Food Stocks

"10 October 2006

How Long Can the World Feed Itself?

By Gwynne Dyer

       We are still living off the proceeds of the Green Revolution, but
that hit diminishing returns twenty years ago. Now we live in a finely
balanced situation where world food supply just about meets demand, with no
reserve to cover further population growth. But the population will grow
anyway, and the world's existing grain supply for human consumption is
being eroded by three different factors:  meat, heat and biofuels.

       For the sixth time in the past seven years, the human race will
grow less food than it eats this year. We closed the gap by eating into
food stocks accumulated in better times, but there is no doubt that the
situation is getting serious.  The world's food stocks have shrunk by half
since 1999, from a reserve big enough to feed the entire world for 116 days
then to a predicted low of only 57 days by the end of this year."

According to this article, we are facing a food growing crisis. This may be combatted
by switching certain 3rd world export crops from coffee to produce, and by switching
fertile ground from growing textile products to foodstuffs and moving those textiles
to new secondary farmland. Hemp, for example, will grow in less savory environments,
while most food will grow best on good farmland.

We can build large greenhouses to extend the growing season and improve crop quality.
We can also use carbon microtubules to filter seawater and make irrigation within reach
in even dry regions and less energy intensive.