If you think hunger had been banished forever, think again
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I just read this Editorial in the 15 March 2008 edition of New Scientist magazine and I simply must share it with you peeps!
Bad news is a journalist's bread and butter, a fact that is regularly pointed out by those who blame television, newspapers, and magazines for filling their world with stories and pictures of doom and gloom. It is heartening, then, when the doom-mongering pays off and has a postitive effect on people's lives.
Almost a year ago we reported on how a virulent strain of fungus was threatening the wheat harvests on which billions of people depend on for survival (New Scientist, 7 April 2007, p.6). We now understand that the article alerted the Chinese leadership to the peril and that it has launched an emergency research programme to develop strains of wheat resistant to the disease. This is just the kid of result all journalists hope for.
Unfortunately, we must also report the bad news that goes along with this story. The fungus, known as Ug99, is set to strike the wheat fields of south Asia even earlier than had been feared. It may already have reached Pakistan, gateway to the breadbasket of Asia. Unless we develop new varieties of wheat that do not succumb to Ug99, it will threaten most of the world's wheat crops and push prices even higher than they already are.
For those of us living in well-off industrialised countries, the prospect of a global food crisis may sound far-fetched. It is easy to take food production for granted when supermarket shelves are always filled. Yet growing enough for more than 6 billion people - especially when we are so bad at dividing it up fairly - is no trivial business.
The threats of modern agriculture are myriad. Think of the bluegtongue virus threatening Europe's livestock, or the H5N1 bird flu still ravaging chicken farms across Asia. Over the past year, food prices have risen dramatically - for several reasons. Drought has caused poor harvests; there has been a growth in demand for corn as a source for biofuels; the price of the oil needed in the growing and processing of food has soared; and demand for food has risen, thanks to a burgeoning population and increasing prosperity.
Growing food has always been a struggle, and it is only thanks to modern agricultural research that most poeple now have enough to eat. Today we need that research more than ever. The growing demand for meat can only add to the strain on grain supplies, as livestock ened to eat too. Crop diseases and insect pests are constantly evolving and adapting to the genetic and chemical weapons we use to keep them at bay. Agricultural researchers respond by constantly refining method of disease and pest control, but it is a challenge to keep up.
We need to work faster. The cheap solutions to the problems we face have been exhausted, and as a result the effort put into agricultural research and development is achieving ever more meagre returns. The International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC estimates that every unit of harvested crop costs two-thirds more in R&D than it did 20 years ago.
The story of Ug99 typifies this struggle. Famine used to be endemic in India. It has been virtually eliminated largely because researchers discovered genes in wheat that gave it resistance to its most deadly disease, a fungus called stem rust, and used them to develop rust-resistant strains. It was only a matter of time before a stem rust emerged that got around those defences - and now it has, in the form of Ug99. It is no exaggeration to say that billions of people depend on our finding new kinds of resistance to head it off.
One might have hoped the enormity of this impending crisis would prompt western governments to invest in finding a solution. No chance. Funding for research into ways of dealing with Ug99 is slow, and it's the same story for agricultural research across the board. According to the IFPRI, when the rich contries no longer felt threatened by famine they simply stopped funding research into maintaining and boosting yields of staple crops. These days most agriculltural R&D is done by private companies, whose interests are not primarily feeding the masses.
This needs to change fast. The recent hike in food prices should have alerted us all to what is going on, and hopefully will inspire governments to a new reasearch effort aimed at tackling the threats to food production. If dark stories about what could happen if we don't get our act together spur people to act, watch this space for more of them.
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Rhonda, can u conclude above ? its too long.
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Originally posted by Zarks:
Rhonda, can u conclude above ? its too long.
Har? You mean, summarise?
Erm... just read the emboldened paragraphs then!
If you ask me to summarise, I'll just say, "Doomsday soon! Not enough food for all! STOP producing more mouths to feed!" 
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Yahhh we will see more GMO food from Monsatan!!!
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err.. wouldnt the more direct solution be stop eating so much first? :P :P
actually population growth in the industrialised world is already on the decline - the problem mainly occurs in the third world countries - who are the front line sufferers should this famine occurs - because they have little access to birth control, and sexuality education.
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oh i see.. so this will happen in future.. thanks for the concern.
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IMO the most effective way to reverse this trend is for have a major global recession.
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Originally posted by TCH05:
IMO the most effective way to reverse this trend is for have a major global recession.
Har?!
