According to a recent report,
Food production must rise 70% over the next 40 years to feed
the world's growing population, the United Nations food agency predicts.
With an anticipated 9.1 billion by mid-century, climate change, floods and droughts, along with 90% growth of Biofuel use, which will demand land and
products previously used for food production, we are facing a 370 million person famine in 40 years.
Of course, famine is nothing new for some nations. We have people starving the world over, even in "modern and civilized" countries like the United
States.
Likewise, we have plenty of farmland that is more than capable of producing the amount of food required to feed this anticipated population, even
taking into account climate change, floods and drought, but we pay subsidies to farmers to destroy their crops in the name of Market Protectionism,
Trade Limits, and Fair Trade.
And of course none of this takes into account the decrease of Biodiversity or the legal challenges worldwide by Monsanto to prevent the collecting of
seeds from one harvest to the next, or the concerted effort by them and Dow Agrosciences to buy out heritage seed companies to monopolize that market
which could easily compound the situation many-fold.
For those that fear Government Mandated Population Controls, or attempts to decrease the population, one need not worry. All our Governments
apparently have to do is nothing at all to cause depopulation over the next 40 years.
I knew that we were facing some growing pains as a planet, but I guess feeding the planet was pretty low on the list of immediate urgent issues. It
sounds like it's become time that we bump it's position up on that short-list of issues that need to be addressed, and soon...as by comparison, the
Economy, lack of Jobs, and Health Care are hardly anything to get too upset about if there isn't enough food to eat.
[edit on 12-10-2009 by fraterormus]