A story in the UK’s Guardian newspaper says that country’s top scientist is sounding the alarm over potential food shortages.
John Beddington, the chief scientific advisor to the UK government, says the Australian drought of 2008 shows how vulnerable global food supplies are, and says rich countries like the UK won’t be immune to these dangers.
He says another Green Revolution will be required to feed the world, as population climbs to an expected peak of 9 billion souls over the course of the next forty years.
Other scientists endorse Beddington’s assessment of the scale of the challenge, with one noting “We are going to have to produce as much food in the next 50 years as was produced over the past 5,000 years. Nothing less will do.”
The researchers say the solutions will come from crops that make their own fertilizer and are disease resistant and can better withstand temperature extremes and droughts.
They say the challenges are huge, but if there’s a concerted effort over the coming decades, it should be possible to meet them.
