Feeding 9 billion people a shared goal
The path forward in meeting the challenge of feeding 9 billion people in 2050 is not an issue that the Global Harvest Initiative thankfully is not contemplating in a vacuum. There are some really innovative thinkers who are considering how we meet this challenge through innovation, cooperation and utilizing new technologies. An article, Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People, published last month in Science magazine, presents an in-depth and well-documented case of the difficult road that lies ahead.
Here's the premise of the article:
Continuing population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will increase for at least another 40 years. Growing competition for land, water and energy, in addition to the overexploitation of fisheries, will affect our ability to produce food as will the urgent requirement to reduce the impact of the food system on the environment. The effects of climate change are a further threat. But the world can produce more food and can ensure that it is used more efficiently and equitably. A multifaceted and linked global strategy is needed to ensure sustainable and equitable food security, different components of which are explored here.
In discussing closing the yield gap and increasing production limits, the authors do an excellent job in laying out important factors that can both serve and expedite those efforts. Consider this excerpt explaining the "yield gap":
The yield gap is not static. Maintaining, let alone increasing, productivity depends on continued innovation to control weeds, diseases, insects, and other pests as they evolve resistance to different control measures, or as new species emerge or are dispersed to new regions. Innovation involves both traditional and advanced crop and livestock breeding, as well as the continuing development of better chemical, agronomic, and agro-ecological control measures.
On the topic of increasing production limits, the authors weigh in on the touchy subject of biotechnology, urging reasonably that "genetic modification should neither be privileged nor automatically dismissed" as a useful tool to increase crop production. Consider this passage:
The issue of trust and public acceptance of biotechnology has been highlighted by the debate over the acceptance of GM technologies. Because genetic modification involves germline modification of an organism and its introduction to the environment and food chain, a number of particular environmental and food safety issues need to be assessed. Despite the introduction of rigorous science-based risk assessment, this discussion has become highly politicized and polarized in some countries, particularly Europe. Our view is that genetic modification is a potentially valuable technology whose advantages and disadvantages need to be considered rigorously on an evidential, inclusive, case-by-case basis...
The article concludes:
There is no simple solution to sustainably feeding 9 billion people, especially as many become increasingly better off and converge on rich-country consumption patterns. A broad range of options, including those we have discussed here, needs to be pursued simultaneously. We are hopeful about scientific and technological innovation in the food system, but not as an excuse to delay difficult decisions today.
Any optimism must be tempered by the enormous challenges of making food production sustainable while controlling greenhouse gas emission and conserving dwindling water supplies, as well as meeting the Millennium Development Goal of ending hunger. Moreover, we must avoid the temptation to further sacrifice Earth's already hugely depleted biodiversity for easy gains in food production, not only because biodiversity provides many of the public goods on which mankind relies but also because we do not have the right to deprive future generations of its economic and cultural benefits. Together, these challenges amount to a perfect storm.
Navigating the storm will require a revolution in the social and natural sciences concerned with food production, as well as a breaking down of barriers between fields. The goal is no longer simply to maximize productivity, but to optimize across a far more complex landscape of production, environmental, and social justice outcomes.
In other words, there are no easy answers to how we feed the world. However, the one thing that we can all agree on is that a one-size-fits-all solution will not work. That's why cooperation is a must as we work towards our goal for feeding a global population.