UK Chief Scientist: Food Crisis Will Bite Before Climate Change
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 03. 7.08
With reports that the arctic ice cap could be gone by summer, it is sometimes tempting to focus all of our attention on the crisis of climate change. However, according to Professor John Beddington, the UK’s new chief scientist, food security and the rising cost of food is an issue at least as important when it comes to human well-being, and one that is becoming rapidly more critical. Read on for a taste of his speech [in true TreeHugger fashion, we've also included some humble suggestions of potential solutions too]:
“He predicted that price rises in staples such as rice, maize and wheat would continue because of increased demand caused by population growth and increasing wealth in developing nations. He also said that climate change would lead to pressure on food supplies because of decreased rainfall in many areas and crop failures related to climate. "The agriculture industry needs to double its food production, using less water than today," he said. The food crisis would bite more quickly than climate change, he added.
But he reserved some of his most scathing comments for the biofuel industry, which he said had delivered a "major shock" to world food prices. "In terms of biofuels there has been, quite properly, a reaction against it," he said. "There are real problems with unsustainability.”
So what’s to be done? We’re pretty sure that many farmers will continue their calls to “stand by your ham”, while others will argue that reducing meat and dairy consumption is the way to go. Of course high-tech solutions like vertical farming or underground agriculture and aquaponics may be useful in reducing pressures on land, and distances from farm to plate. Meanwhile low tech DIY approaches like premaculture, food not lawns, DIY hydroponics and community gardens are ways that we can all make a difference. One thing is for certain, we’ll have much more chance of feeding the world the sooner we get started on figuring out solutions, so hats off to Professor Beddington for setting this on his agenda.
::The Guardian::via site visit::
Take this one step further - we'll have a water crisis before we have a food crisis. That water crisis will aggravate the energy and food crises, bringing them on quicker. There are 2 prongs to the water crisis - not only will we have less available fresh water, but it will also be too warm for use by some electric plants.
There have been numerous times in the last few summers where nuclear and other power plants had to scale back or shut down either because the water was too low, or it was too warm. Both probably from global warming.
Yet another feedback loop where one crisis is causing another. Bring on the renewables!
I don't know why the author assumes that global warming will make food production decrease. The last time we had global warming (the medieval warm period). Food production went up so much that the average height of northern Europeans increased by two inches. Also, climate models predict there will be more rain with global warming, not less. Finally the author is certainly right that the real underlying problem is over-population. Almost no one talks about that problem however. I think they think it is racist and therefore unmentionable, even if we all starve.
Huh, don't forget that it will hit Africa first. First producing for biofuels and then climate change. Africa might suffer more from the changing climate than any other continent. Especially because of the lack of social safety nets provided by governments. Is there a solution for Africa when they have so much else to focus on - health, poverty, war and hunger? Or are we caught in a Catch 22 with no sustainable solutions? More on this in my blog at http://angryafrican.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/solving-the-changing-african-climate-a-catch-22/
Many people seem to forget the obvious answer to all our problems staring us in the face: algae biodiesel.
Algae bioreactors do not compete with farms for growing space and will be able to suport all the worlds transportation, industrial, and even some of our electricity needs, even though renewables would be a better option for electricity generation.
Even better, algae biodiesel is very cheaply produced (poor countries can afford more of it than conventional oil), has a high energy yield, and is carbon neutral.
What's that expression... throwing out the baby with the bathwater? Something like that.
Yes, there are some very bad biofuels out there - corn ethanol is a prime example. But don't let the reputation of some ruin them all. Biofuel from algae has enormous potential to deliver high amount of fuel in small spaces. And there are other promising alternatives as well, such as jatropha and switchgrass.
Renewables are awesome, but biofuels will most likely have a place in our solution as well. Let's make sure there are informed discussions happening as we make these choices.
Is the food crisis really caused by over-population... or... mal-distribution of resources?? When the U.S. is only a fraction of the world population, yet produces (and wastes) a huge percentage of food in the world... isn't that an indication of an inbalance??
The more people you have, more food must be grown and more potable water must be found. Fisheries are declining, millions of acres of farmland are lost each year and freshwater aquifers are being drained faster than they can replenished. You don't have to be an expert in demographics to see that the current population can't be maintained.