Food Prices
World food prices have already more than doubled since 1990 and Oxfam predicts that this trend will accelerate over the next 20 years. They also predict that by 2030, the average cost of key crops could increase by up to 180%. The World Bank has warned that these rising food prices are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty [1].
Global Warming
Global warming has been largely blamed for the rising food prices. Research suggests that global warming has already had a detrimental effect on the world’s food production and has driven up food prices by 20% in recent decades [2].
The Earth Policy Institute believes that the relatively stable climate that has allowed agriculture to flourish in the last 11,000 years is now coming to an end [2]. If greenhouse gas emissions continue as they are currently, annual temperatures in important crop-growing regions of the world will increase by 2.5 to 4.3⁰C by 2100, according to IPCC scenarios. To make matters worse, precipitation is also expected to decline in some regions and heat waves are predicted to increase in frequency, intensity and duration. These consequences of global warming will have severe impacts on future agricultural production [3].
A report from the Earth Policy Institute states that crops in many countries are currently growing at or near their optimum temperature, so that even a small increase in temperature would severely impact the harvest. The predicted increases in temperature are likely to cause dehydration, prevent pollination and lead to slower photosynthesis – all of which would result in less food being available and, therefore, an increase in food prices [2].
Biofuels
The increased demand for biofuels has also received a large amount of attention in the food price debate. An increasing amount of food is being used for biofuels in order to meet the needs of the growing population. 18% of biofuels now used in the UK are made from wheat and corn – staple foods in the developing world – but the UK hardly used either of these just over a year ago. Additionally, 40% of US corn goes into biofuels. To make matters worse, the demand for biofuels is set to increase significantly – the EU alone is aiming to double the amount of biofuels used within the next decade [4].
Not only is an increasing amount of food being used for biofuels, but an increasing amount of land vital for food crops in developing countries is being turned over to grow biofuels. There is not enough land in the developed world to grow biofuels, so where better to look than in developing countries where the land is supposedly abundant and cheap [4].
Biofuels are set to put an even larger pressure on food availability, and thus food prices in the future, which is unacceptable when already about 1 billion people go hungry every day [4].
Food Waste
However, while global warming and biofuels are getting the blame for rising food prices, the global issue of food wastage isn’t getting enough attention. Earlier this year, a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) study revealed that a third of the food produced for human consumption every year (approximately 1.3 billion tonnes) gets lost or wasted [5].
Food losses happen at the production, harvest, post-harvest and processing phases, which mostly occur in developing countries due to poor infrastructure and technology. Food wastage is more common in the developed world, occurring when retailers and consumers throw away perfectly edible food [5].
Food losses result in lost income for farmers and higher prices of food for consumers, so reducing losses should be a priority for increasing food security. It should also be remembered that losing or wasting food also wastes valuable resources such as water, land, energy and labour, and also needlessly produces greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming [5].
The FAO study revealed other alarming facts [5]:
- Each year, consumers in developed countries waste nearly as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa.
- The amount of food lost or wasted every year is equivalent to over half the world’s annual cereals crop.
Solutions: Where to start?
Although global warming and biofuels will be on-going issues, food security could be significantly helped if simple policies are set up to help reduce the amount of food lost and wasted each year.
For example, consumers in the developed world should be taught that throwing away food needlessly is unacceptable. They should also be taught that natural resources have limited availability, so it is more effective to reduce food losses than to increase food production in order to feed a growing population. These consumer attitudes could be changed through education in schools or political initiatives [5].
Furthermore, consumers should be discouraged from buying more food than they need by scrapping unnecessary food promotions in supermarkets e.g. buy two get one free. Restaurants can also help by removing cheap buffet deals that encourage customers to heap their plates with food and throw away large amounts that they can’t eat [5].
Simple solutions like these should be started straight away, while the bigger issues of global warming and biofuels continue to be discussed by world leaders.
References:
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13086979
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/05/food-prices-global-warming
[3] Ainsworth, E.A. & Ort, D.R. (2010) How do we improve crop production in a warming world? Plant Physiology, 154, 526-530.
Available at: http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/154/2/526.full.pdf+html
