FOOD PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

Introduction
We have already noted that the biosphere is one massive web of interrelationships
among organisms. Of great importance are the feeding relationships through various
food chains, and food webs.

All human foods come from other organisms because humans are consumers. Humans
have carefully selected and developed their own food sources from a few select species
listed here in order of decreasing importance: wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, barley,
sweet potatoes, cassava, soybeans, oats, sorghum, millet, sugar cane, sugar
beet, peanuts, field beans, chick peas, pigeon peas, bananas, and coconuts. In
addition, there are animal food products from cow, sheep, pig, goat, birds (a few
species), fish, and other marine animals (also a few species). Eighty percent of the
worlds food supply comes from 20 species of plants and 65% of the worlds food supply
comes from the primary grain foods (corn, rice and wheat). The remaining 20% worlds
food supply are animal products such as milk, meat, and cheese.

Agriculture and Food Production
The Green Revolution. In the Late 1800s, 80% of the U.S. workforce was employed in
agriculture. But in the 1990s, less than 3% of the labor force produced food not only for
the U.S. population but for a robust external trade. This milestone was achieved
because of the technologically advanced, intensive farming practices of developed
countries (DCs) launched in the late 1940s. These practices, otherwise known as
the Green Revolution, has transformed primitive agriculture through:

a shift from animal to mechanical labor,
increasing farm acreage,
increasing the use of manufactured fertilizer and pesticide,
increase use of irrigation, and
new crop varieties.

Nations that benefitted the most are now the largest exporters of food: Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S.

These same techniques were adopted by some developing countries (dcs) in the 1960s,
which lead to a remarkable increase in grain production using high-yield varieties. India
and Mexico are examples of dcs that tripled wheat production since the 1960s. Thus,
while the worlds population was increasing at 2% during this period, rice and wheat
production increased by an average of 4% per year.




Since grain is of critical importance as human food (Staple Foods), we shall examine
the trends in grain production in the recent past. World grain production per person has
increased since 1950 but not consistently. Grain production peaked in 1984 at 763
pounds (lb) per person, and since then has fluctuated below this level. By 1994, grain
production per person was 686 lb, and in 1998, it was 697 ib per person. Overall, the
total grain production has increased consistently with minimal fluctuations since
1950. But world population increased has outpaced the total grain production since
1984. Hence the quantity of available grain per person decreased after the 1984
peak. Most of the fluctuations in grain production, noted above, were associated with
physical or political conditions that affected the four major grain producing countries -
United States, China, former Soviet Union, and India.

Another datum that is used as an indicator of global food security is the carryover grain
stocks, which has also shown a fluctuating trend in the recent past. This is the surplus
grain remaining each year after everyone is fed. In the early 1970s, the stocks were
less than 60 days worth. By 1987, following the peak grain production in 1984, it was
up to 104 days worth. By 1995, it was down to 62 days. When carryover grain stocks
are less than 60 days worth, grain prices on the world maket increase sharply.

(Insert FIGURE 13-8 )



Animal Farming. One of the results of the Green Revolution is that animal food
products have steadily increased in the human diet since 1950. In many dcs, these
animal food products still constitutes only a small percent of the diet. Therefore the
demand has been mostly in Dcs. The average person in the U.S. consumes 247 lb of
meat per year compared to 31 lb in Egypt.

It is estimated that there are 15 billion domestic animals that includes 11 billion
chicken/duck/turkey. The care, feeding, and harvesting of these domesticated animals
are known as animal husbandry. Some of these animals are maintained
on pastures and range. Range is uncultivated land that can provide food for grazing
and browsing animals. Pasture is land cultivated to provide forage for the
animals. Common foorage crops include various species of grasses (hay), alfafa, and
sorghum. Twenty-five percent of the worlds crop land are used for animal husbandry
and 38% of the worlds harvested grain (oats, maize, barley, soybean) is fed to
livestock. In the U.S. alone, 67% of harvested grain is fed to livestock, and 57% is used
in Western Europe and former Soviet Union. In the Middle East, 33% is fed to livestock,
but only 3% is used in India because of the very small percent of animal product in the
Indian diet. In the Dcs, animal husbandry is another form of industrialized farming
requiring significant capital investments, whereas in dcs, it is called nomadic
herding accomplished with little or no capital investments.

