Let’s Talk About Food By S. Julia Mary Deiters
D
uring the winter months, a group of Sisters and Associates gathered to discuss Lester Brown’s book Full Planet, Empty Plates. Did you know that food is the weak link in our modern civilization just as it was for many other civilizations, like the Mayans, that have come and gone? We cannot separate our existence from our food supply. To increase our food supply/grain yield can we just acquire more land and plant more crops? The answer is not that simple. Our food supply is dependent on viable land, sufficient water, favorable climate, and population needs. How do these affect each other?
Land Worldwide, sometime during the last century, soil erosion began to exceed new soil formation. The US is not eroding as fast as some other lands (China, Africa), but in the western hemisphere, Haiti went from being self-sufficient in grain 40 years ago to now importing more than half of its grain. This is the result of losing nearly all its forests and much of its topsoil. Soil erosion and land degradation issues are local, but their effect on food security is global.
Water Food is an extraordinarily water-intensive product; 70 percent of world water use is for irrigation. About 40 percent of the world’s irrigated area is dependent on underground water that needs to be regularly replenished with rainfall. In areas of the world where the water tables are being pumped beyond the rate of recharge, the resulting water-based “food bubbles” can create a short-term false sense of security. This condition is found in 18 countries that contain more than half the world’s people, including China, India, and the US. Irrigated areas appear to have peaked in the US and begun a long-term decline in some states like Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Florida. The world is seeing the first regional collision between population growth and water supply in the Arab Middle East.
Climate For more than 11,000 years the world experienced rather remarkable climate stability. Earth’s rising temperature now is making it more difficult to sustain a steady rise in grain yields. Our modern-day agriculture is suffering from rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The massive burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil) is increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, raising Earth’s temperature and disrupting climate.
Population Because we are near reaching the glass ceiling on food supplies for our world, we have to look very seriously at population stability. Most future population growth will occur in the Indian subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa. S ummer 2 0 1 3
In pre-modern societies, both births and deaths were high; there was little or no population growth. As living standards rise and health care improves, death rates begin to decline. As living standards continue to improve, and particularly as women are educated, the birth rate also begins to decline. The world cannot produce much more food than is being produced now. In a hungry world, it is the children who suffer the most. As a result of chronic hunger, 48 percent of all children in India are stunted physically and mentally. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country where hunger is common, many households (with both parents working) cannot afford to eat every day. Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 7,000 children are dying each day from hunger and related illnesses.
Conclusion Competition for the grain harvest is between the affluent of the world and the poorest people of the world. Where incomes have risen, there is an enormous growth in animal protein consumption going from 38 pounds per person to 88 pounds a year (for period 1950-2010). The average American consumes about 1,400 pounds of grain per year, four-fifths of it indirectly in the form of meat, milk, and eggs. This is nearly four times that of India. Armed aggression is no longer the principal threat to our world’s future. The overriding threats in this century are water shortages, rising food prices, population growth, climate change. The geopolitics of food is fast overshadowing the geopolitics of oil.
SC Response What can WE do to prevent a worldwide food breakdown? Use less water? Consume less meat? Every local action has an impact on the global needs. Source: Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester Brown (W.W. Norton & Company, 2012)
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