Perhaps the most recognized cause of the food bubble crisis is the inability to effectively irrigate arable lands with recoverable water resources. Let’s take Pakistan as an example. This nation has a growing population of 183 million; it also hosts the largest livestock herd in the world…both of which put an increasing demand on water resources. Now add to that the demand for water to irrigate Pakistan’s wheat and rice crops. The Indus River, the primary water source for all human, agricultural, and industrial demand in this nation, is over taxed. A situation that is made worse by lower mountain snow packs and over utilization of Pakistan’s rechargeable aquifers.
If the water fails, crop yields will depend on precipitation alone…a problem for a region suffering from a multi year drought…yet overcome in 2010 by record driving monsoon rains delivered at an unimaginable intense rate which caused floods throughout Pakistan as never before seen in modern times. All of which was made exponentially worse by Pakistan’s intentional deforestation executed since the 1950s in order to establish cleared land for corps and grazing.
For Pakistan, at least, the food bubble is closer to its bursting point due in part to the demands placed on the land to meet the ever growing population, over grazing by its herds, excessive use of water resources, and the deforestation that is preventing natural recharging of now fragile aquifers. And this is only one example of one nation near the edge, there are dozens more.
The world population today is 6,903.325,000, and of this 6.9 billion more than 950 million suffer from hunger; hunger is defined as a scarcity of food that promotes malnutrition and underdevelopment to a broad sector of the population. This 950 million is a conservative estimate. Many sources would declare that this is truly an under estimate and that more likely there are 1.2 billion worldwide in abject poverty and suffering from hunger.
If this is an accurate picture of today’s global population, and if an increasing number of nations are in jeopardy due to producing food on a “Bubble” then what’s next? Potentially a global crash like we have never imagined. Food security is in the balance…unless we are willing to do something about it immediately, without the delays imposed by debate and governmental foot dragging and finger pointing, we may find out what our breaking point really is…and these are the concerns of today. What about when we hit a population of 8.5 or 9 billion later this century?
Man tends to be short sited. We often fail to consider the history that impacted past civilizations, many of which failed when their food sources failed; nor do we look down the road to where catastrophe awaits. In this case, less than 50 years out when water, climate, population growth and economic factors will challenge Food Security for all of us, and as an extension global stability.
Our time for action is now, not sometime in the future, and America needs to lead this effort. Our failure to do so will challenge our global leadership and threaten international collapse. Food security is not only necessary for all of mankind, it is simply the responsibility of all.
* Failed State Index as reported annually by the US based Fund for Peace think tank organization.
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