The coming famine: achieving global food security
Without doubling our research investment in R&D for agriculture and food production we face one of the greatest famines in history, says Julian Cribb in his latest book.
Link to Science Alert feature
Do more with less
By late this century, assuming predictions about population growth are even remotely accurate, we need to find a way of growing twice the amount of food on the same amount of land or less. And we need to do this in the environment of rapidly diminishing land, nutrients, oil, technology, skills and fish.
Not idle speculation
Cribb backs up these claims with good research, as he should as this is his area of journalistic expertise, with both a professional and personal interest in this area stretching back a couple of decades. And even if one extends the error margins of the statistical data he uses and we pick the least scary scenarios then it is still scary.
True to form, Cribb doesn’t pull punches. His solutions of which there are a few include the need to double global investment in agricultural science. He estimates we need to lift the total agrifood R&D spend to at least $80 billion, which is twice today’s investment. As a comparison Cribb suggests we spend about $1500 billion on weapons.
Lost in translation
His most important quote, however, I think, is the following: “Farmers, and the scientists who serve them, are today the most important human beings alive. The world has forgotten this.”
Too few people I meet seem to grasp the importance of science and technology, especially the emerging technologies such as nano and biotech, to helping solve this and many other societal issues. We willingly use technology, but many are blind to how it underpins the basic necessities of life – food, water, clothing, shelter. But I am a science communicator and come from a farming family, so I have a natural bias.
Stuck in our ways
Having said that, and Cribb alludes to this also, S&T alone will not solve this crisis. Any progress towards a solution will also require a massive cultural and behavioural change if we are to reduce our footprint on this earth. What we say we are happy to accept and what we actually do about it are all too often different things.
Julian Cribb’s book is The Coming Famine” and will be published by the University of California Press and CSIRO Publishing in August 2010.
Jason
TechNyou