Are we Looking Towards A Global Food Crisis in 27 Years?

It is estimated that over 150 million people across the world are affected by dire food crisis. In fact, our food resources are getting emptier day by day due to a variety of reasons, from adverse environmental causes such as global warming and extinction of several animals to the mass squandering and wastage of food.

The food calamity has reached to this extent that scientists have now established a doomsday clock or countdown. Created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (which was launched in 1945 by Albert Einstein, along with the students of the University of Chicago), this clock indicates (in this case) the exact number of days that the world will completely run out of food, i.e., 27 years and 247 days (as of April 27^th 2022.)

According to Edward Osborne Wilson, the award-winning American microbiologist from Harvard University (who passed away in 2021), it requires two earths or similar planets to fulfill the current food demands and supply of the population. He said, “If everyone agreed to become vegetarian, leaving little or nothing for livestock, the present 1.4 billion hectares of arable land (3.5 billion acres) would support about 10 billion people.”

For Edward, the only possible remedy as per an interview given to the New York Times is “To save biodiversity, we need to set aside about half the earth’s surface as a natural reserve.”

There are many other books and studies that hint towards the major upcoming food crisis and how it will lead to a dire food shortage by 2050.

Food wastage in alarming rates is one of the major factors that lead to food crisis.

As per the relevant reports put out by the USDA’s Economic Research Service, about 40% of foods in the US are squandered. This wastage occurs at every level, right from the farming (production) and supply stage to the retail and consumer stages, especially when people tend to hoard supplies and later discard without using them. Not to mention, it is unfortunate that over one third of foods produced is wasted both before and after it comes to consumers. This means that majority of foods produced land in garbage before they reach a hungry stomach. Add to this exhaustion of natural resources.

This is largely because of the inefficient and overuse of resources like land, water and soil. The relevant studies reveal that the planet has now lost a major chunk of topsoil (which is the upper segment of soil with the significant amount of vital microorganisms.) Increased rate of food waste also impacts the environmental damage as the foods that go into the landfills rot and lead to the tremendous emission of greenhouse gases.

With just less than three decades is all left, it is now time to take action. Minimize the food wastage in first place by implementing the right strategy in every stage, right from the production to the consumption. While food wastage is completely unavoidable, they can be effectively recycled to be used as animal feed, clothing, bioplastics, compost etc. Along with these, the most appropriate measures must be taken to limit the over exploitation of the planet’s ecosystem and resources.