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How Can We Feed a Growing Population? Embrace Technology.

May 02, 2010

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With over a billion hungry people in the world, we must find solutions for feeding a growing population.

By Cole Waggoner, Managing Editor

Farmer in a canola field.

A report on food insecurity from the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) delivered some sobering news late last month: there are now more than a billion hungry people in the world, which is almost one out of every six people.  The global economic crisis and the current and impending effects of climate change combined with a growing population have only caused the issue at hand to worsen. And while the FAO set aggressive and admirable goals to reduce the number of hungry people on our planet by 2015, the study found that the world has actually taken steps backward when it comes to ending hunger.

United Nations senior economist Kostas G. Stamoulis said it best in a recent New York Times article: “The way we manage the global agriculture and food security system doesn’t work. There is this paradox of increasing global food production, even in developing countries, yet there is hunger.”

That said, we need to identify a plausible solution to this critical problem, and fast.  Innovation has played a major role in finding solutions to other issues faced around the world, and is also critical in the fight against global hunger.

Now more than ever, agriculture can – and must – benefit from innovation and technology. In fact, farming communities around the world have been creating innovative solutions to food production challenges for centuries. Steve Savage, agricultural scientist and writer at Sustainablog, offers an example of the Yao and Zhang people in Southern China who, because of mountainous lands, did not have readily available land for farming and embraced technology to remedy this issue:

They needed more food and so they turned to technology for the solution.  What they did was to terrace their mountainsides even up to slopes of 45%. [ . . . ]  What they were able to do is still an impressive example of civil engineering, even today.  Using stones and mud they built terrace walls that stand firm even with the torrential downpours that are common in the area.  They used bamboo piping to distribute water to each paddy – some so narrow that they only have room for two rows of rice.  This production system has remained productive for centuries when many other contemporary farming societies around the world simply depleted one area and moved on to the next.

And today, many countries around the globe are adopting solutions that will help them produce enough food despite the challenges they face, whether it be harsh weather, pests, or limited amounts of land. For example, the adoption of biotech cotton in India has helped farmers produce crops that are protected against insects like bollworms that can potentially ruin yields, and methods like no-till farming allow farmers to effectively prepare their land for sowing crops while lessening the chances of harming the soils and making them susceptible to erosion from wind and water, which is potentially damaging to crop yields.   

It is encouraging to see societies harness technology that enables their countries to produce food sustainably to meet the needs of a growing population. But now we must tackle this on a larger scale, giving farmers everywhere – not just in certain geographic locations – the tools they need to produce more food while using less land and fighting unpredictable weather during planting seasons, all while ensuring these farmers are profitable enough to comfortably support and feed their own families. It is a daunting task, but biotechnology – specifically genetically enhanced crops and technologies that promote sustainable agriculture – hold the key. It’s up to us to unlock the solution.

Discussion

1. J Voicheck January 15 2010, 1:16 pm

   The question must be asked:  Why is no one talking about population control today? The planet will survive quite nicely with less new humans on it.  Does anyone remember the idea of “replacement only” in family planning?  How can you expect technology to overcome an exponential rate of population growth?

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