How will the world be "fed" in the future?

[Whitewing]

The peaking and slow but steady decline of world oil production (while prices continue to rise) will have a tremendous negative impact on the ability of farmer's worldwide to produce the food the planet's population needs to sustain itself at these levels.

Most folks have never stopped to consider what the discovery of a cheap energy supply (oil and natural gas) has done for the world in the last 150 years or so.

Once it becomes clear that fossil fuels are in decline and never again will be 'cheap', it'll be time for TSTHTF.

 

[Silver]

This is an over simplification, but if people around the world could afford to pay for food what it's actually worth, the world would supply all the food they could handle. I don't think the answer lies in looking for miracle crops and better ways to mass produce it all the while lowering the price and raising input costs for producers.
If a country can establish a growing economy and an improving standard of living, the food will be there.

 

[burnt]

This is an over simplification, but if people around the world could afford to pay for food what it's actually worth, the world would supply all the food they could handle. I don't think the answer lies in looking for miracle crops and better ways to mass produce it all the while lowering the price and raising input costs for producers.
If a country can establish a growing economy and an improving standard of living, the food will be there.

Silver, you just made a point that is far too plain and simple for most of the world's "thinkers" to understand.

I would bet that if the price of agricultural products would double, so would production within 5 years.

Today's hunger has little to do with agronomic issues and has, as andybob pointed out, much to with politics.

Of course, some of today's "intelligentsia" types cannot see that, it appears.

So, with business gains being the ultimate goal, they rabidly pursue alternative food production systems that will only worsen the hunger problem because of the incestuous political/financial relationship that will be in control of the manufactured foodstuffs.

 

[andybob]

With economic sanctions and an oil embargo from 1965 - 1980, we learned to make do with alternative fuels and agricultural practices, min till, no till, developed cattle that grass finished with minimal maintenance.
No one was without a home or food, there was enough employment and no social security to enable the lazy, you worked or you starved!
All this, and we exported food, vegitable oil, textiles, soap and trademarked, quality beef.
When the challenges are put before us we can rise to them, so long as we are supported by the powers that be, and that support may well be forthcoming as the potential for food shortages becomes more of a political concern.

 

[Angus 62]

Silver is 100% right. I can think of lots of idle land that could be put into production or land that could generate much higher production if there was any money in it. In some ways the old family farms of years ago that raised hogs, chickens, milked cows etc. were more efficient then millions of acres of corn because there were a lot fewer stops between producer and consumer. The waste in todays food system in the form of transportation is tremendous.

 

[pointrider]

I thought some of you folks up in Canada might want to know about the 2010 Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference if you don't already know about it. It is scheduled for 12-15 SEP 2010 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and it will feature many speakers including Graham Plastow. Ever hear of him? Here's what the conference website says about him.

"Graham Plastow
Director,
Alberta Bovine Genomics Program,
University of Alberta,
Edmonton, AB Canada
Meeting 2050 demand for animal protein
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
3:30 - 4:00 pm

Abstract: Global demand for animal products is predicted to double by 2050, yet available resources - land, water, & energy - are expected to decrease. How can genetics and genomics help satisfy this challenge?

Biography
Graham Plastow, former Chief Technology Officer of Sygen International (one of the world's largest animal breeding companies when acquired by Genus in 2005) is Director of the Alberta Livestock Program at the University of Alberta. A pioneer of the application of genomics in livestock, he trained in Biology and Genetics at the University of Leicester. He has more than 25 years experience in the management and implementation of multidisciplinary research projects and technology transfer on an international basis. He joined Dalgety's R&D Centre in the early 1980's to explore the application of DNA technology in the food industry and was responsible for biotechnology research across the group as well as breakthrough R&D for the agriculture division (agchem, seed, produce, feed, and pig genetics). He was also responsible for developing a group wide food safety policy. He has led or participated in numerous international research collaborations and has held positions on boards and committees of industry and research organizations including the Roslin Institute, the Genesis Faraday Partnership (UK), and the Biotechnology Research and Development Organization in the US."

It will be interesting to know what he has in mind considering the abstract of his speech as presented on this website. Here is a link for the conference website if you would like to look around.

http://www.abic.ca/abic2010/

 

[pointrider]

Here's part of the article. You might want to see the picture in the article and read the rest of it, so I'm including a link at the bottom.

"A concept for a grocery store that actually grows its own fruits and vegetables on site is taking the 'local' adage to an entirely new level.

The do-it-yourself grocery store concept called Agropolis combines hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic farming to grow vegetables without soil in an urban environment. Shoppers will come in and see all the produce growing on-site and point to what they want. Nutrients from fish in aquaculture tanks goes to feed the plants, and the whole place becomes an ecosystem. A restaurant there will also serve produce from the urban farm.

Agropolis was just presented this week at the Nordic Exceptional Trendshop 2010 conference an annual event that showcases technology taking place through September 3 in Arhus, Denmark. As conference attendee Augustus Schraven writes in Tech the Future, the concept came about as a solution to a challenge laid down by Rob Nail, a VP of corporate development at the interdisciplinary Singularity University on the NASA Ames campus.

Nail asked a team of business professionals to figure out a way to produce food locally without arable land. The diverse team consists of MBA student Robert Denning, bioinformaticist Rand Hindi, entrepreneur Anders Hvid, tech and public health expert Maggie Jack, comp-sci masters student Derek Jacoby and biotechnologist business strategist Sam Thorp. According to their site, the team would like to collaborate with NASA to put 'sensor and robotic innovations' in hydroponic systems, research genetically modified organisms that could work best in the controlled growing environment and integrate advanced lighting such as LEDs into the design."

http://news.discovery.com/tech/harvest-produce-at-the-grocery-store.html