Added: 26.11.2009 14:14
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Food security

Food producing costs are driven down to the detriment of food security

Tags: Agriculture, conventional agriculture, food, food security, food supply

Food costs have been driven down by well planned food production. Production and distribution are pursued as efficient and centralized as possible. This means that the number of producers and distributors is shrinking, and the food we eat is rarely coming from local supplies.

In all there are less and less sources of food which makes the food supply system exceedingly fragile – not to mention what risks political and financial ambivalences can develop. Our food system is not unwavering but people are hardly preparing for the possibility of food supply breakdown.

For example economic and political crises might affect to the supply of food, and even minor incident or failure within the food chain can eliminate the amount of available foods. This elimination could drive up the costs of the alternative food sources. Food supply breakdown would mean widespread hunger.

Food security raises other questions about the endurance of the future food production. Conventional agriculture enables mass production but along with the diversified disadvantages, it also narrows the range of species. The less species we have the vulnerable they are for new diseases that could even cause extinction.

Decreasing the costs of the production we are opening the door to the possibility of a widespread food supply breakdown. If the path remains the same the biodiversity among both plants and animals is eroding.

References:

Rockefeller, J. (2009.) The disappearance of food: The next global wild card? The Futurist, 43(3), 21.

Opportunity: People might start to appreciate food more and consume more local products

Threat: Diminished supply of food

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Comments

ejomah
(22 Feb 2010)
Spam / Reply
Food appears to be one of those commodities with an inelastic demand and the consumption is almost constant given the price.There is equally a paradox on food supplies and food security.More food will obviously be demanded given the increase in the global population and only technological advances and modern ways of production and distribution could make this objective possible.According to Malthusian Theory of Population; \'Population increases in geometrical ratio where as food supply increases in arithmetical ratio\'.This theory has been true in the greater part of world\'s early evolution however things are bound to change if the globe should face its most pressing challenge.Wide scale production would also imply that there is a shift from labour to capital intensive factors of production.Lesser people would be needed to produce food in the supply chain and there would be a decrease in the varieties of food crops consumed.While it is true that there would be a reduction in food variety and job losses as a result of technological progress,making food available at cheaper costs would have a greater impact on world peace and stability.