The world’s population growth rate has been declining since its 20th Century peak – when mechanized agriculture, improved sanitation, and medical advances lead to the greatest population boom in human history.
Global food production generates the calories needed to satisfy the planet’s 7 billion appetites. But food waste and a growing appetite for meat means that a half a billion people going hungry.
By 2050, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predict the world’s population will reach 9 billion, with most growth in urban parts of developing nations. There will be nearly a third more mouths to feed, many more affluent, leading to a 40% rise in demand for meat.
The UN reports that this will require producing 50% more grain and cereal crops, as well as doubling available supplies of pork, poultry, beef, and other forms of animal protein. They forecast developing nations can achieve the needed crop output through increases in yield, with only a 20% expansion in farmland.
But it’s hard to imagine doubling global livestock without serious environmental implications. Rearing meat, like beef, requires 50 times more water than your average vegetable. Concentrated animal feeding operations produce a great deal of waste, leading to air and water pollution. And ruminants—such as cattle—are already responsible for a third of climate-warming methane emissions.
For the sake of the environment, we need to move towards meat as a side dish or occasional indulgence—with people in the western world leading by example.
Web Links
How to Feed the World in 2050
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/expert_paper/How_to_Feed_the_World_in_2050.pdf
IME Report
http://www.imeche.org/Libraries/Reports/IMechE_Global_Food_Report.sflb.ashx
NRDC Report
http://www.nrdc.org/food/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf
EPA Methane
http://www.epa.gov/rlep/faq.html
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jan/08/china-pork-pollution-video
Photo, taken on September 25, 2009, courtesy of Charles Haynes via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.