We Must Create 60 Percent More Food To Avoid Worldwide Panic
The United Nations has estimated that the world population could increase to over 9 billion by 2050, with annual incomes and food consumption to jump along with it. In order to keep up with a rapidly increasing population, the UN has concluded that the world's food supply must increase by 60 percent, or risk serious international political and social unrest as a result.
"If we fail to meet our goal and a food shortage occurs, there will be a high risk of social and political unrest, civil wars, terrorism, and world security as a whole might be affected," Hiroyuki Konuma, the assistant director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Asia-Pacific, said to Reuters at the regional food security conference in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Smaller, underdeveloped countries are starting to stabilize their diets, while larger, developed countries (like America for example), are consuming more and more food. The problem, according to the hunger and agriculture division of the UN, is that we are spending less and less resources on agriculture, which means that it will be difficult for farmers and food producers to keep up.
The U.N. is optimistic and says that we are capable of utilizing our global resources and keeping up with demand, but only if we put enough energy into land development and productivity rates. With approximately 842 million people going hungry worldwide, there's a long way to go.