Chapter 20. Chapter 20: Feeding the World - A Gene Revolution

What challenges do we face in meeting the nutritional needs of the worlds population?

Why You Should Care

For the time being, there is enough food in the world to feed everyone, but about a third of the world’s population gets too much to eat, and around a billion people don't get enough. Food seems like such a basic, simple thing—how can it be hard to feed everyone? The answer is complicated.

In industrialized countries like the United States, agriculture produces surpluses of commodity crops that can be stored in order to limit the amount being sold and keep prices higher. These high yields of crops come at the cost of many non-renewable resources and using renewable resources in an unsustainable manner, however. It's therefore unclear how long the practice can continue. Genetic modification held promise as a way to reduce the resources required to grow crops, but the savings may not be enough and many people are concerned about eating them.

Meanwhile, in poorer, developing countries, people spend much more of their income proportionally on food. This means that any natural disaster or crop failure that either forces people to buy food that they once grew or raises prices can cause major food shortages. A country not being able to consistently provide enough food for its citizens indicates food insufficiency and a lack of food sovereignty. Often, there is also a lack of food security in developing countries, a lack not only of calories, but of nutrients.

Feeding the world is an ongoing global issue. Getting enough food with sufficient nutrition to everyone will require developing new cultivation methods specific to different regions, creating new relationships between countries, and stabilizing the governments and economies of countries where undernutrition is a problem.

The map in Infographic 20.1 only details the causes of crisis for a few countries. What are some others? Go to the CIA World Factbook to learn more about the social, political, and ecological climate of countries with over 25% undernourishment.

• The countries in the Infographic aren't labeled, but you can find countries by outline using the World Factbook's interactive world map. First, select a continent, then the country.
• Look for countries with at least 25% undernourishment, especially those with a black target symbol indicating a crisis.
• Once you have chosen a country, you can read an overview of that country and look up many stats, such as obesity rates, average income, and fertility rates.

• You will find that many countries share the same conditions leading to crisis. Choose five countries, and as you examine them, use the boxes below to make two running lists:
• One list should be the names of the countries you find that are experiencing high rates of undernourishment.
• The other list should include the reasons for undernourishment in that country.
• Devise categories for the reasons in your own words.
• Tally how many times you see the same reason from country to country.
• An example is provided for you.