Exploding Populations and Food Production

I generally take information coming out of the United Nations with a great deal of skepticism simply because there is so much of it that is politicized, but their projections for world population growth, whether high, low or dead-on, should be taken seriously.  Barring some major worldwide disaster of unprecedented proportions, the population on the planet will grow.

Feeding that population will create challenges.

In today's world there are strange forces at work when it comes to food production.  1)  You have animal rights activists who believe we should completely eliminate animal proteins of any kind from our diet.  2)  There are environmental pressures -- some believe all agriculture is bad for the environment.  3)  There are trendy movements toward "organic" or "all natural" that affect productivity.  4)  There is the "eat local" movement.  5)  There is the "fresh" movement that would eliminate preservatives.  6)  There are various diets that eliminate certain food groups.  7)  There is competition for the resources to grow it -- land and water.

I'm sure I've missed a few of the anti-food-as-we-know-it pressures, but you get the picture.

My point is that in spite of the need to feed a rapidly growing population, there are pressures that negatively impact agriculture.  Add to that the normal periodic effects of massive weather events such as flooding in the U.S. this year which has delayed corn planting, or the droughts and fires followed by flooding which have hit Australia recently and the ability to feed the planet's population becomes increasingly questionable.

What is the solution?  New technologies that help us to do more with less -- just as U.S. agriculture has done for years -- in new and creative ways.

We need meat protein production for several reasons.  Animals are efficient converters of plants, that are unusable by humans, into excellent foods is the primary one.  Livestock, especially cattle, are also an effective way to manage some environments such as prairies and deserts -- if properly handled.

Vegetables are a different issue.  Locally grown has tremendous merit due to spoilage in transportation.  Transportation is also another problem -- the largest contributor of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere is transportation.  Growing vegetables locally would eliminate some of that.  They also lend themselves to industrial-type greenhouse conditions which are effective ways to grow them with a low spacial footprint which helps to solve issues of seasonality.

One of the greater concerns that I have is that of food waste.  In the U.S. it is a real problem.  Previous generations had lower food waste because they utilized the "scraps" and leftovers by feeding them to swine or their dogs -- which by-the-way had "jobs" such as "burglar alarm" and guardian of the domestic stock against predators.  How much potential human food is made into pet food?

Probably the biggest issue that will impact our ability to produce the necessary food to feed the burgeoning world population is water.  Competition between industry, cities and agriculture for this single limited resource will become fierce.  Efficiently utilizing it to meet the various competing needs is a problem we need to accept and begin now to implement plans that will meet the future needs.  With an expected increase of the world population of about 60% over today's numbers to a projected 11.2 billion people by 2050, we need to face the reality that water is going to be a growing issue.  That's only about 30 years away -- the blink of an eye when you really think about it.