“It is really hard for me to comprehend that in the next 50 years, we’ll have to produce as much food as we have ever produced in human history,” Clark said. “That means in the working life of my children as much grain as has ever been harvested since the Egyptian time.”
What a scary and tragically sad future but I am optimistic and want to believe we can change that.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
By Oscar Wilde
World food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050, to nourish a human population then likely to be 9.1 billion, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation forecast Wednesday.
"FAO is cautiously optimistic about the world's potential to feed itself by 2050," said FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem. However, he stressed that feeding everyone in the world by then "will not be automatic and several significant challenges have to be met."
The agency is preparing for a high-level expert forum in Rome on October 12-13 on "How to Feed the World in 2050" and plans to gather 300 specialists from academic, non-governmental and private sector institutions.
This forum will pave the way for a World Summit on Food Security in Rome on November 16-18.
The world population is expected to grow from 6.8 billion today to 9.1 billion in 2050, according to the latest UN forecast.
"Nearly all of the population growth will occur in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa's population is expected to grow the fastest (up 108 percent, 910 million people), and East and South East Asia's the slowest (up 11 percent, 228 million).
"Around 70 percent of the world population will live in cities or urban areas by 2050, up from 49 percent today," the document said.
The demand for food is expected to grow as a result of rising incomes as well as population growth, the discussion paper added. Cereal production will have to increase by almost a billion tonnes from 2.1 billion today and meat production will have to grow by more than 200 million tonnes to reach a total of 470 million tonnes in 2050.
The FAO estimated that the "production of biofuels could also increase the demand for agricultural commodities, depending on energy prices and government policies."
More land will be needed for crops "despite the fact that 90 percent of the growth in crop production is projected to come from higher yields and increased cropping intensity."
The FAO estimated that "arable land will have to expand by around 120 million hectares in developing countries," mainly in Africa and Latin America, while "arable land in use in developed countries is expected to decline by some 50 million hectares, although this could be changed by the demand for biofuels."World food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050, to nourish a human... more
Effects of climate change including the melting of Himalayan glaciers threaten water and food security for more than 1.6 billion people living in South Asia, according to a study released Wednesday.
India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Nepal will be most vulnerable to falling crop yields caused by glacier retreat, floods, droughts and erratic rainfall, said the study financed by the Asian Development Bank.
"South Asia's vulnerability to climate change has extremely serious implications for agriculture and therefore food security," Kunio Senga, the ADB's director general for South Asia, told a news conference in the Nepalese capital, Katmandu.
The Manila, Philippines-based bank, which finances poverty reduction programs, reported the findings Wednesday. The full report, produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute, is due for release later this month in Bangkok, Thailand on the sidelines of a U.N. climate change meeting.
The study warned if current trends persist until 2050, the yields of irrigated crops in South Asia will decrease significantly.
In the case of Nepal, Environment Ministry Secretary Udaya Raj Sharma said the rate of glacial melting in the impoverished Himalayan nation's mountains was higher than initially predicted, and the trend threatened rice and wheat crops.
A report released last week by British aid agency Oxfam warned millions Nepalese face severe food shortages because of climate change. It said changing weather patterns — extreme temperatures, drier winters and delays in summer monsoons — have dramatically affected crop production already, leaving farmers unable to properly feed themselves and pushing them into debt. An estimated 3.4 million people in Nepal need food aid, it said.
Oxfam predicted river levels will decline because of reduced rainfall and glacial retreat, making it harder to irrigate crops and provide water for livestock.Effects of climate change including the melting of Himalayan glaciers threaten water... more
We desperately need a new way of thinking, a new mind-set. The thinking that got us into this bind will not get us out. When Elizabeth Kolbert, a writer for the New Yorker, asked energy guru Amory Lovins about thinking outside the box, Lovins responded: "There is no box."
There is no box. That is the mind-set we need if civilization is to survive.
