WORLD: FOOD
The global ripple effect!
The short run drive is destroying feasibility in the long run...

It's rightly said, 'There's enough for everyone's need but not for everyone’s greed'. Initially, it was industrialisation; today, it is technological advancement that is motivating humans to destroy the earth's environment.

The exponential rise in population is not only decreasing the per capita land area but also leading towards depletion of resources at the same time. For centuries, human beings depended on agriculture for their survival; later it became their source of income. But since the last few decades, in the name of 'development', man has destroyed the environment and depleted earth's natural resources. Urbanisation and modernisation, both, have not only weaned away mankind from agriculture but has minimised the arable land area as well. As per the latest data available, around 37 per cent of earth's land area is available for agriculture; out of this, merely 11 per cent is used for crops cultivation and the rest for various other kinds of cultivation and pasture activities (mismanagement of land has already wasted more than 7 to 8 million square miles of land). What's to be noted here is that the land demand is increasing continuously and so is the demand for crops. Sadly, the farmers are moving away from traditional crops to bio-fuels crops (like maize and corn), thus widening the gap between food demand and supply. As per the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimation, by the year 2030, the world's growing population will require 30 per cent more grain than the current production capacity. To meet this demand, healthy environment is a must. But then, modern luxury items (SUVs, Plasma TV that emits NF3, bottled water, polyester et al) are destroying the required feasible conditions. Agreed that technology has increased productivity. But even then, the world has 900 million undernourished people; tens of thousands die out of hunger every year. Unavailability of food and polluted environment are few of the reasons for world hunger.

To make the matter worse, people are wasting food like never before, especially in the developed countries. Reports by Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) reveal that the British throw out around 30 per cent (370-380 pounds of food per person per year) of all food bought and Americans waste 40 per cent (can feed 50 million people) of food meant for consumption. When only a very small area of earth’s surface is suitable for agriculture, the Agro-Ecological zoning technique could be of great help. With food prices rising like never-before and the developed countries not keeping their promise of contributing 0.7 per cent of their GDP towards aid, at least they can help millions by not wasting food.

Sray Agarwal