Image: Kevin Van Aelst
In Brief
- The world must solve three food problems simultaneously: end hunger, double food production by 2050, and do both while drastically reducing agriculture’s damage to the environment.
- Five solutions, pursued together, can achieve these goals: stop agriculture from consuming more tropical land, boost the productivity of farms that have the lowest yields, raise the efficiency of water and fertilizer use worldwide, reduce per capita meat consumption and reduce waste in food production and distribution.
- A system for certifying foods based on how well each one delivers nutrition and food security and limits environmental and social costs would help the public choose products that push agriculture in a more sustainable direction.
More In This Article
Right now about one billion people suffer from chronic hunger. the world’s farmers grow enough food to feed them, but it is not properly distributed and, even if it were, many cannot afford it, because prices are escalating.
But another challenge looms.
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13 Comments
Add CommentThe real drawback to farming is the loss of nutrients in the soil. It is effectively treated with simple composting.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Generate Hot Water with Your Compost Heap"
"Jean Pain's thermal compost pile"
"Stores methane gathered from the pile in large tanks."
"The pile produces so much heat, the tanks must be cooled, which Pain did by wrapping a long hose around them with water running through, the side effect of which is very hot water coming out the other end."
"Pain originally used the methane gas to power his truck or electricity, the general idea of creating heat with compost works with or without the methane collection."
"Breakthrough in Converting Heat Waste to Electricity"
The Japanese use a method of heat 'generation' by using huge salt filled ponds. Since salt is heavier than water the salt is thicker at the bottom. The sun heats the ponds and since salt HOLDS heat the bottom of the water is hotter and so this heat is 'tapped' and used to do whatever one needs heat for.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn example may be , desaliention plants have a large amount of salt they need to get rid of. They are usually constructed in hot areas of the world. They could simply create large salt ponds and tap into the salt and sun and heat with heat pumps?
http://world.bymap.org/BirthRate.html
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm curious about correlates, the larger contextual factors that consistently contribute to why a country is where it is on the list.
Certain forms of hardship? levels of hardship? repression? oppression? oppression of women? etc
Maybe if we reduce some of those we will be reducing the upward pressure on natality.
To feed the world, every western citizen should sponsor a hungry person in a third world country. If the money and profit is there, the food will mysteriously appear as if from nowhere. Starvation is caused by western democracy, where the majority neglect the poor. There is plenty of food available if ressources are propperly distributed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't worry, It will get worse
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with eco-steve. We should support people in third world countries, and it is so easy to do, and it costs so little.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut even if we all did that, there would still be hunger problems. It's not as simple as some of us think it is, but problems are solved one step at a time, and that 5 step thing would probably work. I would hate to see so many die because of disagreements and greed... but more do every day.
The ice packs around the world (perma frost) have received jolts of radiation causing internal rot (melting)! Cold of winter does not penetrate this ice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe nuclear Submarine USS Charlotte punched its way up through the Ice in Canada’s Arctic to find that the location of the Magnetic North Pole had moved one thousand miles north west towards Russia. Natural Resource Canada monitor by computer guessing and missed all this but they did recently advise that strange things are happening and the latest that they reported was that the pole was moving 85km every 24hrs.
In my world this is real simple Stuph.
Whats happening is this. The Earth in its orbit around the Sun both magnetically interact giving us our Seasons. Normally there are two “dramatic” Earth tippings a year. One in late summer or fall when the Suns north magnetic pole severs with the Earths north magnetic pole and one in late winter or early spring when the Suns south magnetic pole severs with the Earths south magnetic pole.
The date, time and distance of these tippings (magnetic pole movement) is at this time crucial and I’ll explain it this way.
When the Earth tipped that one thousand miles it moved the magnetic pole location one thousand miles in the opposite direction moving the Equator (Sun exposure) one thousand miles. Last winter Russia was getting the cold from the closer pole and loosing the heat of Sun exposure. This year its opposite.
This is real important Stuph and all we need is to have some one monitor these tippings. We would then know what and where crops should be planted, where to plan our skiing etc.
Like I say we really need some one to take charge and properly monitor Magnetic Pole Movement. Believe me its for the good of OUR WORLD!
There are a number of errors with this theory. A 50% increase in population does not require a 100% increase in food production. More countries are building infrastructure and as countries industrialize the population growth rate drops. As fewer nations feel able to provide aid to disaster stricken areas, the populations in those areas drops over time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople have struggled with population growth rate predictions for over a century and have been wrong pretty consistently. Aging populations and serious diseases are poised to decrease population growth in many areas.
Why would we attempt to sustainably double food production while ignoring 70% of Earth’s surface and 99% of its water? Was it because we are unable to recognize ocean food production beyond fishing or the feedlots of conventional aquiculture?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn fact, we can increase ocean primary productivity, biodiversity, food, and energy with Ocean Algal Afforestation (OAA). OAA’s quick nutrient recycle allows us to grow “forests” of macroalgae in oceans which are currently “nutrient deserts.” The nutrients are separated from the carbon (CH4 and CO2) using natural bacterial anaerobic digestion. The carbon may be exported as energy or sequestered. Growing forests over 6% of the worlds ocean could provide each of 7 billion people 2 kg of fish per day while satisfying 100% of their energy needs and reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
I have only 1 word in response to Mr. Foley's proposals: MacDonald's. If it isn't tasty and profitable, it's not going to happen. We have a much better chance of suffering world wide famine that drops our population down to sustainable levels than the odds of a rational and sensible solution to food shortage working.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery true Mark there are large areas of the oceans that are presently "wet deserts" for the want of some key element(s) for plant growth. This presents a huge opportunity, though we have to get the structures suitable for the, more than occasional, heavy weather.Even in terrestrial agriculture growing crops in sealed growth houses where most of the water and unused nutrients are recycled could give a huge boost to productivity. Wide scale use of these installations using hydroponics would mean they need not be confined to the best arable land. The real problem is not technical, but financial, with markets unsuited, or unable to think long term.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo here I am, a child of the future generation, discovering all this important information about these different global concerns which I'd like to help pass on, but with no means of doing it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs there no big movement or campaign for this?
Maybe I've just been unable to come across one so far, but since the efficiency of implementing this plan depends largely on the people, you'd think I wouldn't have to look so hard.
Help me help us.
farmers should fertilise soil with biochar like the amazonians.
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