It's not news that Lester Brown is warning about our unsustainable approach to feeding the planet. But it is news that Scientific American has run a major article by him on how "The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse."We desperately need a new way of thinking, a new mind-set. The thinking that got us... more
Ok, guys I write for you this quick note, to those who take seriously my messages. I write this post because I saw the beast standing up before the cameras and saying “The safety of people around the world is at stake," blaming Afghanistan and Pakistan.Ok, guys I write for you this quick note, to those who take seriously my messages. I... more
Haitian mothers are forced to choose which children will live or die due to food shortage. They are so desperate for food that many mothers wait to name their newborn because they know infants will die of malnutrition. Food crises erupted across the globe this year in countries such as Egypt and India also United States also warned that they were running out of food because of unprecedented demand. The news from the World Food Program says: “A child dies of hunger every six seconds, and huger now kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined”. As World Hunger Relief Week is marked, more people are asking: Why are so many people starving and what, if anything, can be done to eradicate hunger?Haitian mothers are forced to choose which children will live or die due to food... more
Beekeepers say last year's poor summer affected the honey harvest. Honey lovers are being warned to expect a shortage of the sweet treat because last summer's poor weather stopped bees from foraging for nectar.
Beekeepers in Wales are reporting a dip in honey production following the cold, wet weather. A member of the Welsh Beekeepers' Association (WBA) said 2007 was one of the worst harvests he could remember.
Last year's wet summer also left many vegetable growers in the UK with diseased crops.Beekeepers say last year's poor summer affected the honey harvest. Honey lovers are... more
Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year's sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.
The department's annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than 50 percent above the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998.Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in... more
China's food safety crisis widened Friday after the industrial chemical melamine was found in milk produced by three of the country's leading dairy companies — prompting stores, including Starbucks, to yank milk from their shelves.
The recalls come as evidence is mounting that adding chemicals to watered-down milk was a widespread practice in China's dairy industry.
Sipping from a carton of milk at a news conference, the chief financial officer of one of the companies, Mengniu, apologized for the tainted milk. But he insisted only a small portion of the company's inventory had been contaminated and said the tainted milk came from small-scale dairy farmers.
"Large-scale milk farms are very disciplined. They won't take the risk to do something like that," Yao Tongshan told reporters in Hong Kong.
The crisis was initially thought to have been confined to tainted milk powder, used to make baby formula that has been blamed in the deaths of four infants and for sickening 6,200 other children.
But tests found melamine in samples of liquid milk taken from China's two largest dairy producers, Mengniu Dairy Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co., as well as Shanghai-based Bright Dairy. The chemical, which is used in plastics and fertilizers, can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.
All batches that tested positive were being recalled, China's product safety watchdog said in a report on its Web site. It pledged to "severely punish those who are responsible."
Melamine, which is high in nitrogen, makes products with it appear higher in protein. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added it to watered-down milk to cover up the resulting protein deficiency.
No tainted infant formula has turned up in the United States, where authorities have inspected more than 1,000 retail markets mainly serving Asian communities. China is an importer of liquid milk, so it's unlikely that milk from that country would have been shipped to the U.S.
But the Food and Drug Administration said it is stepping up inspections at ports as a precaution. Inspectors will be sampling bulk shipments of food ingredients from Asia that are derived from milk, such as milk powder and whey powder. The FDA also plans to issue a consumer alert warning people not to buy milk products from China on the Internet.
A senior dairy analyst said Chinese farmers were cutting corners to cope with rising costs for feed and labor.
"Before the melamine incident, I know they could have been adding organic stuff, say animal urine or skin," said Chen Lianfang of Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co. "Basically, anything that can boost the protein reading."
But he and others expressed skepticism that so many farmers would know to add melamine to milk. The chemical is not water-soluble and must be mixed with formaldehyde or another chemical before it can be dissolved in milk.
"Farmers can't be well-educated enough to think of melamine," Chen said. "There must be people from chemical companies contacting them and telling them it's a good idea."
