A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
Chapter 12 - Feeding the world – a real green revolution, food sovereignty and
security, eco-agriculture vs. agribusiness, bioregionalism and localisation vs.
globalisation, sustainable distribution. May 2009
The Backdrop to feeding the world is this:
The Backdrop to global food
We are consuming about 30% more than planet earth can provide, allowing 10% of bio-capacity for
nature reserves
World population, now 6.7bn is expected to reach 9bn by 2050, leading to a big increase in demand,
unless we change our eating habits
Food waste and overeating in the North is massive
In the North we are losing our food growing and culinary skills; we lack contact with nature
Climate change is causing drought, desertification and a more turbulent climate
Peak oil: declining supply and rising cost will affect industrialised agriculture and global food
distribution; the costs of farm machinery, fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides and everything in which
oil is embedded will rise
We are degrading the earth: destroying the soil and ecosystem; industrialised agriculture is causing
salinisation
Pesticides and herbicides harm our health; pandemics may originate in inhumane, industrialised
animal husbandry
Large corporations dominate the production of key foods
Peasant farmers are losing their land and drifting to cities
World Hunger - the situation we are in.
The World Health Organisation estimates one-third of the world is well-fed; one-third is under-fed; and
one-third is starving. Nearly a billion people are hungry. One billion are overweight. Both are victims of
poor diet, though in the case of the overweight, as much because of an unhealthy lifestyle, caused by
overuse of the motor car, new technology and changing ways of working. Poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle
often exist in the same family or household. In USA and UK poor diet is associated with race and class. These
problems are spreading to developing countries and even continental Europe where there are more sensible
food cultures. Worldwide, two billion people lack essential micronutrients, such as vitamin A, iron and zinc.
Most of the poorly fed are young women and babies. The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's
hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have about 40%. In parts of India 50% of children are still
malnourished. Every year 15 million children die of hunger. For the price of one missile, a school full of
hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years.
Hunger and malnutrition are the number one risk to health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis combined. As well as hunger resulting from an empty stomach, there is also the hidden hunger
of micronutrient deficiencies which make people susceptible to infectious diseases, impair physical and
mental development, reduce their labour productivity and increase the risk of premature death. Hunger puts
a crushing economic burden on the developing world which stands to lose from a population whose physical
and mental development is stunted by hunger and malnutrition.
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