Not Enough to Go Around the Dinner Table

Living in America, most of the population is accustomed to having more than enough. Discussing the escalating world population and the rise of the middle class, Julian Cribb's book, The Coming Famine, gives unsettling facts that can change the ideal America.

Most important are what he calls “the two elephants in the kitchen”: population growth and overconsumption. A projected 33 percent growth in population in the next 20 years, combined with increased consumption of meat as the global middle class grows larger, means that food production must grow by at least 50 percent in that same period.

Maximizing every square foot of land on the earth for resources is no longer enough, and if America wants to continue to eat meat, the cost will become greater.

We also need more land, as much as “two more North Americas” to produce the fodder needed to meet projected demand. Yet existing land is being degraded by a variety of factors. (Mr. Cribb provides a nicely horrifying quote from some older Chinese farmers: “When we were young, we had trouble seeing the cattle in the grassland. Now we can see the mice.”)

The sentiment that is taken from the article is that worldwide hunger will have nowhere to go, but up. Cribb suggests dietary change and taking advantage of compost. To make an impact, the movement must be global, but is America ready to be a front-runner for fresh food?