Research Group Says Global Food Demand Will Double by 2050

As hard as it is to imagine, there are now approximately seven billion people living on the planet at this moment. Unfortunately, a large number of these people aren't getting enough to eat, and worse, with the population continuing to grow, a new research study done by a diverse group of agriscientists shows that food supplies will need to double what is being produced to meet the growing demand. The team has published the results of its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The group, all from the University of Minnesota, notes that if the world's farmers do manage to grow twice as much food as they are managing now, it will almost certainly mean a dramatic rise in the amount of carbon being pushed into the atmosphere, resulting in an increase in global warming which could impact, among other things, the ability to sustain such large harvests. Making things even worse is the prospect that much of new farm land will have to made available by cutting down forests, which will further reduce the planet's ability to remove carbon from the air. The team notes, that if current trends continue, land area equal to the whole of the United States will be converted by 2050.

All is not all doom and gloom however, as the team also points out that new techniques are underway to produce fertilizer that is not nearly so nitrogen rich, which would mean less carbon emissions as crops consume them. The team even goes so far as to suggest that if third world countries were all to adopt modern farming techniques, much of the land clearing might be unnecessary.

One alarming facet of the study is that the bulk of future food needs will come from those parts of the world least prepared to grow it themselves. Specifically, many parts of Asia, Africa and South America.

The team concludes their report by suggesting that highly productive nations such as the United States, Brazil, and most Europe countries move together to assist those countries that will be most in need of agricultural enhancement techniques; not only to insure that enough food will be grown to meet the needs of all, but to spare the planet of additional insult due to massive increases in the amount of carbon spewed into the atmosphere as the result of burning lands for farming, then fertilizing and growing those crops needed to sustain local populations.