Africa Alone Could Feed the World!

www.newscientist.com...

DOOM-MONGERS have got it wrong - there is enough space in the world to produce the extra food needed to feed a growing population. And contrary to expectation, most of it can be grown in Africa, say two international reports published this week.

The first, projecting 10 years into the future from last year's food crisis, which saw the price of food soar, says that there is plenty of unused, fertile land available to grow more crops.

"Some 1.6 billion hectares could be added to the current 1.4 billion hectares of crop land [in the world], and over half of the additionally available land is found in Africa and Latin America," concludes the report, compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

just a quick note. it was found after the second world war, in a survey on the Irish sea and English channel, that the fish stocks had replenished a 100%, because of German navel vessels so this attitude that the world cant feed itself must be be a ruse of some sort.......

[edit on 27-6-2009 by foxhoundone]

reply to post by foxhoundone


Definitely, there is NO reason why 1,000,000,000 people should be going hungry right now - other than complete human greed, contempt and negligence by TPTB

People shouldnt be goin hungry, but they are. These people that are going hungry in remote areas need to grow their own food, and stop expecting other people to give them food. These starving people that life in the dense places of Africa could easily grow food. At least enough to feed their families. I am not trying to sound mean. People are starving because their parents had them knowing they wouldnt be able to get food. That wasnt a good idea.

To my understanding, the reason that African countries have food shortages and hunger is because they can import our GMO crops much cheaper than their local farmers can produce those same crops.

If the African continent wants to kill their hunger, they should create an African continental union and either restrict or heavily tax food imports.

Due to corruption, that is not likely to happen. Money talks, and large wealthy U.S. companies speak that language very well.

overpopulation really doesn't have anything to do with feeding everyone. it's about exponential growth and the ability of infrastructure to meet the demands.

everytime the population doubles it means that more resources are used than all the combined resources ever used, ever. there's no way it can be sustained even if teh infrastructure COULD keep up with it.

we will never run out of oil, we will never run out of food or fresh water. people will die off long before this happens.

food production = oil production. only so many refineries can be repaired/built in a single year. every year the demand increases. 7% growth is average. this doesn't mean 7% of the starting value is added every year. it means 7% of the new yearly total (including the 7% from last year) so you have to get better at producing more each year.

it's uphill the whole way.

From the report it sounds like mankind should just wait until it has made extinct all life, and all creatures, currently living on the other 1.6 billion hectares still under natured control. Only after that should we start taking seriously questions on how we are going to feed ourselves after the world population has doubled again i.e. post 2050.

But from my understanding it seems obvious we should be worried about controlling future human population growth today, wherever and whenever it occurs. It might have been ok for world population to have doubled from 1960 till present, but 2050 shows an unsustainable accelleration which wil lead to mass death as it does to all earthly animals that exhaust the Earh's environment.

There are plenty of easy ways to reduce the population threat. One (cheap) method is to use existing Western charity-Aid to ensure people living in the 3rd World feel they can rely on the state to prevent them starving in old age. Otherwise couples will always try to ensure they have large families in order to prevent poverty in old age (it's a well documented phenomia).