How to feed the world
Mar. 22nd, 2011 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzYou probably know I read Ursula Vernon, who is into permaculture bigtime and got me hooked on the idea as well (Hey, if the Inca people did it....). I've read up on Permaculture myself and am trying to implement it on the modest balcony we have, but it's rather difficult when the concrete fries anything not heat-resistant when it's a good summer and the rain drowns anything but swamp plants in bad summers.
The fact is, my balcony isn’t a perfect breeding ground for food, but it’s all I got and I probably should use it accordingly.
Slashdot wrote about the World's Food Shortage Problem today, mainly asking us the question: how are we to feed everyone? (The prognosis is that this earth will be inhabited by 9 billion humans by 2050.)
Slashdot linked to a well-written story highlighting some well-known problems on Ars Technica.
The main problem we have with feeding the current population isn't that there isn't enough food (because there is1), because it is just a transport and lifestyle issue. We choose to eat more than is strictly speaking necessary to keep us alive and healthy. And we have food surpluses in parts of the world and food shortages in other parts of the world.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimates that a total of 925 million people are undernourished in 20102. That sounds like a lot of hungry people.
Perhaps what it boils down to is: the way we produce food is flawed, and the way we handle food is flawed as well. Let’s start with the latter.
Obesitas is a disease of the developed world, while people are starving from malnutrition in other parts of the world. We over-eat, because there's an abundance of food anyway. It's a lifestyle issue: we have an unwritten rule that says we share food with our friends when they come over on a social visit. Cake, nuts, crisps, cheese, all to show how rich we are, how well we do.
From a historical point of view, this is understandable: in order to score a rich political ally you needed to feed him and give him your most beautiful daughter in marriage, and if you raised the wench well you might gain some on-hands influence. Very, very simply put, of course.
Hunger is also a political issue. I'm not saying governments should force people to eat less, but they can encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle. And we can and should invest into feeding those people that are now dying of malnutrition. It starts with the schools people, if we invest in the kids we will get there in the end... (also: breed less!)
It’s also a political issue because in the developing world, politicians are very often corrupt, and cannot be bothered to care about the dying people as long as they remain in power. The aid we sent might be snatched up by corrupt politicians in stead of going to the people we need it most. A fundamental problem, because if financial aid is not coming, then neither are the agricultural development, fresh water pumps, etc.
Another issue is genetic modification. The article touched upon genetically modified plants working their way into the ecosystem. Biodiversity suffers because the plants we cultivate are more fungus/disease resistant than their natural counterparts -- and this has its influence on the biosphere. I personally would rather eat a tiny, wild strawberry (a taste explosion!) than one of those cultivated water-bombs. Diversity is a good thing, because it’ll reduce chances of wiping out an entire strain of plants with one disease. Also: biological seeds!
Ursula took it a step further. She’s mad for native plants (i.e. non-imported things that would grow in her region if people didn’t live there) and she posted about this semi-rare plant she found at a gardening center that was probably just stolen from its natural habitat, cultivated in a greenhouse for a year so it would earn the “nursery grown” tag, and then sold at a bargain (for the type of plant) and a profit (because it doesn’t cost much to rip up plants and keep’em in a plastic greenhouse for a year). Imagine the problems for the local ecosystem on that one...
And speaking of usurping the ecosystem, let’s consider the term ‘bycatch’. It’s what you get out of the sea, but aren’t fishing for. Shrimp bycatch is between 3 and 15 tonnes per tonne of shrimp3. And shrimp fishers aren’t the only ones that produce bycatch, of course, but they account for 30% of all bycatch.
In warm summers, I have a serious water issue on my little patch of balcony garden. The concrete and bricks heat up so well that any earth I have in any pots will lose much of their moisture. I can’t collect rain from the roof (rental apartment!) so I’m stuck with a bucket to catch the rain and tap water to fuel my garden with. The article says that 70% of water usage goes to agriculture. How will we cope when we have more mouths to feed4?
Another disturbing factoid is the producing of biofuel. Why do we rip valuable farmland off by producing corn that will be used to create biofuel -- when normal vegetable waste can be used instead5? The fertilizers used in producing biofuel also have a tremendous impact on river ecosystems and marine life, as the surplus is washed out to sea where the algae feast.
And while we’re on the subject of farmland: why do we eat so much meat? A balanced diet doesn’t require much meat, and to create meat we have to feed the animal in question a lot of vegetable matter that we can (usually) eat as well. Never mind the hormones and antibiotics they also put into the meat.
I don’t mean to come off as a sudden reformed person, or as a health freak, but the fact is that if the population will grow to 9 billion or maybe 15 billion... how will we feed these people?
Also: I’m pretty damned sure I only quoted sources that support my post here so I dare you to find sources that disprove my assumptions and join the debate!
-----
1) From: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations's (FAO) FAQ on hunger
2) Source: http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/al390e/al390e00.pdf
3) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bycatch
4) Please don’t say “Brawndo!”
5) Source: http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/biofuels/fact_ethanol_cellulose.htm
The fact is, my balcony isn’t a perfect breeding ground for food, but it’s all I got and I probably should use it accordingly.
