The Planet World Will Be More Than 11 Billion People

With the population of the world continuing to rise, the Earth’s ability and resources to sustain its people is nearing its capacity, if it not has been reached yet. With the increase in wealth and modernity, people are having more choices what to eat without realizing how the food they are eating are produced and manufactured. All they see are choice pieces in perfectly sealed Styrofoam trays and plastic wrap. To keep up with the demand, farmers are now adopting mass production methods that focus on numbers and less on how these modern farming methods cause or are causing wide-scale destruction to the planet.

There are at least two billion people are hungry or malnourished and the Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that food production will need to increase by 70% (FAO Report, 2009) to keep up with the demands of a growing population. Overconsumption also contributes to the widening gap. In fact, if every person consumed resources at a US level, four to five more earths would be needed!

Asia will continue to experience population growth; however, countries, such as India and China will begin to stabilize since their populations have exceeded 1 billion people already. Africa's population will continue to grow drastically, and will eventually make up approximately half of the growth in world population by 2050. Once 2050 is reached, Europe's population is projected to contain 34% of people that will age at 60 or over, compared to 25% in Asia, the Caribbean, and South America, respectfully. The ageing population has been growing in the developed world because of technological advances in medicine for health care, and the life expectancy continues to lengthen. Whereas, the developing world is in a time period of industrialization, which is beneficial if the younger populations are capable of finding jobs essentially marketable, which usually means farming for majority of developing

The Brundtland report defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” From early times, philosophers, such as Thomas Malthus, believed humanity could not be sustained. Malthus believed mankind would reach their carrying capacity, specifically with regards to food. Yet, this notion changed in subsequent years, thanks in part to the green revolution. This revolution helped increase crop yields due to new fertilizers, pesticides, etc. While there became more food available, sustainability, with regards to producing food in an environmentally friendly way, ran into some difficulties. While the Brundtland commission defined sustainability, there are three components that must be integrated for the well-being of all—social, environmental, and economic. Each component of sustainability must be looked at critically when considering the sustainable use of any resource. While many simply worried about having enough food available in the world, one must think of food sustainability with regards to environmental, economic, and social implications. As follows, the importance of food sustainability will be discussed, along with the attempts to measure food sustainability.

The statistics on population growth and hunger are disturbing. Last year the world's population reached 6 billion. And by 2050, the U.N. estimates, it will probably near 9 billion. Almost all that growth will occur in developing countries. At the same time, the world's available cultivable land per person is declining. Arable land has declined steadily since 1960 and will decrease by half over the next 50 years, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications

Global Food Security is an important resource in our day-to-day lives. Over the past century research has marked that the growth of food production is dramatically decreasing. A proportion of the world’s people are starving due to the lack of sufficient protein and energy from their diets. Many suffer from a form of micronutrient malnourishment. As a result many question “ how can the world double the availability of food? How best feed the world?” (de Landgrafft, 2014).

Agriculture has been an essential part of to the survival of humanity from the beginning, and we rely on it now just as much as we did then. Fortunately, the technology used in agriculture has been increased over time, and currently the ‘Green Revolution’ is providing us with greater inputs of fertilizer, water and pesticides, new crop strains, and increased technology as stated by Tillman and others (2002). These advances modern agriculture is currently feed 6 million people, and it only continues to increase (in both advances and in those fed). However, the global population is also continuing to increase, allowing for there to be more agricultural output which are essential for social stability and global politics as a whole. While this sounds good, doubling this food production comes with major challenges. Tillman and others (2002) evaluate and explain these scientific and policy challenges that are required to be met in order to sustain the entire agricultural production. This will require fundamental shifts in institutions and policies because the concept of sustainable agriculture must be adopted.

