To many, the obvious solution to the growing problem of food security is to limit human consumption. As the world population nears the 8 billion mark, the challenge of balancing supply with demand is becoming a lot harder. A disciplined future like what I have revealed here might soon be realized if we do not mobilize fast enough.
Reinforcing Lester Brown’s Plan B 4.0, the article Another Inconvenient Truth: The World’s Growing Population Poses a Malthusian Dilemma by David Biello reminds us of how population growth can become humanity’s next pitfall in terms of food security. Interestingly, it also warns us about another obvious (but definitely unsustainable) solution-clearing lands to increase the number of farms. Biello then connects the dot from this unwise solution to the multiple dots leading to growing environmental concerns.
The constant increase in the rate of population growth can easily be connected to the environmental issues we now face. Humans reproduce daily, but the world we live on is not expanding. Demand for food increases, but supply (if business as usual continues) will soon be chasing behind. Corporations practicing unsustainable practices such as mono-cropping will falter.
One of the most important things that I have learned in Hawai'i and in Colorado is the importance of the small. One of our visits in Boulder included a visit to the Cure Organic Farm. Despite being just 10 acres, the farm has more than a 100 variety of produce, more than 60 flower varieties, and 6 animal species being grown in the area. The farm also does community-supported agriculture (CSA), which currently has about 150 members. Paul and Anne Cure, the owners of the farms, occasionally run camps for kids in the farm. This unconventional way of running a farm means income for the whole year for their family.
Seasonal change for farmers all over the world means that crops can't be grown all year round. Come winter, only a few, if not none, varieties can be grown. A result of this is unstable living. Reports say that the average farm household in the US earns 90% of its income from external sources. This means that only a tenth is derived from farming! We can then correlate this with the decrease of people pursuing farming as their job. Why not just sit in a cozy chair in the middle of a corporate office? The dilemma of having less workers in the world's most important job continues.
What then needs to be done? Sustainable development, as we have called it, remains a big challenge for the entire global community.