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Is Food Production A Growing Concern?

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"The world’s population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050. Will we be able to feed everyone, what are the problems likely to be and what do we need to overcome these problems?” Undoubtedly food production is becoming a growing concern as factors such as the rapidly growing global population and changing diets within developing countries stretch current production techniques to the limit. The total global human population is expected to increase by 34% by 2050 with this growth occurring predominately in developing areas and with the greatest relative population increase of 120% occurring in todays least developed countries (How to feed the world in 2050, 2009). The development of these countries and the associated rise in prosperity has resulted in shifting diets which centre on an increased consumption of meat (Foley, 2014). As a result of this larger and more developed population with an increased dependency on unsustainable protein sources, food production must increase by around 70% by 2050 (How to feed the world in 2050, 2009). In addition to the strain of an increasing population, other pressures make it difficult to increase the amount of food produced. Climate change poses significant threat to food production as small changes to conditions can drastically reduce crop yields with temperature increases of just 1°C likely resulting in reductions of 5-10% in the yields of major serial crops (Tamiotti et al., 2009). Moreover, the melting of glacial ice that

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