Feeding the world in 2050
We have plenty of food, so why do 1 billion still go hungry or are malnourished? Food security is a complex problem and will only get more complex because by 2050 we are predicted to have another 3 billion mouths to feed. Some of the ability to feed these people this will require better scientific knowledge.
TechNyou is running a National Science Week public forum on 18 August in Adelaide to probe one aspect of this problem, namely the potential role GM (transgenic) technologies can play. So with exemplary timing Nature has just put published a series of features, editorials and opinions on how to feed a hungry world.
In a nutshell
Technically, it will be a cinch to feed an extra 3 billion people. The question is what costs are we prepared to incur to achieve it?
It is made clear that there are solutions requiring technology and other more elemental ones such as improved agronomic practices and the development of the ecosystems to support them, that will be required to feed all these people. And a number of views suggest the cost needn’t be all that great. Of course, there is the cynical view that politics, big business, corruption….and so on will continue on the same and circumvent any good intentions to find ways of feeding 9 billion people. My cynicism wavers.
The science being done
The articles cover research underway worldwide to find ways of growing more food in the same space.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says we could double the existing crop land — mostly from Latin America and Africa — without stuffing the environment or impinging on our urban lifestyles. But the consensus seems to be on intensification of existing land, but in a sustainable way, though, I find the definition of sustainable a slippery beast. It is a bit like religion, there are many interpretations of the same word, and people can usually find a way to make it work in their favour. See Food: a growing problem
On the topic of the multi-nationals, the article by Natasha Gilbert, “Inside the hothouses of industry”, provides an insight into the public good research these guys are doing in the form of a public-private partnership, which seems to becoming popular these days. Much of this research is focussing on the African nations. But this is still a tiny proportion of the multi-national research budget. And the lack of research progress in areas that would help developing nations is being held back, in part, by the stranglehold the private sector has on intellectual-property rights to crucial technology. The cost to access this technology places it out of reach of many public research institutions.
In these articles and elsewhere, the regulatory system is also blamed for delays and the high costs of developing a transgenic crop.
Aussie research
A plant’s root system is apparently neglected with regard to our understanding of its role in plant physiology. The article by Virginia Gewin, An underground revolution,
investigates some Australian research to rectify this, which will hopefully lead to higher yielding crops.
CSIRO have been studying the roots of wheat plant and found they come in all sorts of sizes: deep, wide and spready, or fine and tangly. The CSIRO team are now field testing 400 new wheat lines in India and Australia that have fast-growing and deep roots they hope will make them more tolerant of drought.
The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics at the University of Adelaide has teamed up with Arcadia Biosciences – another of these public-private partnerships – to commercialise a method that tricks roots into taking up nitrogen from the soil more efficiently. ACPFG have more on this on their web site
The solution
There is lots of optimism that feeding 9 billion will be done. The debate happening is how to achieve it. Probably the one consensus is that industrialised agriculture can’t continue as it has and although there is a lot of mention about intensified sustainability I don’t think anyone really knows yet what that means.
Would you like some gene tech with that?
For anyone going to be in Adelaide on 18 August, a lot of this will be discussed in more detail at the forum – Would you like some gene tech with that? The event’s web site has full details and how to register. It is a free event and all are welcome, but registration is essential as numbers are limited