Many problems of industrialized farming has applied to animal farming and has affected
the environment in nonsustainable ways:

Range lands are susceptible to overgrazing because of having too many
animals on the land or using marginal dry grasslands. In the U.S.,
the overstocking of the western rangelands has reduced the
carrying capacity by 50%. In South America, approximately 50
million acres of tropical rainforests have been cut, burned, and then
seeded with grass to create grazing land for cattle ranchers. These
activities has increased deforestation, desertification, and other
forms of ecological damage. It has removed valuable land that
could support varieties of crops and trees.

The conversion of wooded/forest lands into rangeland by burning has
released 1.4 billion tons of carbon into the lower atmosphere which
could easily support greenhouse global warming as carbon
dioxide. Moreover, cattle release 80 million tons of methane per
year, and manure decomposition adds 35 million tons per year of
methane to the atmosphere; another greenhouse gas.



The third principle of ecosystem sustainability (every natuaral population
has a limit) is violated by having too many herbivores on land that
cannot support them. In other words the size of the consumer
population is not regulated so that overgrazing and other overuse
occurs. Moreover, energy wise, it is inefficient to feed at higher
trophic levels if you can feed at lower trophic levels. In other words,
producing food for humans by feeding plants to animals is much
less efficient than simply feeding humans the plants directly. It can
take 16 lb of feed (grain and plant protein) to produce a pound of
beef, 7 lb of feed to produce a pound of pork, and 3 lb of feed to
produce to produce a pound of chicken or eggs. As the human
population continues to increase and grain production per person
remain stable or declines, it may become necessary to allocate less
grains to animals if all humans are to be fed adequately.


There are many similarities between plant and animal farming as shown in Table 5-1
below.

Table 5-1




PLANT CULTIVATION

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

Major Products (food)

Grains, fruits, vegetables

Meat, cheese, butter, milk,
fish, and eggs

Minor Products

Oil, fabrics, rubber, spice,
nut etc.

Leather, fat, labor, wool,
manure

Traditional Approach

Subsistence farming,
shifting cultivation

herding, subsistence
farming

Modern Approach

Intensive farming on
former woodlands and
grasslands

Ranging, ranching, diary
farming, piggery and
poultry farming etc.

Land Acreage

3.7 billion acres (11% land
area).

7.6 billion acres (25% land
area).


In spite of the green revolution, all the worlds feeding problems has not been resolved
because:

optimum food production levels are already attained,
marginal lands have not yet been cultivated as they require
irrigation, constant inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanized labor,
it has typically benefitted land barons,
certain native African staples (millet, yam, and sorghum) have not benefitted from
these innovations, and

poverty and food distribution.
Subsistence Agriculture. On the other hand, most developing nations (dcs) in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America survive by subsistence agriculture which is labor-intensive and
lacks the investment inputs of industrial agriculture.

Typically, a family owns a small parcel of land for growing grains, raising goats, sheep,
cattle or chicken using traditional methods. Each farmer produces barely enough food
to feed the family. Any surplus is sold locally. Such agriculture is practiced in areas of
rapid population growth although it is better suited for low population densities. In many
dcs, woodland and forests are cleared for cultivation, or firewood, or for animal feed. In
most cases, deforestation and associated soil erosion lead to greater commuter
distances for farm land and fuel. Good land is forced to produce multiple crops instead
of leaving it fallow to recover soil nutrients. In some tropical countries, slash and burn
agriculture is used instead. This type of cultivation is more sustainable where cleared
land support a few years of food crops, and then is replaced by agro-forestry (tree
plantations) later.



