As if the global recession affecting many countries wasn't enough, there are other issues on the horizon which could compound the difficulties we are already facing. Most of us know that the world population is continually growing, adding more people and more mouths to feed. Also, in the most rapidly growing countries such as China and India, they are experiencing such rapid growth that they need to search abroad for farm land to supply the growing need for food. It is not just that the populations are growing, but in developing countries with growing middle classes, appetites for better foods are increasing, thus increasing the demand. While some countries are able to feed that growing middle class, the number of undernourished people is growing as well. This is due to both the increased demands for grains worldwide, which has diminished reserves and increased prices and also to increasingly volatile weather which more often than not has been destroying crops in the countries most depended on to supply those grains. In the past decade alone, the amount of undernourished people has jumped almost 100 million to almost 950 million people world wide. There are a few different reasons one could look at to explain the difficulties we are facing now. To start with, we have to jump back a few more decades to look at the Green Revolution and its immediate and long term effects. To get an entirely in depth understanding, check out this article.
Starting back in the 1950's and 1960's, there were great advances made in crop production, the staples of wheat, rice, soybeans, and corn. Production of these crops was able to be doubled through engineering these plants according to the area they would be grown in. Then in the 1970's, genetic engineering of these plants enable them to survive in areas previously unable to support crop production. All this enabled food production to exceed population growth and resulted in large reserves available to sustain us all. This production continued into the 1980's and 1990's where in association with the booming agriculture industry, funding for new research and technology in the area fell off because everything looked fantastic. Also during
that period, as scientists were seeing a warming climate, they assumed that increased CO2 levels would actually boost grain production as CO2 is a vital component for any plant life. Well, in reality, the rising CO2 levels don't make as much of a difference as they were expected to. Scientists had originally assumed that production would essentially double with rising levels, but when tested in a controlled environment just recently, it was found that production levels experienced only a minor increase if at all. So what does all this mean. Essentially, unless countries start heavily investing money into agricultural research, especially in the areas of wheat, rice, soybean, and corn, there will be far greater food shorter in the future than we are experiencing now. The unfortunate part is, even though we have seen food prices double in most cases since 2007, over the next ten years we can expect food prices to double or triple their current levels. No matter how much investing countries do right now, it will take years for any new genetically engineered plant to make it into the field and start making a difference in food production.
In addition to rising CO2 levels not making much of a difference, perhaps the biggest concern at this point is the volatile weather that we have been experiencing across the globe. In the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in droughts, heat waves, flash floods, diminished water supplies, pests, and more. The current plants that produce our food are unable for the most part the exist in under these circumstances. Some research has shown that once the temperature rises to a certain level, 84 degrees for corn and 86 degrees for soybeans, yields of those crops drop severely. There is some hope however, if and only if we invest more money into this industry. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has been an enormous investor in these area and has made a difference, but it will take more to make a world wide difference. In one instance, a farmer in India had his crop of rice entirely submerged by a flood for a week. A normal rice plant would have perished, but with his new genetically engineered rice plant, it was essentially able to go dormant till the waters subsided and it could once again get fresh air and sunlight. The crops did not die, and he was still able to harvest his rice. There is a difference that can be made and it must be made soon if we are to enable our growing population sustain itself and provide food for everyone.
The current world population of 7 billion is expected to reach 10 billion by the end of the century. This means we need to find a way to double our production of the essential grains as we did last century. While this will take massive investment on the part of countries, people can also make a little difference themselves. All it takes is starting a little garden of your own to supply you and your family with at least part of what you eat. Even if it just some vegetables for the summer, it will make a difference. Even if you live in a city, there has been a growth in roof top gardens to help in growing fresh produce for those living nearby. While this is only a small part and doesn't necessarily affect the production of the essential grains, it helps to alleviate the strain put on the market by supplying ourselves with some of the food we eat. While it may not be easy to make a difference world wide in the production of food, we can urge our governments to invest more money into research of grain production. It still won't be easy because we have yet to recover from the global recession and money is still short in many places. However, something needs to be done and we need to start it now. Just a few years ago, there were riots in over thirty different countries over food. If we don't want that number to grow, our governments need to step it up a notch, get past their bickering, and find real solutions to our food supply issues.
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