Rich world’s consumerism may cause African famines, experts warn

Food production in developing countries will halve in the next 20 years unless wealthy nations lower their rate of consumption, the Stockholm Environment Institute warned at a weekend conference.

The livelihoods of more than three billion people in the world are being undermined by the wealth of the privileged few, the institute’s executive director, Johan Rockstroem, warned.

“The risk is that we might halve … food production in sub-Saharan Africa because of our lifestyles,” he told AFP on the sidelines of an international conference on climate change and sustainable development, held in the Swedish town of Taellberg.

Rockstroem said that as wealthy countries increase consumption they also increase their exploitation of the world’s natural resources, and in turn emit more greenhouse gases.

That ultimately speeds up the desertification of sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world.

AFP