Bursting point for food bubble
By Jason Major
TechNyou
We are all going to starve, apparently. Unless we do something immediately.
Food and food security are the hot topics for 2011 as experts worldwide get on their soapbox and present facts and figures that should make us all cringe in fear, though I suspect that for many Australians at the moment it all seems like a problem too far off to worry about. Many I speak to aren’t even aware we have a food security problem, which is a problem in itself.
Lester Brown is another to pull up the box and give us a spray. New Scientist gave him some room to promote his new book on the topic. His doesn’t mince words. Among his scary facts on unsustainable use of irrigation water, he calls for people power to shut down coal-fired power stations. I guess if Egyptians can toss out a government, then shutting down a power station should be a cinch. Not that TechNyou is trying to incite carbon riots.
Prolific concern
This will give you an idea of what has come out on this topic of food security in just the last few months
TechNyou has posted commentary from Julian Cribb
Two government-backed reports
1. PMSEIC (2010). Australia and Food Security in a Changing World. The Prime Minister’s Science,
Engineering and Innovation Council, Canberra, Australia.
From Foreword and Executive Summary
Global food security will demand the development and delivery of new technologies to increase food production on limited arable land and without relying on increased water and fertiliser use. In addition, the frequency and severity of climate ‘shocks’ are expected to increase due to the effects of climate change. Australia can make a significant contribution to addressing this challenge.
If our (Australia’s) population grows to 35-40 million and climate change constrains food production, we can expect to see years where we will import more food than we export. We are now facing a complex array of intersecting challenges which threaten the stability of our food production, consumption and trade. It is imperative that we continue to develop food-related science and technology to fuel a future food revolution that must exceed the achievements of the Green Revolution.
2 Foresight. The Future of Food and Farming (2011)
Final Project Report.
The Government Office for Science, London.
From Foreword and Introduction
The case for urgent action in the global food system is now compelling. We are at a unique moment in history as diverse factors converge to affect the demand, production and distribution of food over the next 20 to 40 years.
The needs of a growing world population will need to be satisfied as critical resources such as water, energy and land become increasingly scarce. The food system must become sustainable, whilst adapting to climate change and substantially contributing to climate change mitigation.
The global food system will experience an unprecedented confluence of pressures over the next 40 years. On the demand side, global population size will increase from nearly seven billion today to eight billion by 2030, and probably to over nine billion by 2050; many people are likely to be wealthier, creating demand for a more varied, high-quality diet requiring additional resources to produce. On the production side, competition for land, water and energy will intensify, while the effects of climate change will become increasingly apparent. The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate will become imperative.
Groundhog day
Starting to sound familiar? One must consider that this disparate collection of experts all saying the same thing might have something. Actually the fact that food security is an issue is not debated. Most of the reasons behind it (speculative markets, food wastage, poverty, distribution, infrastructure, war, corruption, population growth…and so on) are also mostly agreed on, though some of the financial stuff gets tricky. The blood letting, however, will be over how to solve the problem.
TechNyou can thankfully steer clear of the politics (boring anyway) and focus on the role new and existing technologies can play, and facilitate discussion around the question of which technologies should play a role in the big picture solutions. Transgenic technologies are the obvious one, but many others such as the nanotechnologies are already creeping into the picture.
GM debate
I went to that GM debate last night which also focused at times on food security, specifically where GM crops can or should fit (or not). The issue was recognized by the audience as well as the speakers. Of course one side saw GM technology as one of the tools to help with the problem, the other side did not. I will give a proper appraisal of this next post.
