food for thought

For capitalists when it comes to building up an investments, they will follow relatively predictable global trends or themes. Food and water security will be the most serious casualities of climate change. The world's population continues to grow. Everyone has to eat. This will create ongoing demand for food products and the systems that provide for an individual to consume food. Investing in the food system could mean looking at not only the production of food but also the processing, packaging, consumption and safety of food. Developing nations are going to have to build massive infrastructure to feed their people. It will take new transportation networks and distribution channels. Farmers around the world will need to double agricultural production by 2050 in order to keep up with demand from a growing and more affluent human population that aspires to a more meat-based diet. This doubling of output will need to occur despite current strains on agricultural productivity. Water scarcity is also a major constraint to increasing agricultural production. In addition, roughly one-third of the Earth’s land surface suffers from land degradation from the combined effects of soil erosion, salinisation, nutrient depletion, and desertification. Finally, the rise of the biofuels industry—evidenced in the diversion of one-quarter of the US grain harvest to biofuel production—is generating enormous demand for grain. By increasing grain demand and, as a consequence, demand for arable land and irrigation, growing grains as biofuel feedstock pits human food needs against biofuel production.

With 7 percent of the world's land and water, China has 22 percent of the world's population. China and other growing nations appear to be fighting a losing battle trying to remain self-sufficient in the food production cycle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture stated that China's land productivity continues to decline. China plans to invest 30 billion dollars on water conservation projects in 2011 to reduce the impact of natural disasters on grain production. China has invested a little over 100 billion dollars in water projects in the past five years. A leading agriculture expert warned that climate change could trigger a 10 percent drop in China's grain harvest over the next 20 years, threatening the country's food security. Greenpeace said in a recent report that China's food supply would be insufficient by 2030 and its overall food production could fall by 23 percent by 2050.

India's finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that there is a need for greater self-sufficiency in food production as no country is capable enough to feed 1.15-billion people, regardless of its infrastructural capacity. India is an agriculture-based economy where more than 600 million of over a billion population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Though its agricultural sector accounts or nearly 15 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product.Average food inflation will be 19.95 percent this year.

Nor will Britain be immune from the effects.

“The UK’s own population is set to grow from today’s 62million to over 70m by 2030,” said NFU president, Mr Kendall. “If home production levels stay the same, we’ll become ever more dependent on imports. As it is, we’re already buying in more than 40% of our food, up from around 25% 20 years ago. With eight million more mouths to feed we’ll be edging towards one in every two meals coming, in effect, from food grown abroad."

All the food we eat needs water.“No water, no food" - very simple equation.

A coffee takes 140 litres of water to produce? A cup of tea requires 30 litres of water in its production cycle? It takes 3400 litres of water to make 1kg of rice, 1300 litres to produce 1kg of wheat or barley and 15,500 litres to produce 1kg of beef? it took 70 litres of water to produce one apple;120 litres to produce one glass of wine; and 16,600 to produce 1kg of leather. Ways to improve water availability will be to reduce food waste, recycle urban water and make better water savings on-farm.[from here]

The number of people living in water-scarce countries is expected to rise six-fold from 470 million to 3 billion between 1990 and 2025. Today half of the urban populations of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean suffer from diseases associated with inadequate access to water and sanitation, and roughly 1.7 million people die every year from these diseases.

In the North China Plain, where half of China’s wheat is grown, the water table is falling by as much as 3 meters/year. Certain states in India are using half of their electricity budget to pump water from depths as deep as one kilometer to irrigate crops. Roughly 300 million Chinese and Indians are eating food grown on “fossil” water that is not replenished. In the Middle East and North Africa, current rates of freshwater use are equivalent to 115% of total renewable runoff. Rapid human population growth combined with economic development begets increased water demand from homes, industry, and agriculture. In agriculture alone, the amount of water required to keep pace with global food demand—roughly 2,000–3,000 km3—represents a tripling of water used for irrigation. This is water that, in many parts of the world, simply is not available.[from here]

It can be easy to surrender yourself to the gloom of the future being presented. Wars rage around the world, fossil fuels are quickly running out, and natural disasters paint a picture of an increasingly bleak future for the human race. But there is hope. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature 1.5 billion hectares of land—or roughly the size of Russia—could be reforested. Two of the largest areas that could conceivably receive new forest lands would be in Africa and Asia and would counteract the huge sections of forests that continue to disappear at an alarming pace, such as in South America and Indonesia. “We know it can be done."

Technology in food production can also offer benefits for health. For example, fortification involves adding to foods nutrients linked to improved health. Examples include adding calcium and Vitamin D to milk, folic acid to cereal, and omega-3 fatty acids to butter. In addition, a recent Institute of Medicine Food Forum workshop identified several ways food manufacturers are using technology to reduce fat, sugar and sodium levels in foods to prevent and reduce obesity and other chronic disease conditions. Taste is the most important factor for consumers in making food purchase decisions. Food processing and technology make possible the abundance of good-tasting foods we enjoy today. As cooking shows increase in popularity, secrets to delicious food like that of the world's best chefs have come to light. For example, a technology called sous vide ("soo veed") infuses flavor into food through combining "low and slow" cooking, vacuum-sealing and freezing technologies. When reheated, the food tastes like it was just prepared in a high-end restaurant! [from here]

Capitalism simply does not provide a framework for the rational solution of the problem of threatened climate change. Capitalism is hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with all the ecological problems. Human and environmental needs come a poor second whenever the needs of capital dictate. What is required is a system without the profit motive in which the interests and needs of all are paramount. In such a system the challenge of the human impact on the environment can be seriously addressed for the first time. People, and not money, will control their lives and the direction of social progress. Why is it that with the accumulated wealth of knowledge and expertise in every field of food production that so much soil is degraded and the health of oceans are under threat, that large areas have lost the biodiversity which is so essential to the well-being of the planet? Only the change to common ownership and production solely for use can provide the framework to enable the application of scientific and technological knowledge, together with human ingenuity, to the many problems so that production is sustainable, that damaged environments are allowed to recover and the food supply ensured for all