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Imagine the world 40 years from now: the year 2050. Some people see hovercrafts, others see barren wastelands. I see a globe thrashed with an epidemic, infecting mother and child alike. I see a world infected with hunger. The author of the Nature article “How to feed a hungry world” sees the world in a different light. With claims for the need of a second green revolution and an increased budget stemming. The answer to this daunting question before us could not fall farther from the truth. from the private sector, this author argues that feeding the world’s population in 2050 is an issue that is easily solvable. With a steadily rising global population (predicted to reach 9.1 billion people by 2050), dwindling agricultural resources at our expense, and the pressing global issue of poverty at hand, feeding our world in 2050 will be anything but “easily possible.” It will be a struggle to the very end, requiring careful consideration, sustainable development, and cautious decision making every step of the way.
Our planet - this rock we live on - is designed with a maximum capacity. Once that maximum capacity is reached, our society and our comfortable way of life will begin to decline rapidly. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators, the Earth’s population is currently at 6.7 billion people. This number, growing exponentially at 1.17 percent annually, is an indication of explosive future population figures. While Earth continues to fill, gaining some 4 new humans every second, the issue of feeding a growing population is an unnerving predicament indeed. How do you feed a population of some 30 billion people in 2050, when you are struggling to feed a population of 7 billion in 2010? Serious policy change must be made if any progress is to be achieved.
With an increase in population, there is an inevitable decrease in the land available for inhabitance. As our global population grows, more and more land is being used for residential purposes. With more humans comes the need for new and greater food supplies. Many rainforests and otherwise uninhabited land are now being forced to be used for farming or livestock. Along with a need for more agricultural land, there is also a greater demand to keep these food supplies fresh and edible for longer periods of time; this means an increase in fertilizers, pesticides, and preservatives on our crop yields, and consequently on our land. How is our Earth supposed to function properly with increased fertilizers, pesticides, and preservatives in circulation with our food supplies and a declining source of clean groundwater from the runoff of these chemicals? This is what more farming will bring about, and if more eco-friendly methods are not discovered, Earth will soon begin to crumble.
Another issue pertaining to feeding a growing, hungry world is the already pressing matter of world poverty. To date, some 1.02 billion people are considered “hungry” or malnourished by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This number has increased drastically since its 2006 level of 854 million people. The chief factors behind this sharp increase are (FAO, World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics 2010):
· “Neglect of agriculture relevant to very poor people by governments and international agencies.”
· “The current worldwide economic crisis.”
· “The significant increase of food prices in the last several years which has been devastating to those with only a few dollars a day to spend.”
We, as a human race, already have the problem of feeding 1.02 billion people. Those people still remain hungry as they go to sleep at night because they are not being fed and nourished properly. This, to me, shows that humans are not ready for an increase in population, as we cannot take care of the entire current population. I believe that there is a distinct parallel relationship between population growth and poverty growth; as the population continues to grow, there is a decline in sufficient resources for everyone, therefore leading to a global increase in hunger stricken people.
With this in mind, I argue that feeding the population of 2050, however big it may be, will not be an easy task. In fact, this task will be more difficult than the problems we face today. Swift action must be taken, and organizations such as the UN must work together with countries around the world to combat this growing concern. With no food comes unrest; with unrest comes disorder; with disorder comes a crumbling of a race that became too big to solve its own internal problems.
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