
soybeans," reported Robert Roy Britt in a June 2011 article on the
LiveScience website. "As studies have shown previously, there's little
land left to convert to farming, water supplies are drying up, and
global warming is wreaking havoc on the growing seasons and contributing
to weather extremes that destroy crops."
There are many drivers
of food scarcity around the world, but drought exacerbated by climate
change is perhaps the biggest today. "Scientists have been predicting
for years that a warmer planet coupled with increasing water demands
could cause food shortages," says Britt. Meanwhile, increasing demand
for fresh water is drying out aquifers faster than nature can replenish
them, making water scarcer for farmers.
"With food scarcity driven
by falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures, control
of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the
global struggle for food security," reports Lester Brown of the
U.S.-based Earth Policy Institute. "In this era of tightening world food
supplies, the ability to grow food is fast becoming a new form of
geopolitical leverage. Food is the new oil."
Another big
contributor is waste: A 2011 United Nations study found that 1.3 billion
tons of food, about one-third of global food production, is lost during
production or wasted after being partially consumed.
According to
Oxfam, the world's poor spend three-quarters of their income on food. A
survey by Save the Children found that 24 percent of families in India,
27 percent in Nigeria and 14 percent in Peru now have foodless days.
"By 2050, there will be 9 billion people on the planet and demand for
food will have increased by 70 percent," says Robert Bailey, Oxfam's
senior climate adviser.
Food scarcity is a tough nut to crack.
Greenhouse gas emissions need to be substantially cut back, as does meat
consumption, which exploits land better used directly to grow crops for
human consumption. Family planning can play a key role in curbing
population growth. And policies such as in the U.S., where in 2011 30
percent of the grain harvest was used to distill ethanol to fuel cars,
only make matters worse.
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