Slashdot wrote about the World's Food Shortage Problem today, mainly asking us the question: how are we to feed everyone? (The prognosis is that this earth will be inhabited by 9 billion humans by 2050.)
Slashdot linked to a well-written story highlighting some well-known problems on Ars Technica.
The main problem we have with feeding the current population isn't that there isn't enough food (because there is1), because it is just a transport and lifestyle issue. We choose to eat more than is strictly speaking necessary to keep us alive and healthy. And we have food surpluses in parts of the world and food shortages in other parts of the world.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimates that a total of 925 million people are undernourished in 20102. That sounds like a lot of hungry people.
Perhaps what it boils down to is: the way we produce food is flawed, and the way we handle food is flawed as well. Let’s start with the latter.
Obesitas is a disease of the developed world, while people are starving from malnutrition in other parts of the world. We over-eat, because there's an abundance of food anyway. It's a lifestyle issue: we have an unwritten rule that says we share food with our friends when they come over on a social visit. Cake, nuts, crisps, cheese, all to show how rich we are, how well we do.
From a historical point of view, this is understandable: in order to score a rich political ally you needed to feed him and give him your most beautiful daughter in marriage, and if you raised the wench well you might gain some on-hands influence. Very, very simply put, of course.
Hunger is also a political issue. I'm not saying governments should force people to eat less, but they can encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle. And we can and should invest into feeding those people that are now dying of malnutrition. It starts with the schools people, if we invest in the kids we will get there in the end... (also: breed less!)
It’s also a political issue because in the developing world, politicians are very often corrupt, and cannot be bothered to care about the dying people as long as they remain in power. The aid we sent might be snatched up by corrupt politicians in stead of going to the people we need it most. A fundamental problem, because if financial aid is not coming, then neither are the agricultural development, fresh water pumps, etc.
Another issue is genetic modification. The article touched upon genetically modified plants working their way into the ecosystem. Biodiversity suffers because the plants we cultivate are more fungus/disease resistant than their natural counterparts -- and this has its influence on the biosphere. I personally would rather eat a tiny, wild strawberry (a taste explosion!) than one of those cultivated water-bombs. Diversity is a good thing, because it’ll reduce chances of wiping out an entire strain of plants with one disease. Also: biological seeds!
Ursula took it a step further. She’s mad for native plants (i.e. non-imported things that would grow in her region if people didn’t live there) and she posted about this semi-rare plant she found at a gardening center that was probably just stolen from its natural habitat, cultivated in a greenhouse for a year so it would earn the “nursery grown” tag, and then sold at a bargain (for the type of plant) and a profit (because it doesn’t cost much to rip up plants and keep’em in a plastic greenhouse for a year). Imagine the problems for the local ecosystem on that one...
And speaking of usurping the ecosystem, let’s consider the term ‘bycatch’. It’s what you get out of the sea, but aren’t fishing for. Shrimp bycatch is between 3 and 15 tonnes per tonne of shrimp3. And shrimp fishers aren’t the only ones that produce bycatch, of course, but they account for 30% of all bycatch.
In warm summers, I have a serious water issue on my little patch of balcony garden. The concrete and bricks heat up so well that any earth I have in any pots will lose much of their moisture. I can’t collect rain from the roof (rental apartment!) so I’m stuck with a bucket to catch the rain and tap water to fuel my garden with. The article says that 70% of water usage goes to agriculture. How will we cope when we have more mouths to feed4?
Another disturbing factoid is the producing of biofuel. Why do we rip valuable farmland off by producing corn that will be used to create biofuel -- when normal vegetable waste can be used instead5? The fertilizers used in producing biofuel also have a tremendous impact on river ecosystems and marine life, as the surplus is washed out to sea where the algae feast.
And while we’re on the subject of farmland: why do we eat so much meat? A balanced diet doesn’t require much meat, and to create meat we have to feed the animal in question a lot of vegetable matter that we can (usually) eat as well. Never mind the hormones and antibiotics they also put into the meat.
I don’t mean to come off as a sudden reformed person, or as a health freak, but the fact is that if the population will grow to 9 billion or maybe 15 billion... how will we feed these people?
Also: I’m pretty damned sure I only quoted sources that support my post here so I dare you to find sources that disprove my assumptions and join the debate!
-----
1) From: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations's (FAO) FAQ on hunger
2) Source: http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/al390e/al390e00.pdf
3) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bycatch
4) Please don’t say “Brawndo!”
5) Source: http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/biofuels/fact_ethanol_cellulose.htm
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-23 02:39 pm (UTC)something can be said about the transport madness our current food logistics are in. Getting more local with foods would be a good idea as well.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-23 06:00 pm (UTC)Try putting your pots on wooden pallets, like they ship stuff on. This will keep their feet off the hot cement. If pallets are too big for your patio or hard to find, try bricks or small houtblokjes to get the pots up.
Also, shrimp bycatch...catching shrimp is like clear-cutting the sea floor. Everything is scooped up -- rocks, plants, corals as well as animals -- and you're left with a desolate wasteland sea floor where nothing much can survive because there's no cover left. I love to eat these little sea-bugs, but I can't really justify the devastation to get them.
Good post. And thanks for bringing up the points about biofuels!