The Global Food Crisis of the Future

Biofuel production is on a rise but the global climate is getting worse and experts are warning of a food crisis not so far in human future. In fact, it has already started in many parts of the world and is expected to get worse if certain adaptations are not made in time. Mexico, West Bengal, Nepal, Jamaica, and sub-Saharan Africa, all show warnings of food shortage and/or problems with food supply to meet the public need of food commodities. At the same time, food price has been inflating in many countries at a rate of over 10% with the prices of wheat and maize soaring to a record high over the past few years; and dairy and fish are no exception.

Currently, the unbridled quest for biofuel production is seriously interfering with the food producing capacity of the farming sector in a number of places. In the US for example, as much as 20% of the total maize production went into making ethanol – biofuel for vehicles – while cutting petrol production by replacement with ethanol has already been raised in the US. Brazil and African countries are also inclined to give more of its food-producing land to biofuel production. In addition, even where uncultivable land is used for growing biofuel crops, large numbers of people are displaced, inviting social problems.

Then there are other factors adding to the risk of a severe food crisis on a global level: increasing population, environmental stresses, and natural disasters like floods. Climate shift stands above all other risks and the recent short-lived and dry winter is just one example of how weather-dependent crop production is slashed with climatic ‘surprises’. In Australia, dry winter affected winter harvests by as much as 40% in 2006-07. According to David Battisti, of the University of Washington, rise in global temperature alone can cause an enormous stress on food production. The hotter zones of the world, especially the tropics and sub-tropics, with poor economies will be the worst to suffer from such a food crisis, which the scientists think may strike by the year 2100.

What can be done to forestall such a serious crisis? Proactive measures are needed in more than one direction. Growing new crops that are tolerant to a range of temperatures is one important strategy needed to be developed beforehand. Reducing biofuel production and, for that matter, global energy consumption are inevitable. And no less important is keeping populations in control. In the tropical and subtropical countries, for example, lives nearly half of the world’s population. To make sure their food needs are met in future, their numbers must not multiply at the prevailing rates. Oil consumption and prices are also a main determining factor in inducing/preventing food crisis: the lower they stay, the safer our future. Many factors that can prevent a starving future for humans are in human hands. And it is time to control them while the clock is ticking!

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