Hunger and Famine
Hunger. Statistics on world hunger are often based on the number of kilocalories (a
measure of how much energy is contained in food) of food available or eaten each
day. The U.N. has pegged that number at 2350 kilocalories for an adult. In over 40
countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, the daily kilocalorie intake is less than 2350
kilocalories. In India alone, 37% of the people go hungry daily. In Ghana, West Africa,
it is 27%. In the late 1990s, somalian adults rceived an average of 1566 kcalories of
food per day. Practically, all Somalians suffered from daily hunger in the 1990s. The
lack of sufficient daily food intake causes many health problems associated traditionally
withmalnutrition. Hunger refers to the lack of a sufficient daily food intake to meet
energy and nutritional needs to carry out normal activities.



Although more people than ever before are being fed by the increased world food
production in the past 50 years, there are still pockets of
hunger/malnutrition. Approximately 20% of dcs are underfed in Southern Asia, Latin
America, and Africa. As a result, 35,000 people die daily due to hunger. The effects of
hunger and malnutrition are greatest in women and children, particularly in rural areas.

Most people agree that the major cause of world hunger is poverty. In general, women
and children are among the poorest in dcs. It has been estimated that approximately
1.5 billion people earn less than $1.00 per day (absolute poverty) and these same
people spend at least half of their income on food. Even if the production of food was to
double next year, the status of these people would not change. So apparently, it is not
just the availability of food or the lack of land to raise it that cause world hunger; it is the
lack of means to procure food that is the critical factor in world hunger. Grain stockpiles
have been available, at least, for the past 50 years.

It is possible for society to address the need of the hungry poor such as the case in
China, Thailand, and Indonesia in the 1980s. Public policies were implemented to
increase food production and rural development in these countries which greatly
improved the welfare of millions of the poorest of these people.

Famine. This is a severe food shortage for an extended period that sharply increases
the death rate in areas affected by the shortage. Famine can be caused by one or more
of the following:

Population growth exceeding the food production in local or regional
areas and an inadequate food distribution for the growing
population.

The emergence of environmental factors that limit food
production. When there is a drought or severe soil erosion, food
production decreases.

Agriculture changes the environment, particularly when the changes are
detrimental. For instance the conversion of millions of acres of
woodland or tropical rainforest into grazing land for cattle.

Social disruptions and social attitudes which affect the environment and
in turn affect agriculture. In Africa, social disruptions since 1960
have included 14 wars, 52 military coups, and 13
assassinations. This social instability makes sustained food
production difficult.

In the latter part of the 20
th
century, drought and social disruptions have been the
dominant causes of famine.



Drought caused famine in Africa 1968 - 1974 and 1984-1985 in the Sahel region of
Africa. Undependable rainfalls in this semi-arid belt with 50 million people make it very
susceptible to the effects of El Nino. Crops died, grass for livestock perished, watering
holes dried up, livestock died, and at least 0.5 million people died from the effects of
hunger and malnutrition. In the early 1990s, five years without rain led to severe famine
in the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceara. The 2 million people affected fled this area
of Brazil for the Atlantic coast cities where they broke into warehouses and markets,
causing riots.

War also caused famines in Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan, Mozambique, Angola,
and Liberia from the 1970s to 1990s. These civil wars disrupt the farmers`normal
planting and harvesting routine, and in some cases, bring farming to a halt because the
farmers become refugees and move away from their lands. In general government
agencies control the availability and distribution of relief supplies, and in many cases,
distribute them under dangerous conditions.

Apparently, famines from drought and war are preventable. That is because drought-
related famines have long gestattion periods covering at least 2 crop seasons. Hence,
because the advent of famine is slow, early detection is possible. In the early 1990s, a
high-tech satellite system operated by the U.S., FEWS (Farming Early Warning
System), issued an alert for famine signs (rainfall and vegetation trends) in the horn of
Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya). Food aid was mobilized early by donor countries to
prevent mass migrations and the attendant refugee problems (see FEWS web page at
http://gopher.info.usaid.gov/fews/fews.html). According to the U.N., 70% of Africans
have inadequate food. The map below shows African countries that have famines
because of war or drought or both.

( Insert Figure 8-13)

Again, there is enough food produced in the world today to feed all humans. Hunger
and famine occurs because of:

1). Poverty (in spite of the considerable international trade in food products).
2). Poor food distribution (in spite of food-aid programs from Dcs).

