Impact of population growth on food supplies and environment.

Abstract

This article presents a discussion of the impact of world population growth on available natural resources and the demands for food and water. Currently 1-2 billion people are already malnourished due to insufficient food low incomes and inadequate food distribution. A doubling of population in under 50 years to 12 billion will result in increasingly severe food problems and an estimated 3 billion malnourished. The US National Academy of Sciences and the scientists of the Royal Society issued a joint statement about the growing imbalance between people and food. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported that the 80% of the available world food supply that is devoted to world grains per capita declined over the past 15 years. With projected population increases the declines and additional grains needed for the addition of more people will greatly increase the pressure on land and water resources. An ample food supply is dependent upon ample fertile land fresh water energy and biodiversity. Almost 33% or 1.5 billion hectares of the worlds cropland was abandoned due to soil erosion and unproductivity. Replacement of eroded land is coming from marginal and forest land. 60-80% of deforestation is attributed to land acquisition for agricultural purposes. Available cropland per capita is now only 0.27 hectares per capita in the world. US or European diet requires 0.50 hectares per capita. Food shortages are related to lower land productivity and shortages of productive cropland. Agricultural production requires about 87% of the worlds freshwater and a significant amount of the worlds supply of fossil fuel. About 40% of world population competes for shared water resources. Food importation may not be viable at some point in the future. Today about 183 nations are dependent on food imports. A high standard of living is possible with 200 million fewer people in the US and 2 billion fewer people in the world.