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Sustainable food
10 things you need to know about the global food
system
Evan Fraser and Elizabeth Fraser
Thu 1 May 2014 10.31 BST
Feeding Nine Billion Video 1: Introducing Solutions to the Global Food Cris…
Cris…
1. There's enough food for everybody
The most important thing to know about the global food system is also one of the
least appreciated: there is enough food for everyone on the planet to live a healthy
and nutritious life. In fact, the UN tells us that there is about 2,800 kcal per person
per day available. But, the global food system is deeply inequitable. There are about
842 million people hungry on the planet, while at the same time there are about 1.5
billion who are overweight or obese.
2. Price volatility
The price of food is wildly volatile. In 2008, the United Nations Food Price Index
almost doubled in less than a year before crashing in 2009. Prices then shot up again
in 2010 and 2011. Despite this volatility, our supply of food stayed stable throughout
this period. This suggests that the price of food is not determined by our ability to
produce food at a global level.
3. One third of food is wasted
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Approximately one third of the world's food is wasted before it is consumed (pdf). In
the developed world most of the waste happens at the consumer end, when food
spoils in grocery stores or in refrigerators. Most of the waste in the developing world
happens on the farm as a consequence of inefficient storage and processing
facilities.
4. Food for fuel
Not all food grown on our planet is being used as food. For instance, about 40% of
the corn grown in the US is being turned into first-generation biofuels (pdf), such as
ethanol. However, creating bioethanol only uses the sugar in the corn. This leaves a
protein rich byproduct called dried distillers grain that can be fed to livestock.
5. Land buy ups
The landscape of who owns our food system is changing. Since 2008, more than 56m
hectares of land (the size of France) has been purchased in the global south by
international companies. Some believe that this represents meaningful foreign
direct investment in places such as rural Africa. Others are worried that the
companies are exploiting the land and labour of Africa to make rich countries to
grow richer.
6. Corporate control
A very small number of corporations control the vast majority of the world's food
trade: four companies produce more than 58% of the world's seeds; four global firms
account for 97% of poultry genetics research and development; yet another four
produce more than 60% of the agrochemicals farmers use.
7. Impact of agricultural policy
While we all know that people are eating more junk food, dairy and meat, we don't
always appreciate that one of the causes of this rise is US governmental farm policy.
In the early 1970s, the US started paying maize farmers to produce grain, resulting in
overproduction. Between 1995 and 2012 maize subsidies totalled more than $84bn
(£49.8bn). Enterprising farmers learned they could feed this extra to cows, pigs and
chickens. This drove down the price of these produces and created the conditions
for intensive livestock production. It was also discovered around this time that the
sugars from corn could be removed and turned into high-fructose corn syrup. This
has given rise to the junk food industry.
8. Environmental impact
The way we're producing our food is impacting our environment. Agriculture is
responsible for 75% of deforestation worldwide, and is the largest contributor of
non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. We're also rapidly losing marine food sources.
In 2010, 53% of fisheries were fully exploited (pdf), 28% were overexploited, 3%
were depleted, and 1% were recovering from depletion.
9. Adapting to climate change
While there may be enough food for everyone on the planet today, this may not be
the case in the future. Recently published scientific work suggests that climate
change may reduce crop yields by 2% per decade over the next 100 years. These
reductions won't be the same everywhere. The poorest regions of the world are
expected to be the worst hit. Whether these crop reductions happen, however,
depends a lot on if farmers are able to use the tools they need to adapt to changing
weather conditions.
10. Increased demand
Recent studies suggest that the farmers of this world will have to produce 50% more
food by 2050 in order to meet global population growth. This will have to be done
against a backdrop of rising energy prices and climate change that is set to make
food harder and more expensive to produce.
Evan Fraser holds the Canada research chair in Global Food Security in the
department of geography at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Empires of
Food: Feast Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. Elizabeth Fraser is
completing her MA in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs
at the University of Waterloo
The food hub is funded by The Irish Food Board. All content is editorially independent
except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.
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EgonGeist
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1 May 2014 20:08
Thank you for enlightening us about the fact that world hunger is just one big capitalistic lie.
Todays agribusiness is completly unsustainable and is a major cause of most of the occuring
environmental issues connected to agriculture.
Anyhow instead of giving us 10 brief facts saying this is what goes wrong in the world the
article could have also mention or suggested how the world food ecenomy could change for
the better.
Report
HannahGould
EgonGeist
1 May 2014 20:52
0
Staff
Hello! I'm sure the authors have plenty of suggestions for how the world food
economy could change for the better, unfortunately word count wouldn't allow for
them to go into detail here but perhaps that would make a nice follow up.
We'll be exploring the challenges and solutions around food security on these pages in
the coming months. Do let us know what other topics in this area you'd like to see us
cover, or who you would like to see write.
User115892
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1
1 May 2014 21:33
Hi @EgonGeist, Thanks for weighing in with you ideas. As @HannahGould notes, a 600 word
op-ed only allows a brief treatment of these issues. If you are interested, we've expanded on
these issues in a series of animated web videos that you can find at the following link. In
these, we've really tried to focus on solutions as well as problems:
https://feedingninebillion.com/video-gallery-series
Let us know what you think!
Cheers,
Evan (@feeding9billion)
Report
EgonGeist
User115892
1 May 2014 23:42
0
Thanks for the link.
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