Here is your short article on The Global Food Problem

Despite the declining fertility of the remaining arable topsoil, world food output is expected to keep pace with population growth into the next century. Stating the matter this simply, however, is deceptive. In many cases, the increased food production, while it has prevented massive starvation, has depended heavily on expensive fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation.

It is feared that this may only set the stage for even greater population crashes in the future. And although overall food production has kept pace with overall population growth, little food usually reaches those who need it the most. The famines that the world experiences are not general, but regional.

Millions have starved: in Biafra in the 1960s, in Bangladesh in 1971, in the sub-Sahara Sahel in the mid-1970s, in Cambodia in 1980, and in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Somalia in the 1980s. While surplus food can almost always be obtained by those who can afford to buy it, little of it reaches the starving poor who cannot.

Thus, the world’s ability to raise enough food to feed everyone could not feed the over 16 million refugees from war and famine in the early 1980s and cannot feed the 500 million people who are hungry every day of their lives.

Although global relief programmes may often compensate somewhat for these situations on an emergency basis, populations continue to grow and poor people are increasingly cultivating the remaining marginal lands. Both trends forbide unprecedented ecological disasters for the future.

There appears to be little question that world population will exceed 6 billion by the year 2000, with the increase occurring largely in those areas already suffering most from hunger, malnutrition, and starvation, namely, parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

The Future

Is there hope for the future? It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the many environmental problems that confront us-to feel that one person is helpless against all the forces that threaten our planet.

Although one person might indeed be helpless, literally hundreds of thousands of people are attempting to solve these problems. Moreover, they are achieving success on many fronts; to recount their achievements would fill at least another chapter.

The environmental crisis has many facets, and many specialized groups have arisen to meet them. Some organizations are international in scope; some are local. Some appeal to the public, some lobby legislatures, and some act directly by buying up tracts of land to preserve them from reckles development. Some have broad politico-ecomomic perspectives in which respect for the environment is an integral part.

In a number of cases, the action of citizens’ groups, of industries, or of governments at the urging of citizens has halted needless destruction of ecosystems of restored severely damaged areas.

Although such cases are exceptional and there is much work yet to be done, the success that has been achieved is proof that it is possible.

Alternatively, to yield to despair is to guarantee diaster. For those interested in a never-ending battle, we suggest joining one or more of the many agencies and citizen groups that seek to divert us from the dangerous path down which our civilization is heading.