DID YOU KNOW: World food production is under threat
If declining production trends continue our farmers won’t be able to meet the increasing global demand for more animal protein such as milk, meat and eggs.
The world’s food production is under threat according to a food security report released by the ENOUGH™ movement.
The ENOUGH™ movement is spearheaded by Elanco Animal Health, a global innovation-driven company that develops and markets products to improve animal health and food animal production in more than 75 countries.
It’s said that by 2050, you’ll have 9,7 billion neighbours. Adding nearly three billion more people to the global population in the next three decades presents a serious challenge: how can we produce more to ensure enough food to feed the world’s population without using more resources?
The current food production trajectory indicates that we will lose the battle for a food-secure world.
If declining production trends continue as a result of ongoing disease challenges, changing production practices and the removal of innovation from some parts of the world, our farmers won’t be able to meet the increasing global demand for more animal protein such as milk, meat and eggs.
Nearly 4,5 billion people will not be able to meet their nutritional needs by 2040 if we don’t use innovation in food production.
According to ENOUGH™, there are four realities shaping the world’s food supply:
• Population: Today, there are 7 billion of us on the Earth. When the ENOUGH™ report was first written, it was estimated that there would be 9 billion people on Earth by 2050. Recently, that original estimate has risen by 100 000 000 and it’s expected to surpass 9,5 billion by 2050. On this trajectory, the world’s population could hit more than 12 billion by 2100.
• Resource use: Two years ago, scientific models showed we were using 1,5 times the Earth’s resources per year, which was unsustainable. That number has become even more concerning as the estimates now show humans using the equivalent of 1,6 times the Earth’s resources per year.
• Health: Threats to animal health from disease are increasing.
• Perspective: Organic agriculture represents only 4 per cent of the US market and 5,4 per cent of the European Union’s. In South Africa, only 0,04 per cent of our total land mass is under certified organic management (see the Sustainability Institute’s study, commissioned by the Southern Africa Food Lab in May 2015). Organic agriculture simply isn’t in a position to feed the number of neighbours we’ll have in 2050. We must keep actively pursuing other options to make sure the world is fed.
The rapidly expanding middle class brings with it a 60 per cent increase in the demand for meat, eggs and milk.
“This means that we have to find a way to increase supply to meet demand and provide it sustainably,” explained Andre Westerveld, the Regional Director of Elanco South Africa.
The Herald will on Thursday focus on the Milk Story and how innovation can create a food-secure world.
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