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Ag News -
State Ag News
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Friday, 05 March 2010 10:37 |
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Erinn Barcomb-Peterson
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MANHATTAN, Kan. -- To feed a world population projected to exceed 9
billion people by 2050, technology that can enhance food production
will be a significant asset, according to a Kansas State University
agricultural economist.
Ted Schroeder, university distinguished professor of agricultural
economics, said dramatically increased food prices around the world
in recent years, social unrest over food scarcity in countries like
Argentina, Bangladesh, Egypt, Mozambique and many others -- combined
with a growing world population -- are raising the question what will
it take to feed the world's population 40 years from now.
He is speaking on the topic March 5 at K-State's Cattlemen's Day.
Schroeder said that technology isn't a magic wand to make these
problems disappear, but it can contribute significantly to increasing
food production. He cited how Iowa's corn yields sped past Italy's
when Iowa farmers embraced yield-enhancing, genetically modified corn
varieties that have been shunned by Italy and much of the European
Union.
"It shows so starkly what technology can do to increase food
production with the same fixed resource base," Schroeder said.
"Technology discovery, technology development and technology adoption
are huge in terms of food prices, who will produce the food and how
we're going to feed the world."
Genetically modifying crops certainly isn't a new technology,
Schroeder said, but advanced abilities for DNA gene mapping --
especially in animal populations -- is a promising area of
development.
"Any technology that increases our ability to understand and predict
how an animal or plant is likely to react to a stimulus or
environmental factor, or technology that targets managing specific
food product attributes produced from crops and livestock, is going
to make a substantial difference in providing affordable, high-
quality, safe food to the growing base of global consumers,"
Schroeder said.
One of the biggest challenges to food technologies that could feed a
growing population is reduced support for research and development.
Although public research support has declined, Schroeder said private
investment, driven by profit incentive, is growing rapidly.
"The evidence for how technology development can better feed the
world is so dramatic that we'd better make sure we find ways to
support that research and that we don't create unfounded social and
political impediments to research and development," he said. "If we
create political and social barricades to food production technology
development, we'll ultimately not only need a reduced global
population growth rate, but we'll also need a reduced population,
period. At some point we'll have exhausted our potential to produce
given fixed resources, and food prices will be so high that people
will rebel -- and not just in poor countries."
Schroeder's message to beef producers is a positive one. He said that
a world population that's growing -- and growing increasingly wealthy
-- will demand more beef. Moreover, new beef production technologies
can increase and improve beef's position in future diets around the
world. "Beef is a huge winner, because when incomes grow, people want
meat proteins," Schroeder said. "And there's a strong direct
relationship between income per capita and beef consumption per
capita."
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