Feeding the Future: Five Ways of Increasing Global Food Production

 Feeding the Future: Five Ways of Increasing Global Food Production

Along with climate change, one of the most pressing problems facing humanity in the coming decades will be food security. How do we continue to feed the world when, according to the UN close to 900 million people are already going hungry, and the earth’s population will have increased by an estimated 2.5 billion more people by 2050?

Not necessarily in any order of preference or priority, here are five ideas currently being floated as ways of increasing food production worldwide;

Algae

It’s already a popular delicacy in China, Japan and parts of the Far East, where it’s eaten in the form of seaweeds. Algae has the potential to become a major food source for humans, but animals too.

In fact, it’s usefulness isn’t limited to combating hunger. It can also be used to make biofuel, with far greater yields than land crops such as maize. Being simple single-celled organisms, they can proliferate very quickly in hostile environments that would normally destroy most food crops, such as in saline or polluted water. As global warming appears to be creating more extreme weather conditions and affecting crop yields more and more year on year, this versatility could well prove vital.

New Crops

Currently around 10% of global cultivated land is planted with genetically modified (GM) crops comprising of the three main foods; soya, maize and oilseed rape. Due to the ongoing concern with GM food, nearly all of this goes into animal feed and not directly into the human food chain. As we struggle to feed increasing populations of the future, the pressure can only increase and we may find GM food gradually introduced directly into the human food chain.

GM is not the only solution though. A team of agricultural scientists from China and the Philippines have developed a series of “green super rice” varieties WHICH produce more grain whilst being resistant to insects, disease, salty water, floods and even droughts.

Insects

Like algae, insects are already on the menu among the populations of Africa, Latin America and Asia. People may still be horrified by the thought of eating insects, but bugs are low in fat and cholesterol, rich in protein and high in calcium and iron content. Plans are being drawn up for “micro-livestock” farming, a euphemism for insect farms for the benefit of the squeamish. Researchers are also working on extracting the protein from bugs so we don’t have to actually eat them in order to benefit from their nutritional properties.

Artificial Meat

No, it’s not McDonalds nor Spam. Artificial meat looks like meat and feels like meat because it is meat, although it’s never been anywhere near a living, breathing creature. Biotechnology has now enabled us to grow or “culture” meat from stem cells in giant vats, with edible tissue produced from laboratories. Nobody knows how the first artificial hamburger will taste. There’s a chance it will taste of nothing, because the distinctive taste of meat is derived from blood and fat to give it colour and taste. Given that it’s complex and expensive work identifying and cultivating the right stem cells to create artificial meat we may not find out for a while.

Reduce Food Waste

According to some estimates, as much as 50% of all food produced in the world goes to waste. Whilst, strictly speaking, reducing food waste doesn’t actually increase global food production, the net effect of cutting back wastage could be even more dramatic than any other method we might use to improve the way food is distributed around the world.

Steve Waller is an environmental blogger on a mission to lower his own carbon footprint and educate his reader’s on how they can do the same. He recently set up the Green Steve Shop, where you can offset carbon as you spend, to this end.