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| Credit : cia.gov, 2011 |
The earth has a population now of 7.5 billion people projected to reach 8 billion by 2023 AD. Of the present 7.5 billion China and India, the most populous, account for more than 1.39 billion and 1.34 billion people respectively. www.worldbank.org, 2017.
China has as area of 9.6 million sq km land supporting it's 1.39 billion population (145 people per sq. km.) while India has just 3.3 million sq km land supporting the 1.34 billion people (406 people per sq. km.). This is indication enough why we Indians should be very concerned about the population growth and the resultant pressure on food resources.
The figure on the right, tells us how the 7 billion people of the world are spread out contributing to the GDP of the world. 1.4 billion people employed in agriculture work (20% of global population) day in and day out for feeding the rest 5.6 - 6 billion people of the world. In 2018, planet earth had a population of 7.5 billion which is expected to grow to 7.7 billion by end 2019. In the services field there are a good amount of people engaged in research in the lab to improve farm productivity through genetic engineering and better fertilizer composition. - courtesy cia.gov and census.gov, 2011.
The global food chain now processes almost 320 million tonnes of meat annually (2017) which is projected to reach 450 million tonnes annually by 2050. It is found that it takes 8-10 kgs of vegetables to produce a kg of meat. The per-capita global consumption of meat is increasing which is a dangerous trend that needs to be controlled.
The global food supply chain can be thought of as consisting of three components, the consumer, the supplier and the manufacturer.
The first and foremost thing the customer can do is to change his food lifestyle, move from a meat rich diet to a vegetable rich diet.
As a supplier the focus now shifts to the farms that supply the food grains. Better usage of fertilizers and genetically modified grains and vegetables can make a big difference.
As the manufacturer, we need to reduce the wastage at the food preparation source. World over it is said that annually about 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted, that is a good one third of all food produced in the world is wasted. Just by ensuring through efficient means of storage, distribution this waste can be reduced to almost zero.
Israel tech startups have come up on a limited scale with technologies like vertical farming where the constraints of farming space have caused farmers to think of farming on vertical spaces. Tech startups have also come up with produce that needs less sunlight and hence can be grown in laboratory setups. The challenge for all these startups is one of scaling up.
Shift in our dietary habits to more sustainable ones with more of veggies, fruits, cereals and legumes, with less consumption of meat is the only solution to feed 25% more of humanity, ie. in total 10 billion people by 2055 ..
According to the author, the most easy and simplest way to attack the global food crisis is to reduce food waste, both at the distribution side and the consumption side. According to the Forbes mag article, almost 40% of food in developing countries get wasted in the distribution and storage areas while in the developed countries 40% of wastage happens at the food preparation and consumption stage. This is an interesting statistic for us, which points fingers to where the developing countries should focus to tackle the food crisis and where the developed countries should focus.
Food costs have been on an upward slide over the past years as there is a great gap between supply and demand. The rich countries continue to buy a good portion of global food production as they can afford to while the poor countries have to settle for what remains.
The Food Security Risk Index (given on the right) is an indexed measure of the risk involved in providing food security to the masses. It is a measure of the country's exposure to the impacts of a changing climate, susceptibility to natural resource risks and how the country is adapting to these risks. While we find the countries of Central Africa and Afghanistan are the most stressed, the countries around Central Africa and South Asia are stressed while those in China and South America are less stressed, the countries of North America (other than Mexico), Europe and Australia are having least risk of food security.
The scene in 2018 is slightly improved but we find the central parts of Africs among the most stressed for food,
If we do not work to produce enough food now, it can result in food riots like what happens in Africa frequently and people get killed. Let globally all the countries with UN focus to initiate tasked to reduce food waste, improve farm productivity and better storage and distribution channels to reduce wastage.
Click here for the Forbes document ..
george..
Ref : Howells Richard, How to feed 10 billion people - The Supply Chain challenge of the future, Forbes, August 2019
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