Chapter Summary

Over the past 30 years, the total amount of food in the world has increased faster than the average rate of population growth, so there is now more food per person than there was in the 1970s, even though the total number of people has doubled.

While there now is enough food to supply everyone in the world with more than the minimum daily food requirements, food is inequitably distributed. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than 800 million people are chronically undernourished or malnourished, and at least 15 million people (most of them in Africa) face the immediate threat of starvation. Additional millions survive on a deficient diet but suffer from the resulting stunted growth, mental retardation, and developmental disorders. Around half of the 12 million child deaths each year are related to malnutrition.

Among the essential dietary ingredients for good health are adequate calories, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Marasmus and kwashiorkor are protein-deficiency diseases. Anemia and goiter are caused by mineral deficiencies that affect millions of people worldwide. Vitamin A deficiency causes the deaths of at least a million children and blinds another 350,000 every year.

The three major crops that provide the main source of calories and nutrients for most of the world’s people are rice, wheat, and maize. Some new crops or unrecognized traditional crops hold promise for increasing the nutritional status of the poorer people of the world. Scientific improvement of existing crops and modernization of agriculture (irrigation, fertilizer, and better management) are potential sources of greater agricultural production, but also raise some troubling questions about safety and equity.

Fertile, tillable soil for growing crops is an indispensable resource for our continued existence on earth. Soil is a complex system of inorganic minerals, air, water, dead organic matter, and a myriad of different kinds of living organisms. There are hundreds of thousands of different kinds of soil, each produced by a unique history, climate, topography, bedrock, transported material, and community of living organisms.

It is estimated that 25 billion metric tons of soil are lost from croplands each year because of wind and water erosion. Perhaps twice as much is lost from rangelands, forests, and other areas. This erosion causes pollution and siltation of rivers, reservoirs, estuaries, wetlands, and offshore reefs and banks. The net effect of this loss is worldwide crop reduction equivalent to losing 15 million ha (37 million acres), or 1 percent of the world’s cropland, each year.

The United States and Canada have very high rates of soil erosion. Soil losses exceed soil formation on at least 40 percent of U.S. cropland. About half of the topsoil that existed in North America before European settlement has been lost.

It is possible that food production could be expanded considerably, even on existing farmland, given the proper inputs of fertilizer, water, high-yield crops, and technology. This will be essential if human populations continue to grow as they have during the twentieth century. Whether it will be possible to supply agricultural inputs and expand crop production remains to be seen.

Many new and alternative farming methods reduce soil erosion, avoid dangerous chemicals, improve yields, and make agriculture just and sustainable. Returning to low-input, regenerative, “organic” farming may be more sustainable and more healthful than our current practices. Growing your own food or buying locally grown food at co-ops, at farmers’ markets, or through a producers’ or buyers’ association can provide healthy, wholesome food and also support sustainable agriculture.