China's food safety crisis widened Friday after the industrial chemical melamine was... more
Bottlenose dolphins suffering from food shortages may be killing their sibling species to take out the competition, scientists have warned.
A series of dead porpoises and young bottlenose dolphins washed up the country's coastline have borne the animal's teeth marks.
But the appearance of the body of a rare baby Risso's dolphin on a beach in the Scilly Isles has raised fears that bottlenose dolphins may be becoming more aggressive in its desperate search for food.
The latest victim, which washed up in St Agnes, was young enough to still be dependent on its mother for nourishment and researchers believe it was killed by an adult predator.
Risso's dolphins have tall dorsal fins, extensively-scarred, almost stripy black bodies and blunt heads. They are often seen around Cornwall although not as frequently as bottlenose and common dolphins. It is the first time one has been linked with a fatal attack by bottlenoses.
The baby dolphin has been brought back to the mainland where it will undergo a post-mortem examination.
Jan Loveridge, volunteer co-ordinator for Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Marine Strandings Network, said: "Despite their friendly image bottlenose dolphins can be aggressive towards one another and on the rare occasion that we see a dead bottlenose wash ashore it often has rake or tooth marks inflicted by its own species.
"But we have recently begun to see an increase in the numbers of young and female harbour porpoise that have clearly been attacked by bottlenose dolphins and results from the post mortems carried out on these animals confirm this.
"The discovery of yet another species that has suffered from these attacks is of particular interest especially as it was so young.
"The motives for such attacks are unclear, although scientists have considered that competition for declining food stocks may trigger the behaviour."
Dr Peter Evans, director of Sea Watch Foundation, said the Risso's dolphin may simply have been mistaken for a porpoise.
"Risso's dolphins feed on things like squid and cuttlefish and octopus, which are rarely eaten by bottlenose dolphin, which feed predominantly on fish," he said.
"It was quite possible that it was quite vulnerable because of its size and was mistaken for a porpoise. Young Risso's look a bit like porpoises."Bottlenose dolphins suffering from food shortages may be killing their sibling species... more
BIOFUELS are incredibly salty and don't really go with anything, hungry people in the Third World said last night.
As food crops are ploughed up to make way for biodiesel plants, local people in Africa, Asia and South America said they would really prefer rice, corn or some form of wheat.
Western governments believe biofuels can deliver three key objectives, including: reducing CO2 emmissions; guaranteeing energy security; and plunging the develoloping world into an endless, downward spiral of food riots and civil war.
Professor Henry Brubaker, of the Institute for Studies said: "At the moment it does make it somewhat impractical for half the global population to have their dinner.
"But in 40 or 50 years biofuels will be so efficient that we will be able to grow the crops in Africa, ship the fuel to America, refine it and then use it to ship cheese-based food products back to whoever's still living in Africa."
Charles Diogo, a farmer from Mozambique, said: "I really did try to like it, but I'm sorry, it's just a bit too diesely for my palate.
"It's very important to us that you are able to drive to Asda in a more environmentally friendly way."
BIOFUELS are incredibly salty and don't really go with anything, hungry people... more
An official in the Indian state of Bihar has come up with a new idea to encourage low caste poor people to cope with food shortages - rat meat.
The Principal Secretary of the state's Welfare Department, Vijay Prakash, said that he was advancing his proposal after "much survey and ground work". Bihar's extremely poor Musahar community are rat-eaters by tradition. The Musahar are on the bottom strata of the caste system with the lowest literacy rate and per capita income. Less than one percent of their 2.3 million population in Bihar is literate and 98% are landless.
Mr Prakash says his proposals to popularise rat meat eating are intended to uplift their social-economic condition. "There are twin advantages of this proposal. First, we can save about half of our food grain stocks by catching and eating rats and secondly we can improve the economic condition of the Musahar community," he told the BBC. According to Mr Prakash, about 50% of total food grain stocks in the country are eaten away by rodents. He argues that by promoting rat eating more grain will be preserved while hunger among the Musahar community will be reduced.
