This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 9:33am and is filed under Produce, Media and information, Ranching, Agriculture, Economics, Farming, Food Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Food for Thought: Excerpted from Feedstuffs
ANOTHER 40 million people have been pushed into hunger this year, primarily due to higher food prices, according to the U.N.’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO). The group’s just-released estimate brings the overall number of undernourished people in the world to 963 million, which compares to 923 million in 2007.
In the next 40 years, it is estimated that the amount of food that will need to be produced to feed the world’s growing population will be greater than the amount already produced throughout the history of humankind. That is a huge challenge for farmers and ranchers around the world, and as Erpelding [of Elanco] explained, it is only achievable through continued access to technology, improvements in genetics, proper animal care and efficiency in production.
Sustainability, availability and affordability are equally important in feeding the world.
I often get involved in discussions where technology is painted with a broad black brush. Technologies, such as hybrid crops, effective veterinary treatments and even GMOs are primarily responsible for the the availability of affordable food. Technology can support sustainability, like some crops that can grow in salt-poisoned soils or with less nitrogen.
It is important not to reject technology just because it is technology. It is also important to look at the entire impact and cost of technologies, not just the bottom cash line. Policies and production decisions should be made based on facts (all of them) and not emotions.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:18pm
Of course technology is responsible for advances in agriculture, but like everything it must be used in a wise manner. You include GMOs as part of the technological solution to providing food and hunger relief to the world when in fact there is no GMO on the market that increases yield.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:31am
GMOs have played no role in increasing food production on this planet. The Green Revolution was about hybrid plant breeding, irrigation technology, and improvements in fertilization.
In fact, herbicide-tolerant crops comprise 81% of the GMO crops planted globally, nearly all of which are Monsanto’s Roundup Ready variety. This is all about ensuring sales of Roundup and nothing about “feeding the world”. Glyphosate use on soybeans, corn, and cotton rose dramatically from 7.9 million pounds in 1994 to 119.1 million pounds in 2005. More recently, USDA data has shown an increase in the application of more toxic and persistent herbicides such as 2,4-D on soybeans and atrazine on corn, in part to combat increasing glyphosate weed resistance. Contrary to claims by the biotech industry and some bloggers that GMO crops reduce chemical use, USDA’s own data shows the emergence of a trend towards more toxic and more frequent herbicide applications.
The absolute best ‘technology’ to increase food production globally is soil conservation. We loose more productivity due to soil erosion and loss of fertility than anything else.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:38pm
Nosmokes: You may be right, in a narrow sense, but GMO’s do increase the net return to the farmer, which is an incentive to produce more. My evidence–farmers are willing to pay the premium for GMO seed when the resulting crop can be marketed freely.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:18am
Not only do GMO crops help lift the production level of subsistence farmers — they actually increase their over-all well-being and even help countries’ societies mature. A child who doesn’t have to spend all his/her time weeding because of weed-resistant seed can go to school; a mother who doesn’t have to spend all her time in the fields carrying water because of seed better suited to dry climtes can spend time making handicrafts to be sold at market; a farmer who grows more food can better feed his family and sell the extra at market. Thus appropriate use of GMO can help build entire societies. Just because we have grown beyond subsistence farming does not mean that we should shut the door on important advances in agriculture that allows others to do so. Think about it — in the early 1900s starving to death we still a leading cause of death. Now we are more threatened by obesity.