Howdy, all--
<SNIP>
Any thoughts on the petition's presentation of food system and
agricultural issues?
Thoughts, anybody? I'll share mine later.
peace
michele
Found on the web - related to the issues.......
environment/animal welfare/world hunger
from Mercury Center news http://www.sjmercury.com/news/breaking/
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Posted at 7:13 p.m. PST Sunday, October 26, 1997
Study: poor nations may lack food supply
New York Times News Service
A survey of what people will be eating -- and
feeding their animals -- into the first two decades
of the next century finds that problems from rising
consumer demands to falling water tables could
create huge food gaps in the poorest countries
despite their economic growth.
Imports of meat and cereals are likely to rise in
countries that once were largely self-sufficient,
benefiting exporting nations like the United
States, Australia and Argentina but making the cost
of feeding families in developing nations higher,
says the survey, which was done by a unit of the
World Bank.
A report on the survey published Sunday, ``The
World Food Situation: Recent Developments, Emerging
Issues and Long-Term Prospects,'' says that
improvements in living standards in a world growing
by 80 million people a year put pressure on food
stocks at a time when there are no prospects of
another green revolution to guarantee increased
agricultural yields.
The report says that increases in yields of major
cereal crops, including wheat, rice and corn, are
expected to slow in the next 25 years, following
already slower growth since 1982. Stepped-up grain
production is reaching the limit of what it is
possible to produce, especially in Asia, the study
found. In the richer countries, especially in
Europe, opposition to genetically altered
foodstuffs slows research, hurting poorer countries
that need larger crops most.
The demand for meat, mostly poultry and beef, is
rising everywhere, the report says, but is growing
fastest in developing countries. In 1993, poorer
countries accounted for 47 percent of the world's
meat demand. By 2020, these countries could be
consuming 63 percent of meat products.
Given such consumption changes, huge questions loom
over China and India, which together have almost
half the world's people. Better living standards
and changing tastes that come with urbanization
could strain the world's food supplies on a still
unpredictable scale, the report's researchers
concluded. The report was prepared by the
International Food Policy Research Institute in
Washington for the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research at the World
Bank.
Dwindling fresh water supplies almost everywhere
can no longer be ignored as a major factor in
calculations about future food stocks, the report
says, adding that the growth in irrigated areas is
declining.
``Unless properly managed, fresh water may emerge
as the key constraint to global food production,''
the survey reports. ``While supplies of water are
adequate in the aggregate to meet demand for the
foreseeable future, water is poorly distributed
across countries, within countries and between
seasons. And with a fixed amount of renewable water
resources to meet the needs of a continually
increasing population, per capita water
availability is declining steadily.''
Ismail Serageldin, the World Bank's vice president
for environmentally and socially sustainable
development and chairman of its agricultural
research group, said in an interview that stocks of
surplus food for use in emergencies should be
increased as insurance against future disruptions
in supplies, and that aid groups should try to
speed up help to the poorest subsistence farmers.
``We have to do the hard work of dealing with the
problems of the small-holder farm in remote
areas,'' he said. ``They are the real defenders
against food insecurity.''
Copies of the report are available free from the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research, 1818 H St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20043.
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