He said that rat meat is not only a delicacy but a protein-enriched food, widely popular in Thailand and France. "Rats have almost no bones and are quite rich in nutrition. People at large don't know this cuisine fact but gradually they are catching up."
(continued at link)An official in the Indian state of Bihar has come up with a new idea to encourage low... more
The government of Nepal and the UN have warned that hundreds of thousands of people in the country are facing severe food shortages.
A new report says that efforts to get food to the most vulnerable people are being hampered by fuel shortages, strikes, and bad weather. The price of rice has risen by up to 50% in a year, and the price of cooking oil has gone up 30% in six months. Rising prices for food have hit poorer people in South Asia badly.
The new report by the government in Nepal and the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) confirms that rising food prices and destroyed harvests are hitting Nepal very hard. The WFP believes two and a half million Nepalis around the country need immediate food assistance. In certain villages it runs some feeding programmes, including monthly ones to mothers and young babies, extended in conjunction with medical check-ups by doctors.
The BBC's Charles Haviland, who visited a badly affected village in Nepal in the western district of Achham, says many families are coping by eating less, selling their meagre possessions or sending their men folk to neighbouring India to find work. In May, Nepal banned the export of rice and other grains to try to control food costs and prevent shortages. Nepal is not a major producer of food items but it exports some wheat and Basmati rice to China and Bangladesh. The government of Nepal and the UN have warned that hundreds of thousands of people in... more
Catfish farmers across the South, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and soybean feed, are draining their ponds.
“It’s a dead business,” said John Dillard, who pioneered the commercial farming of catfish in the late 1960s. Last year Dillard & Company raised 11 million fish. Next year it will raise none. People can eat imported fish, Mr. Dillard said, just as they use imported oil.Catfish farmers across the South, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and... more
Humans are consuming more oil, more food ... more of everything than ever before. And as modern societies become more dependent on the resources they exploit, we're beginning to see signs that we may be pushing the planet to its limits. Vanguard and Collective Journalists explore the far-reaching consequences of this global fight for resources.Humans are consuming more oil, more food ... more of everything than ever before. And... more
Here's two really nice moments from my interview with Joyce Rothermel, the CEO for the Greater PGH Community Food Bank, which didn't make it to the rough rough cut that I posted earlier.
Hey everyone,
Here's two really nice moments from my interview with Joyce... more
It was one of the dumbest "green" ideas ever proposed: Convert millions of acres of cropland into fields for growing ethanol from corn, then burn fossil fuels to harvest the ethanol, expending more energy to extract the fuel than you get from the fuel itself! Meanwhile, sit back and proclaim you've achieved a monumental green victory (President Bush, anyone?) all while unleashing a dangerous spike in global food prices that's causing a ripple effect of food shortages and rationing around the world.
I think politicians need to spend less time bragging about their latest greenwashing schemes and more time studying The Law of Unintended Consequences. Because while growing fuel on cropland initially sounds like a great idea, any honest assessment of the total impact leads you to the inescapable conclusion that biofuels are largely a government-sponsored scam. With a few exceptions (see below), biofuels produce no net increase in energy output, and they cause food shortages while creating strong economic incentives for the destruction of the very rainforests we desperately need to stabilize the climate!
To recycle used vegetable oil is one thing but to grow a fuel is absurd.
There are truly only three completely renewable fuel resources in the galaxy: Solar (for electricity), Wind (for electricity) and Water (for electricity and hydrogen).
Electric or hydrogen is the only answers for Vehicles.
If you know someone using new vegetable oil for there car please tell him or her that they are starving people around the world.
Convert to electric or hydrogen to save this planet and its inhabitants.
By: Mike Adams
It was one of the dumbest "green" ideas ever proposed: Convert... more
