Global food demand

Food riots. That might be a future term to deal with. Perhaps it already is a very relevant phenomenon of how we, the western, industrial, wealthy world have been treating our fellow neighbours in "poorer", less industrialized and largly agricultural countries.

The food prices going up, with so much as 40% during one year only can be explained due to the following fundamental global causes: for the first time in human history more than half of the worlds population are living in cities (1), the demand for meat consumption is everly increasing (2), for the first time transportation fuels are based on agricultural crops (3).

This puts an enormous pressure on the capacity of productivity on agricultural productive lands to feed people in cities, which by the way nowdays are not only headhunting the cheapest available foods but also continually discovering new and exotic meals.

But most importantly, if we are to speak about global sustainability, this puts an enormous pressure on small-scale farmers and their families surviving in a marginal piece of land. Only a handful (more or less 5) gigantic corporations are actually controlling the whole provision business worldwide. And here is a clear example of how not everything can be left for the market to be taken care of: shareholders are put at first place infront of poor, uneducated small-scale farmers, whose whole livelihood are been taken over as large corporations and stock markets are allowed to dictate the profit for well-off urban consumers.

We like to repeat the history of evolution, that the smart naked ape has proceeded far away from the hunter and gatherer era - but if we step back and question ourselves - are we really so independed from nature as we think we are? Are we not completely depended on everyday food?

The big questions of the future will indoubtly be within the issue of global production and consumption of food. We can already begin thinking in terms of resiliance (Think Globally Radios Episode 080316). Actually, and this is the fantastic thing, if we just let people on the rural side of the worlds poor countries manage their business - helping them with fair economic benefits for the work underlying their produce and not forcing them into a market where they are more or less defensless - we will find that the best solutions for survival in socio-economic terms are found in harmony with nature.

Isn´t this actually natural?