How in the world would a recession solve this problem?! -
In short, we might all get killed off faster through hunger than a super virus or a meteor impact
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Originally posted by DriftingGuy:
In short, we might all get killed off faster through hunger than a super virus or a meteor impact
Yeah... who would have thought that we'd die of hunger?
We won't get killed off 'faster' though... starvation is a slow and torturous death...
However, that's when folks like me, with all our reserves, tend to survive longer. 
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Originally posted by Rhonda:
However, that's when folks like me, with all our reserves, tend to survive longer.
What type of food reserves do you stock at home?For me, it's canned tuna, and lots of it. My tuna reserve is currently hovering at about 120 tins.
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you mean reserves in the body or at home.
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Originally posted by Rhonda:
Har?!
How in the world would a recession solve this problem?!
A world recession will means more people will tighten their belt and consume less. Just try imagine what will happen if Chinese in China start to consume like the Americans?United States, 300 million population, consume 7,554,405,000 barrel of oil a year or approx. 25 barrel per capita. (25% of the world oil production)
If China 1,300 million population, consume the same amount, they wil need 32,500,000,000 barrels of oil a year. Which is more than what the world is producing right now.
And what about the India, another 1.1billion population?
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Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:
What type of food reserves do you stock at home?For me, it's canned tuna, and lots of it. My tuna reserve is currently hovering at about 120 tins.
120 tins?!!! Are you some feline?
When I mentioned reserves, I was actually referring to my body fat.
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Originally posted by TCH05:
A world recession will means more people will tighten their belt and consume less. Just try imagine what will happen if Chinese in China start to consume like the Americans?United States, 300 million population, consume 7,554,405,000 barrel of oil a year or approx. 25 barrel per capita. (25% of the world oil production)
If China 1,300 million population, consume the same amount, they wil need 32,500,000,000 barrels of oil a year. Which is more than what the world is producing right now.
And what about the India, another 1.1billion population?
Did you even read the article above? It's talking about factors affecting crop yield. Recession or not, if the crop yield drops, supply falls, and hunger becomes a very real prospect.
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so what will we run out of first? the very precious oil or the love of my life food?
and mi thinks there is a typo error or something in the article somewhere up there~
and who the hell keeps so much canned food anywayyyy!!! >< i dont really like canned tuna....seafood isnt really my thing. though i like raw oysters, smoked salmon, some sashimis, jap eel, geoduck!, scallops, cod, fish n chips, and some other depending on my mood and how it's cooked....
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Originally posted by Rhonda:
120 tins?!!! Are you some feline?
When I mentioned reserves, I was actually referring to my body fat.
Oh, you meant those reserves. My bad.Nope, not a cat. Just a value-minded consumer who took advantage of a "$0.09 per tin of Starkist tuna" coupon special at a local supermarket chain recently to buy up as much as they allowed.
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Originally posted by Rhonda:
Did you even read the article above? It's talking about factors affecting crop yield. Recession or not, if the crop yield drops, supply falls, and hunger becomes a very real prospect.
The fertilizers the farmers use to grow their crops are by products of oil. If price of oil goes up, the cost of crops will follow too.
The demand for biofuel is dependent on oil, if oil price goes up, more crops will go into refinery to produce ethanol and not fill the stomach.
The price of oil is dependent on demand and demand is dependent on the health of economy. when the economy is booming, we will consume more oil and burn more coals, which will then release more CO2 into the atmosphere which will then cause global warming and freak weathers which will affect the yield of the crops.
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Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:
Oh, you meant those reserves. My bad.Nope, not a cat. Just a value-minded consumer who took advantage of a "$0.09 per tin of Starkist tuna" coupon special at a local supermarket chain recently to buy up as much as they allowed.
CHEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP !
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hmmm too many mouth to feed...hmm i got idea start human meat eating human than can help control human population liao
some more many variety to choose from lol
btw stop wasting food lah.see youngster nowaday eat a bit dun want throw one side got money also not like that spend mah
waste food means less food for others
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Tht time shud come so ppl will value food and nature more and prevent wastage.
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Originally posted by udontknowme:
so what will we run out of first? the very precious oil or the love of my life food?
and mi thinks there is a typo error or something in the article somewhere up there~
and who the hell keeps so much canned food anywayyyy!!! >< i dont really like canned tuna....seafood isnt really my thing. though i like raw oysters, smoked salmon, some sashimis, jap eel, geoduck!, scallops, cod, fish n chips, and some other depending on my mood and how it's cooked....
For someone who doesn't really like seafood, that is a hell lot of seafood u know :P and the asspensive ones too -
OMG...this sounds seriously scary