International food security could become a serious problem in the coming years. The global population has grown beyond 6.6 billion now, and although the rate at which it increases has dropped, the world population is still growing significantly. Food riots have erupted in several countries around the world just recently. Most of the 3 billion people projected to be added worldwide by mid-century will be born in countries already experiencing water shortages. Africa, it seems, has been starving since long before I was born. In the face of climate change, for which there is now plenty of evidence, and more coming out of the woodwork, global society stares down a foreboding path at the potential of mass-hunger in the days to come.
Some scientists in the field of agriculture, and the tradition of the Green Revolution following World War II, seem optimistic that advances in biotechnology are going to pave the way to feeding the entire world. Some suggest that GMOs hold the key, along with other processes that are still being explored, to providing plentiful nutrition for generations to come. It can be argued—quite soundly—that the industrial model of food production that has fed the demand of food for the population over the last 60 years is ultimately unsustainable.
Over time, the fertilizers that have enabled farmers to produce outstanding amounts of food damaged the soil, aquifers, and the surrounding ecologies. In monoculture practices pesticides are required because a single species of plant has a difficult time defending itself against insects and diseases; pesticides have similar implications as fertilizers. The environmental impact expands far beyond the immediate vicinity, into water and ecosystems.
Another concern is that the production of food and its distribution is so heavily dependent on oil. In some cases it requires more than 50 times the amount of energy in calories to grow, process, and ship the food. Most of that energy expended, comes from fossil fuels, and fossil fuels produce the gases that are directly causing climate change.
In turn, climate change is affecting the availability of water for many countries and people all around the world. Irrigating our crops depends on water, and it is no longer clear whether it will be available when we need it.
The only way to feed the eminent 7, 8 or 9 billion, that will be living on this planet, without altering the face of the Earth beyond what’s already changed, is to turn to sustainable agriculture, which must be modeled off of the biodynamics that already exist between organisms; this is local, polycultural, permacultural, sustainable, organic, loving farming.
Growing and buying foods locally hugely reduces the energy deficit that globally marketing food requires, supports local economies rather than distant corporations, and reduces our dependency on fossil fuels.
Permaculture is based upon principles that are aligned with the natural systems of life in our biosphere. It uses the advantages of growing more than one crop in an area, utilizing the symbiotic relationships that already exist among many species which serves to enhance production, preserve soil nutrition, repel pests and diseases without the use of toxins, and support the local ecology as well. As members of the global community of life, we are dependent on an intricate web of species, which in turn are dependent on others, and others, and so on… We must honor and respect the Earth’s creatures as a priority if we are to continue to survive.
May we find our way before it is too late.
-Dash B!
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