Food Scarcity: An Environmental Wakeup Call

This article speaks upon the environmental crisis of food and water scarcity. These two factors will be were environmental deterioration and economic decline will become parallel in the years to come. Overpopulation is increasing the pressures on the cropland and aquifers. This increases soil erosion and leads less productivity the following years causing food shortages and political instability. The world population is expanding by 80 million people a year. "Even without further environmental degradation, we approach the new millennium with 800 million hungry and malnourished people." With more people becoming more affluent "the amount of cropland available to produce grain will continue to decline, shrinking to 0.08 hectares per person in 2030."
The same can be said for water because it is so crucial to agriculture "since 1979, the growth in irrigation has fallen behind that of population, shrinking the irrigated area per person by some 7%. This trend, now well established, will undoubtedly continue as the demand for water presses ever more tightly against available supplies." More water is also being used for non-food purposes further increasing the drop. "As water is pulled away from agriculture, production often drops, forcing the country to import grain. Importing a ton of grain is, in effect, importing thousands of tons of water. For countries with water shortages, importing grain is the most efficient way to import water."
During the late spring and early summer of 1996 world wheat and corn prices set highs under pressure from a 1995 harvest reduced by heat waves in the U.S. Corn Belt and from China's emergence as the world's second-largest grain importer. Wheat traded at over $7 a bushel, more than double the price in early 1995. In mid-July, corn traded at an all-time high of $5.54 a bushel, also double the level of a year earlier." This increase is catastrophic for the worlds poor. These increases will likely be what forces the world to take more sustainable but desperate action.

Citations: Food Scarcity: An Environmental Wakeup Call
by Lester Brown

Picture:
http://www.inkcinct.com.au/web/cartoons/2007/2007-627P-water-price-scale.jpg