World Food Security Crisis - Report Example

Running Head: JULIAN CRIBB ON GLOBAL FAMINE World Food Security Crisis Name Course Tutor Date Introduction In the near future, the world will be confronted by eminent food crisis leading to possibility of humanitarian crisis of magnitude that has never experienced before. With a bursting world population growth, the food production systems cannot cope with the pressure. In fact, primary resources for food production are dwindling due increasing demand for food. With current trends in world population growth, there will be around 9.2 billion people in the world by the year 2050. Given the current nutritional systems, this population will consume as much as 13 billion people would consume today (Cribb 2010, 2). The world is experiencing dramatic changes in climate and inconsistent weather patterns have become a common thing. Floods, extreme drought and rising global temperatures are making it difficult to produce enough food for everyone currently. One can only wonder what the situation will be like in 2050 with the expected population coupled with environmental inconsistencies that worsen every day. However, according to Jullian Crib, the main concern is not climatic changes but the ability of humanity to sustain such a large population in terms of food security. The current food security status is already dire. Furthermore, the world population is not going to register 9.2 billion in 2050. It is expected to reach 11.4 billion by 2060 (Chen and Kates 2004, 195). By the next half century, world food demand will have doubled. Currently there is not food for the seven billion people in the world. The situation in the next fifty years can only be described as critically dire if something is not done to ensure food security is guaranteed. This essay will analyse Jullian Cribb’s work and evaluate its importance in ensuring humanitarian calamities are avoided in the future. Major concerns The food production systems in the world today are faced with huge constraints. Some of the major challenges include climate change, diseases, rising costs of production, and ever-growing demand. It is worth noting that these problems at times affect production all at once. In the 1960s, food production was mainly faced with problems of technological challenges. This was, however, overcome through sharing of agricultural know how and technology. Even with technological advancements and agricultural knowledge, the essentials of agriculture are dwindling at alarming rates. All aspects needed to produce high yields are constrained. In this view, water, land, stable climate, oil, and manpower are all inadequate. These problems interplay each other and compound the situation even further (Parry, et al. 2009, 55). The water crisis About 75% of the world is covered in water. However, according to the International Water Management Institute, there is a severe shortage of fresh water all over the world. To make the case even worse, sources of fresh water are under constant threats of extinction. Governments in the world have been forced to turn to underground water and in some countries the underground water table has already been exhausted. Out of the 9 billion people by 2050, about 7 billion of them will occupy urban centers. They will consume approximately, 2800 kilometres of water. This is the amount of water that all agriculturally irrigated land in the entire world uses today (Cribb 2010, 8). The alternative is to purify ocean and salty waters but the cheaper option will obviously be to divert water meant for agriculture to cities. This will mean that irrigation in agriculture will be competing for fresh water with cities and urban centres. Statistics have it that natural sources of water have been exponentially disappearing. The amount of rainfall is also inconsistent and unreliable. Glaciers in high mountains are also drastically disappearing and it is only a matter of when they will completely vanish. The levels off rivers and underground water have also been pumped dry (Hanjra and Qureshi 2010, 370). According to Crib, the world will not have enough water to feed its population in the next quarter century. Life is highly dependent on water. Agricultural sustainability will also depend highly on availability of enough water. With the current statistics, there will be no enough water for irrigation, let alone for drinking. The dreadful potential consequences of this are huge, given the number of people who will be looking up to the few remaining resources. Currently, three billion people in the world face acute shortages of water. This figure will only continue increasing with the current decrease in water resources (Hanjra and Qureshi 2010, 369). The water issue has already caused a major crisis in food production. Billions of people are faced with hunger and food insecurity. Ultimately, the predictions are only that the situation will become a perpetual one. Land crisis According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 25 % of farmlands in the world are severely degraded. This is an increase from 15% twenty years ago. This translates to approximately 50,000Kmsq of farmland annually. The main causes of degradation have been cited as urbanisation, mining, pollution, flooding and desertification. With this rate of degradation, it will become impossible for the coming generations to double food production if they are to feed themselves. From the year 1990 to 2005, the demand for food grew fifteen times than the land under cultivation (Cribb 2010, 13). Land farms will in the next half a decade be transformed to cities and urban dwellings to hold the exploding populations. The main question that arises is where farmland to cultivate food for all these people will come from. The threat is permanent loss of production capacity in the name of development. Nutritional concern In agriculture, nutrients are needed to grow food. These nutrients are naturally found in agricultural soils. The problem is that these nutrients are becoming exhausted at alarming rates. Globally, farming has turned to using manmade fertilisers in agriculture. Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium are the main nutrients that sustain life especially in agriculture (Timmer 2010, 9). Sadly, the world wastes 80% to 90% of these nutrients through leaching and wastage. The leached nutrients end up in water bodies and affect aquatic life which is another major source of food. About 150 million tons of nitrogenous wastes are dumped into water bodies and an additional 9 million tons of phosphorous. This is critically putting in danger the cycle of nutrients and is a huge threat to food security. Energy crisis Oil and petroleum products drive energy production in the world today. The global demand for oil is increasing every other day. This means more production and exploration of the already existing oil well. The demand has so far overtaken the production capacity and discovery of new wells. The effects of this are already being felt with increasing oil prices as well as those of fertilisers. As a result, agricultural production is being crippled as it consumes a lot of this energy (Khan and Hanjra 2009). Food produced is becoming expensive, furthering the food crisis situation. Furthermore, oil production activities are some of the biggest pollutants off land and water. Though it is necessary for agricultural production, it only worsens the situation in terms of pollution. By the year 2040, fossil fuels will no longer be used in agriculture. The appropriate alternative is not yet known (Cribb 2010, 16). The alternative is bio fuels but this would mean having to turn farm land meant for food production to bio fuel production farms. Fisheries exhaustion World fisheries have not been left behind in this crisis. In 2007, 30 % of all fisheries were nearing collapse limits. In twenty years time they will completely exhausted. This has been evidenced by an upsurge in jellyfish which is a sign of the effects of overfishing and pollution (Wells 2013). According to FAO, the maximum potential of capturing fish wildly has already been surpassed. This is solely due to increased demand for food. If fish resources cannot sustain the population, this means that inland production of animals will have to be overly multiplied to more than 100 million tons of meat. This will need more water and food which is barely enough for the human population (Cribb 2010, 20). Even with the current food crisis and the looming one in the future, food wastage is a major problem in the world today. Developed counties throw away 33% to 50% of all food that is produced. In developing countries, food losses are as a result of after harvest challenges. It has been estimated that for every 46000 Kcl produced, a whooping 2600 Kcl are lost. This means that half the efforts, research, time, and resources used to produce the food are for nothing (Hunt 2003, 6080). This is a sad situation given that there people starving in the world today. Food capable of feeding 3 billion people is wasted when there are 1 billion people starving Conclusion The challenge facing humanity in the future in terms of food security is immense. How humanity is going to double food production with half the land, lesser water, expensive production, pests and diseases and inadequate technologies is uncertain. Failure is very likely and its consequences are intensely profound. The result is war and chaos as people fight and defend the little they have. Just as Crib said the ‘Famine is coming’. Globally, around $30 billion is used annually on agricultural research and development. This is barely enough to meet the future demands. However, 50 times as much money is used to develop weaponry and in wars. This means that if governments were to acknowledge the real situation and set their priorities straight, then maybe future generations will have sustainable food security. Additionally, it is clear that the current ways are unsustainable. If critical steps are not taken, humanity will at one time starve itself to extinction References Chen, Robert S, and Robert W Kates. "World food security: prospects and trends." Food Policy, Volume 19, no. 2 (2004): 192-208. Cribb, Julian. The Coming Famine: risks and solutions for global food security. California Press : California, 2010. Hanjra, Munir A, and Ejaz M. Qureshi. "Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change." Food Policy 35, no. 5 (2010): 365-377. Hunt, C. "WASTAGE OF FOOD." Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition 2 (2003): 6079-6081. Khan, Shahbaz, and Munir A Hanjra. "Footprints of water and energy inputs in food production – Global perspectives." Food Policy 34, no. 2 (2009): 130-140. Parry, Martin, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Ana Iglesias, Günther Fischer, and Matthew Livermore. "Climate change and world food security: a new assessment." Global Environmental Change 9, no. 1 (2009): 51-67. Timmer, Peter C. "Reflections on food crises past." Food Policy 35, no. 1 (2010): 1-11. Wells, R. (2013, Jul 30). Panel: Climate change is real. Pantagraph. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/docview/1415384932?accountid=12001 Read More