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| Corn field - a key staple food |
As the world's climate changes and agricultural regions are affected, it's worth considering the current global situation for food access in order to forecast what the future demand may exist. Currently around a quarter of the world's population is undernourished despite considerable R & D advances in seed development, irrigation, crop protection, fertilising and cultivation techniques. Combined with insufficient food production in some countries there is also mass wastage in others. The Economist Intelligence Unit found on a global survey that 28 out of 109 countries surveyed had insufficient food stocks to withstand any crisis. In contrast the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation estimates that a staggering 1.3 gigtons of edible food is wasted each year representing over a fifth of total agricultural output across the planet. On current population trends, the World will, by 2050, have over nine billion people living on the planet requiring almost 70% more food than is currently consumed. How then will all these people be fed and how will the world cope with changing climate patterns causing dislocation of current agricultural centres of production ? Countries with the capacity for change have reacted with varying degrees of initiative - Saudi Arabia has invested more than $10 billion in agricultural and livestock projects overseas in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the Ukraine. Singapore has diversified its food sources and draws less fruit from neighbouring Malaysia and provided stronger incentives for locally produced vegetables, eggs and fish using new technology. The island state also now imports more from Australia, China and the United States. These are small examples and similar ones exist in Brazil and Malawi yet the question remains, will this really be enough ?
