14 DAY TRIAL // Food experts agree that the way people and nations approach food needs to drastically change, if a global shortage is to be avoided over the coming decades. Although, statistically speaking, the world produces far more food than it needs, there are still billions of people who do not have access to it and starve to death, while the situation only worsens. Professor Tim Lang, from the City University in London, who is also a member of UK's Food Council, argues the necessity of a change in mentality regarding food worldwide.
Africa is the best example of how food shortages will most likely act in the future. Although it has a booming population, the poorest continent in the world is still unable to fend for itself and is forced to look for help elsewhere. Imports make up most of Africa's food supplies, and most governments in the region have made no significant progress in fighting flooding, drought, famine and disease in their lands. Lang says that now the environment has to be accounted for as well.
“Essentially, what we are dealing with at the moment is a food system that was laid down in the 1940s. It followed on from the dust bowl in the US, the collapse of food production in Europe and starvation in Asia. At the time, there was clear evidence showing that there was a mismatch between producers and the need of consumers,” Lang told the BBC.
“But by the 1970s, evidence was beginning to emerge that the public health outcomes were not quite as expected. Secondly, there were a whole new set of problems associated with the environment. The level of growth in food production per capita is dropping off, even dropping, and we have got huge problems ahead with an explosion in human population,” he added.
Lang identified the four main problems, or challenges, that face the future food production capabilities worldwide – oil and energy dependency, water scarcity, lack of biodiversity and excessive urbanization. All these factors combine to give a bleak prospect on how food will be produced, where, and in what quantities, over the coming years.