Advances in technology have helped more of the world’’s population live better and longer — and that’’s part of our problem!
Better health standards have kept larger numbers of people alive. The world’’s population is now almost four billion and expected to double in twenty-five years. Growing population and slowly rising living standards have increased our need for food at the rate of 30 million tons per year. As a result, the world’’s stockpile of food is declining by about 10 million tons per year.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION
From the early 1950 until 1972, world food production increased greatly. The Green Revolution extended scientific techniques to agriculture in the form of hybrid seed and poultry, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and complex irrigation systems. Strains of corn, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, and rice were developed to flourish under particular climate and soil conditions.
In the United States, corn production rose to 110 bushels per acre from only 26 bushels per acre in the early 1900s. Milk production rose to 10,000 pounds per cow per year, compared with 600 in India. Chickens were bred to eat less, grow to maturity in a shorter time, and produce more eggs. As a result of such scientific advances, our twelve Midwestern states alone now feed one-fourth of the world’’s people.
Crop disasters in 1972 brought an apparent end to the growth in production. Much of the extra yields had come from the use of chemical fertilizers, primarily petroleum-based and now in short supply. The drop in world supplies of petroleum-based fertilizers is expected to cause a drop in crop yields of ten tons for each one ton decline in fertilizers applied.
This presents a particular problem for underdeveloped nations that often lack the foreign exchange necessary for buying fertilizer. The problem is so severe that Philip Handler, president of the National Academy of Science, has predicted one million child deaths per month in these nations by the year 2025.
PROPOSALS AND PROBLEMS
What can be done At present we are cultivating only 3.5 billion acres of arable land out of a worldwide total of 7.8 billion acres. New acreage could be brought under cultivation, although the most favorable lands are already in use. The costs in clearing, transportation, and irrigation of developing only 20 million acres of land are estimated at about $ 4 billion per year. Adding only 10 percent to the amount of cultivated acreage would cost at least $ 400 billion and could run as high as $ 1 trillion!
Land reform in some areas might be of help. New foods from the sea are also a possibility, but this is limited by pollution and y too intensive fishing in recent years. New varieties of seeds are still being developed, but the process is slow and costly. Fertilizer production must also be expanded, particularly in the less-developed countries.
Reduction of waste would also help relieve the food shortage. Decreased consumption in the developed nations could increase the quantities distributed to needy nations. For example, the United States uses the equivalent of seven pounds of grain in the production of the pound of meat. Reducing meat consumption would free this grain for shipment abroad. It is estimated that the average person in poor countries consumes four hundred pounds of grain per year, in contrast to the citizen of North America who consumes a ton.
The excerpt is mainly about________.