| Earth Day celebrates planet’s great gifts |
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Gardeners are sinking seed into soil in these first days of spring, beginning to produce their own personal harvest. Being involved in food production, whether on a rooftop, in your backyard, or on a larger scale, is a noble pursuit. The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is a perfect time to celebrate some of the Earth’s greatest gifts – food, and the hard-working men and women who work each day to feed our ever-growing global population, while using fewer resources than they did 40 years ago.
Consider the eggs, bacon, toast and milk you may have enjoyed for breakfast. Today, through the use of responsible, efficient contemporary food production systems that produce more food using fewer resources, farmers produce 28 percent more eggs with 13 percent fewer hens than in 1970; 176 percent more pork per sow with 44 percent fewer sows; 69 percent more wheat on 6 percent fewer acres; and 62 percent more milk with 23 percent fewer cows.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, we are currently consuming food at the rate of 1.25 planets. If China develops as expected, that rate increases to two planets by the mid-2030s. If all other developing countries continue the current projected path of growth and consumption, that becomes 11 planets.
All of this at a time when we are currently adding 6.3 million people to the planet, or an additional Los Angeles and Chicago, every month according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Based on projections from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, we need to double food production in the next 50 years. According to the United Nations, 80 percent of future production growth must come from increased yields, roughly 10 percent from higher cropping density and 10 percent from expanded land use.
We won’t meet the growing demand for food by slowing down improvements in productivity, as some have proposed.
To do so, and protect land not currently in production, we have to continue to produce more, using less through innovation and the responsible use of technology. The good news is that America’s farmers have been doing that for decades.
The public has a right to expect these food producers to act responsibly in delivering U.S. consumers the most affordable food supply in the world, and an amazing array of options from which to choose. But those who suggest the entire food system should be slowed down or rolled back 40 or more years are risking dangerous, unintended consequences.
Decisions that limit the ability to increase productivity will have immediate and long-lasting consequences on food affordability, availability and the environment in the U.S. and around the world.
So in support of Earth Day, learn more about food production and nutrition; better understand the consequences of market and political decisions that limit productivity, and be supportive of responsible, efficient production systems that allow us to feed more, using less. That’s the ethical choice for people, animals, and the planet.
Charlie Arnot
CEO, Center for Food Integrity |
| 4/21/2010 |
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