Thurn claims that most of our food production relies on an unsustainable production. His main concern is that we need to increase our food production while at the same time decrease the environmental impact (Thurn, 2015). In around 30 years, the population will increase up to 9.1 billion, therefore, food production must increase by 70%. The challenge is to counterpart the food demand from a larger population to its supply and to do so in ways that are environmentally and socially sustainable. As studies have shown, our food production is unsustainable as we cannot neutralise population growth. Expanding the farming land and utilising fertiliser to increase the output are both questionable methods. (Godfray, Charles, & et al. , 2010, S. 812)

Following the global food crisis of 2007-2008 there has been an increasing realization throughout the world that we have to produce additional and higher quality food (Albert Sasson 2012). As was stated in 2006 by the Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the world population growing at an annual rate, it is a necessity that global increase in food production must reach 50%, in order to meet the specified requirements of the world 's population by 2050 (FAO 2006). Ensuring the future of food security is now considered a global priority, with over 800 million people deprived of adequate food on a daily basis, particularly people in both developed and developing countries suffering from malnutrition (Dana Cordell et al 2008). In accordance with the 1996 World Food Summit (FAO) food security exists “when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (FAO 1996) However the problem with food insecurity is not only about inadequate food production, availability and consumption, but also the underprivileged quality or nutritional value of food (Albert Sasson 2012).

In 1950, Africa had 230 million people which was 9% of the world population. In 2010 there were more than 1 billion Africans which was 15% of the world population. According to UN projections, Africa will continue to grow at a rate up to 2.2 billion people in 2050 or 24% of the world population. Europe, on the other hand, is going in the opposite direction: from 22% of the world population in 1950, over 11% in 2010 to an expected 8% in 2050. North America has decreased from 7 to 5% of the world population (The world).

To be able to support and provide for the growing population, countries must maximize production of food, however there is a limit of availability of arable land, water and fossil fuels which make this initiative difficult to fulfill.

The global population has reached a tipping point. Currently it stands at 7.2 billion people, and that number is only expected to go up; by 2050 the global population is expected to hit 9.6 billion (United Nations). In order to feed this multitude of people, the current food production must increase by 100% (Simmons 1). Something must be done to prevent mass starvation, and two different methods of crop production have been offered to alleviate the problem – genetically modified crops (GM) and organic farming. In order to determine which farming method will maintain a stable supply for a growing global population, one must consider the cost effectiveness, environmental friendliness, health of

Agriculture, and the associated consumption of food, has been identified as one of the principal drivers of environmental degradation (Robinson & Harris 2012; UNEP 2010; Brown 2012), with industrial scale agriculture being of particular concern (Robinson & Harris 2012: 135); subsistence agriculture tends to have little environmental impacts, although some alteration to natural landscapes do take place (Robinson & Harris 2012: 135). Since the Green Revolution, these industrial crop systems have aimed to maximise the productivity of the land through the inputs of new technologies (ibid: 135). Such productivity increases are arguably necessary in view of the rising global population, with consumer demands only just being met (Figure 1.). However, this intensification is also unsustainable, and is associated with a number of environmental pressures, most notably soil degradation, habitat changes, climate change, excess water use, and pollution (Robinson & Harris 2012; Brown 2012; UNEP 2010; WWF n.d.).

Every 3.6 seconds, the time it takes you to take a bite of food, a person dies of hunger or malnourishment. Global food crisis is a problem that has been around since the beginning of time, but it is everything but yesterday’s issue. It is very real today and the numbers of starving people are still growing. Solutions will not be easy to sort out, since the dramatic food price escalation has numerous causes. The world’s population is expected to increase from 7 billion today to 9 or 10 billion by the end of the century. We also can expect more pressure on the food supply as people in the developing world adopt middle class lifestyles, which usually involve eating more meat. To satisfy global demand, we will need to roughly double today’s output, which means getting smarter about how we produce and manage food. The global food crisis can be prevented by improving food aid, producing higher yields of food, and growing better quality of crops.

The world’s population is projected to grow to 9 billion from existing 7 billion by the year 2050. To accommodate the dietary needs of the population, the world’s food production must be increased by about 70% to close that gap. [1] The agricultural sector will face the following significant challenges to achieve this production capacity: While the amount of arable land cannot increase without creating further ecological imbalance, it competes with urbanization, industrial and bio-energy needs. Unreliable weather and changing climate conditions is causing temperature fluctuations, affects availability of fresh water for irrigation (through rainfall, ground water or other waterbodies) and reduced soil fertility. Poorly managed supply chain accounts for a loss of about 1/3rd of the world’s food production. In addition, there is a labor shift away from agriculture in favor for higher paying jobs in urban areas. [2]