Current Food Production System Due For Collapse [View All]

Current food production system due for collapse

World grain yield fell for four successive years from 2000 to 2003, bringing reserves to the lowest in thirty years. The situation has not improved despite a 'bumper' harvest in 2004, which was just enough to satisfy world consumption.

In too many food production regions of the world, conventional farming practices have severely depleted the underground water to the point where rivers and lakes have dried out, topsoil has been eroded away, and wild life decimated. At the same time, world oil production may have passed its peak; oil price hit a record high of US$58 a barrel on 4 April 2005, and is expected to top US$100 within two years. This spells looming disaster for conventional industrial agriculture, which is heavily dependent on both oil and water. The true costs of our current food production system are becoming all too clear (see Box 1).

Box 1

True costs of industrial food production system
• 1 000 tonnes of water are consumed to produce one tonne of grain

• 10 energy units are spent for every energy unit of food on our dinner table

• 1 000 energy units are used for every energy unit of processed food

• 17% of the total energy use in the United States goes into food production & distribution, accounting for more than 20% of all transport within the country; this excludes energy used in import & export

• 12.5 energy units are wasted for every energy unit of food transported per thousand air-miles

• 20% of all greenhouse gases in the world come from current agriculture

• US$318 billion of taxpayer's money was spent to subsidize agriculture in OECD countries in 2002, while more than 2 billion subsistence farmers in developing countries tried to survive on $2 a day

• 90% of the agricultural subsidies benefit corporations and big farmers growing food for export; while 500 family farms close down every week in the United States

• Subsidized surplus food dumped on developing countries creates poverty, hunger and homelessness on a massive scale

Getting our food production sustainable is the most urgent task for humanity; it is also the key to delivering health, ameliorating the worst effects of climate change and saving the planet from destructive exploitation. The benefits of sustainable food production systems are also becoming evident (see Box 2).

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SustainableWorldInitiativeF.php