"The most urgent issue confronting humanity in the next 50 years is not climate change or the financial crisis, it is whether we can achieve and sustain such a harvest," said Julian Cribb, scientist and author of "The Coming Famine."
...
"First, we need to recognize that investment in agriculture is defense spending," Cribb said Thursday. "If we want to prevent wars and refugees and a food crises, then we need to renew global investment in agriculture and agriculture science. Agriculture has been a low priority for the last quarter century."
Your thoughts?
Personally, I think Cribb is being a bit disingenuous. Certainly, famines are a huge problem and concern, especially for developing nations, but they don't exist in a vacuum. It's not just about investing in agriculture. There are massive amounts of food going to waste in developed nations, after all. It's far more about politics, money and food distribution than anything else.
Comments
We need to be and can be a lot smarter in our farming.
The other problem is not the rise in population, but the rise of an affluent population in places like China, India and Brazil. As they gain more money and their "middle class" grows, they want the same foods as eaten in other western countries. That is also going to make certain foods scarce.
Famine is not just caused by hot weather, it is also caused by how humans treat the land they are on.
I agree that we need to be smarter, but that has a lot more to do with environmental concerns (which the article seems to be dismissing) than anything else. Trying to focus on agriculture in a vacuum isn't going to help matters. We need to look at the big picture of preserving arable land and fresh water. If climate change is going to be wiping out crops that, to me, is an indication that climate change is a BFD and not something to be dismissed in favor of agricultural research alone. It's all interconnected.
As for the Green Revolution, it certainly saved a lot of lives; it also led to a lot of monocultures. Cereal crops for animal feed and biofuels aren't exactly the best way to keep people fed. Particularly since those aren't the healthiest ways for people to be eating anyway. So I do think there is a lot of room there for more agricultural breakthroughs, if they focused on things other than grains and took sustainability into account.
You're absolutely right Zuul. Though crappy cereal diet sure beats no food. There is so much we can do so quickly to improve our land and water use and we still do virtually nothing. This is a agriculture, national defense and environmental concern all in one. Every nation should be concerned and should start working towards smarter management of these resources.