World food crisis: Production must rise by 50%, says UN chief

People have had overpopulation pounded into their brains for so long that nobody seems to realize that the average woman gives birth to far fewer children now than ever before. Most of Europe is just beginning to experience population declines, and it won't be long before the true crisis of a shrinking population becomes apparent. The US will continue to see population growth for a longer period of time, due to immigration and certain segments of the population that still have many offspring.
Even in less developed countries the numbers have shown a drastic drop off. The cause can very much be attributed to widespread urbanization. As people move to cities there becomes far less reason to produce a lot of offspring. There is no land to have children work, and they become a financial burden to raise rather than an asset.
In the long run, this becomes a bigger concern than the short term(next 30-50 years) prospect of increasing population. Our whole way of life has evolved to take advantage of a growing population, with the young outnumbering the elderly. This is in the process of reversing and the effects will be seen in some places very soon. Programs of Social Security will have absolutely no hope of being saved. We have very little true knowledge of what a population weighted heavily towards the elderly with an ever decreasing workforce will do.
We'll see what happens. We've done a good job escaping the past predicted food shortages. The capacity seems to be there, with government and lack of infrastructure largely to blame for distribution issues.
While short term food obviously need to be dealt with, I truly fear that a shrinking population will be disastrous simply because we let it sneak up on us even though it's pretty obvious it's coming soon. Europe and Japan should be an interesting test case.

This is the Maltus Law working:
en.wikipedia.org...

we have to find another planet, reduce the reproduction rate or produce more food.

they say 50% by 2030, its more than 20 years from now so we may have time to do it...

reply to post by greenfruit


greenfruit i would urge you to spend some time looking at the urban-agriculture that took root in cuba following the embargoes. they have developed a strong ability to produce food in habited areas like you suggest. this not only has created a alternative base for food production it has also created jobs for those who normally would not find them such as elderly women and others who are not 'prime' laborers.

all in all i would like to say good post! to few remember how to produce their own food. the knowledge that was passed from generation to generation is quickly disappearing. even the farmers of today no longer practice the agriculture of 60 years ago. though many would argue that these new methods of production are superior there is much evidence to suggest it is not.

furthermore relinquishing this ability to produce food for ourselves, that is locally has created a looming specter (un)known as food-insecurity. i have read that most places in the USA, be it village, town, or city have a food supply for 3 days. if transportation were to stop food would run out in less than 1 week.

we have a lot to worry about when it comest to food yet no one wants to talk about it and many will dismiss it as a non-issue.

edit: to correct a name

[edit on 4-6-2008 by Animal]

Originally posted by derfred33
This is the Maltus Law working:
en.wikipedia.org...

we have to find another planet, reduce the reproduction rate or produce more food.

they say 50% by 2030, its more than 20 years from now so we may have time to do it...

Lol trust me..we wont be finding or inhabiting another planet for a loooong time.One idea though i have always liked is that frog...cant remember his name..he freezes during the winter months,but his body releases a chemical which stops the rupturing of cells...then he defrosts and comes back alive! yay! This would be a good way to travel vast distances in space via cryogenics for us humans in the future.

reply to post by Animal

we have a lot to worry about when it comest to food yet no one wants to talk about it and many will dismiss it as a non-issue.

Yeah, I find it odd that the govt tries to protect us from ourselves in other areas, yet people don't think that the govt would work behind the scenes to protect us from something as large scale as overpopulation. I think it is a large agenda that is being addressed and no one wants to believe it is true.