Future Food Crisis?

A recent BBC2 programme called the ‘Future of Food‘ demonstrates how the issue of food security and its corollaries — such as sustainable water management, diminishing oil supplies, and climate change — are becoming mainstream issues for consumers.

The BCC programme, hosted by journalist George Alagiah, poses the fundamental question, “Can world food production keep up with growing demand, and what will be the likely impacts back in the UK?”

We at Glasshouse have been engaging with the issue of food security via our work with the Farming First coalition.  Farming First is supported by a broad cross-section of global organisations along the agricultural supply chain, including farmers, scientists, business, and NGOs.  They’ve proposed a six-point plan which outlines how to empower farmers to continue feeding the world and to accomplish this feat sustainably and responsibly.

Assuming that current projections hold true, the global population will have increased to 9 billion people by 2050, and demand for energy-intensive diets including more meats, dairy, and oils will increase, especially in developing economies such as China and India. While consumers in the developed world have largely been protected thus far, the experts interviewed in the BBC programme warn of the possibility of increased food prices, a less reliable and less diverse selection of products.

Meanwhile, a new book launched in the UK (Waste by Tristram Stuart) estimates that 50% of harvests never end up on our plates, 35% of school lunches get thrown out, and an incredible 25% of purchased food goes to waste from rot or lack of use.  And the average UK consumer is eating imported food that took 3000 litres of foreign water to grow, a concept referred to as our “water footprint”.

It seems to me that we are facing a tipping point in how the mainstream western consumer is going to have to look at and consume food.