World needs 70% more food by 2050

The world will need 70 per cent more food, as measured by calories, to feed a global population of 9.6 billion in 2050, and must achieve this through improvements in the way people produce and consume, according to a report from the United Nations and its partners.

“Over the next several decades, the world faces a grand challenge — and opportunity — at the intersection of food security, development and the environment,” Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), which produced the report along with U.N. agencies and the World Bank.

“To meet human needs, we must close the 70-percent gap between the food we will need and the food available today. But, we must do so in a way that creates opportunities for the rural poor, limits clearing of forests, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture,” Steer said in a news release.

The report, entitled “World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future,” finds boosting crop and livestock productivity on existing agricultural land is critical to saving forests and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It cautions, however, the world is unlikely to close the food gap through yield increases alone, which would have to greatly outpace previous advances to keep up.

For that reason, it recommends reducing food loss and waste, reducing excessive demand for animal products and following other “climate-smart” guidelines.

Juergen Voegele, World Bank director for agriculture and environmental services, said, “From reducing food waste to improving agricultural practices, feeding a growing population requires working on several fronts at the same time.

“Applying the principles of climate smart agriculture across landscapes — that means crops, livestock, forests and fisheries — has the potential to sustainably increase food security, enhance resilience and reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint. Pursuing this approach is not a luxury, it’s an imperative.”

The report also recommends achieving replacement-level fertility, a rate it says most of the world is nearing by educating girls, reducing child mortality and providing access to reproductive health services.

Given projected growth, however, sub-Saharan Africa will need to more than triple its crop production by 2050 to provide adequate food per capita.

The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) also contributed to the report, the final version of which will be released in mid-2014.

iowa farmer today

9 Comments on "World needs 70% more food by 2050"

J-Gav on Fri, 13th Dec 2013 12:06 am 



Closing the “70% gap” – ain’t gonna happen – I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to what that entails.

yellowcanoe on Fri, 13th Dec 2013 12:44 am 



The world failed to realize that the Green Revolution was simply a way to buy time to deal with the population growth problem. We’re now back at square one as little has been done to stop population growth.

GregT on Fri, 13th Dec 2013 12:54 am 



Soylent green is looking more promising, as every year goes by.

BillT on Fri, 13th Dec 2013 1:03 am 



There are over 1 billion cattle being grown for food every year in the world. The grains and water needed to do that would feed 7 billion people. Do the math.

The US wastes enough food, every day, to feed 250 million people. Europe is likely not far behind in waste. The problem is not impossible, it is just unlikely due to greed and gluttony on the part of the western world. And, it can be don3e with out GMO crops, herbicides and pesticides.

DC on Fri, 13th Dec 2013 1:41 am 



Why do these articles never talk about how agricultures yields are pretty much maxed now? It is simply not possible to make an acre of land yield more than it does now. Many tiny incremental improvements are still possible, but thats it. And tiny ‘improvements’ will cost a lot of money and resources to squeeze out. If you went up to a ‘farmer’, anywhere in N. America and said, we need you to grow 70% more of (whatever), they probably just say, NO. Not possible.

There are hard limits to what an acre of land will produce in a year, and they have largely been reached already. In fact, stop carpet bombing the land with petro-chemicals even for a little while and the whole system will collapse.

So yea, they can forget 70%. That 70% would have to come from ‘new’ unexploited land, and last time I looked, it was all cars,suburbs and strip malls as far as they eye can see. All the good land was put into ‘production’ and claimed a generation ago.

Shaved Monkey on Fri, 13th Dec 2013 7:00 am 



If you manage to feed them all they will breed.

steveo on Fri, 13th Dec 2013 2:14 pm 



Let’s see here.

Oil past peak – check.
Phosphate past peak – check.
Arable land at peak – check.

And you want how much more food?

Can you say famine? I guess “the Limits To Growth” was right after all.

kiwichick on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 12:39 am 



don’t think phosphate is at peak yet

Feemer on Sat, 14th Dec 2013 3:07 pm 



I agree that yields on agricultural land are pretty much maxed out, but there is a lot that can be done to slightly increase yield, that will also save water, reduce erosion, and store nutrients. I worked at Colorado State University for the school of agriculture, and we focused on weeds. Weeds soak up so much nutrient and so much water. Of course we tested herbicides but that selects for the most resistant plant, and kills its competitors. Weeds are still a huge problem in agriculture. Using drip irrigation would not only save water but would reduce weeds. It would also reduce topsoil loss. Furrow irrigation is used often to grow corn. This causes huge erosion to fields. I don’t think we should have 9.6 Billion, but there is a lot we could do that could boost agriculture, not 70%, but some. I would start a (big) garden if you haven’t already because food is going to either be a pricey commodity in the future or a rare one