Clearly, food aid is a short-term solution. The long-term solution is to help the victims of
famine and hunger to develop their own means of sustainable food production at the
local level. The old adage easily comes to mind: Give a man a fish and feed him for a
day; teach him to fish and feed him for life.

One of the well-established organizations putting the above cliche into practice is
the Heifer Project. This American charity organization locate local sponsors who
purchase domestic animals such as oxens, geese, chickens, goats, sheep, etc. These
animals are donated to families or villages and taught how to use them to supplement
their food supply. For additional information, please visit the heifer project website at
http://www.heifer.org


Future Food Issues
Although the world is food-sufficient today, but it is clear that as the global human
population continues to grow, more food will be needed in the not-too-distant future.

What are the potential ideas of increasing food production? Among the many ideas are
a sample of the following:



Increase the amount of land under cultivation. The best land is already under
cultivation (approximately 4 billion acres). But according to some
estimates, there are 10 billion acres of potentially cultivable land. Most of
the remaining land are considered as marginal land because they lack
sufficient water, or have poor quality soil, or lie on slopey soil that is easily
eroded if cleared. If the population continues to increase at its present
rate, then by 2050 all of the 10 billion acres will be under food production
to support the population increase. Hence by the end of the 21 st century
the population will outstrip its food supply. Some people have suggested
that in the future humans will engage increasingly in artificial agriculture
using methods such as hydroponics. This approach is extremely
expensive and unlikely to be practiced in dcs where hunger is more
common.

Improve irrigation. One way to increase the amount of land under cultivation
and to increase crop yields is to develop and apply techniques that
improve irrigation and reduce overall water use. Drip irrigation is one
such approach based on the application of water from tubes that drip
water slowly, greatly reducing the water loss from direct evaporation.

Implement dietary change. According to the biomass pyramid (chapter 3),there
is much more energy available at the lower rungs of the food chain than at
the upper levels. In other words, humans should reduce the amount of
animal food consumed and eat more grains instead. This means that all
grazing land should be converted into crop production.

Continue to use bioengineering to develop improved crops. Bioengineering is
the artificial manipulation (genetic) of particular properties of organisms
that can yield new strains or varieties of the organism. Today, there are at
least 50 transgenic fruits and vegetables in the U.S. food market. Clearly,
transgenic crops require reduced input of pesticides and many are
disease resistant. With such properties, more will be available for
harvests tend to be higher than the traditional crop

An example of such a transgenic crop is QPM or Quality Protein
Maize, which is a transgenic corn with amino acids (protein molecules)
added genetically. It has been introduced in countries around
the world such as Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, and China - places with protein
deficient -diets. Ex-U.S.president, Jimmy Carter, called it the complete
food because it has the same dietary advantages of meat and milk
together. Bt Corn produces its own insecticide because of a gene inserted
from a bacterium.

We can close this chapter by observing a debate
between cornucopians and environmentalists on the issue of the Malthusian
population prediction made 200 years ago (Table 5-2):



TABLE 5-2




Environmentalist

Cornucopian

Famine, in recent years result from population
outstripping food supply.

Famines are only local, not global. More
equitable distribution of food will offset famines.

The number of people suffering from hunger and
malnutrition is increasing.

People are healthier and better fed today than in
the past.

World grain production reached its peak in the
mid-1980s and will continue on a decreasing
trend.
The recent decline in world food production is
temporary; food production will begin increasing
soon.

Increased grain production will depend on heavy
input of fertilizers and pesticides, which will
degrade the environment.

New strains, new fertilizers, new pesticides, and
new agricultural practices will continue to improve
food production.

Technological gains continue to degrade the
environment and offset the gains made in food
production.

Technology has increased food productivity and
can continue to keep pace with population growth.

Population is limited by the Earths capacity for
increased food production by increasing the
cultivated area and yield per acre.

Population is only limited by the rate at which
solar energy can be captured and used;
technology will provide the means to achieve this.

Overpopulation causes poverty, and the poor
cannot afford to buy enough food.

Poverty causes overpopulation; if poverty is
cured, population will decline.