Reuters | October 12, 1999 | David Brough
LISBON - Food industry experts were cited as saying Tuesday that the world will be capable of supplying its food needs in the next millennium despite the exploding birth rate and dramatic climatic change, and that global food supplies were plentiful and grain prices were at historic lows as a U.N. population clock ticked off the world's six billionth human among the 370,000 babies born on Tuesday, many of them destined for a future of poverty and illiteracy.
The story says that the world's population has doubled since 1960 and increased by one billion people in the past 12 years. But the rate, albeit distressing, is expected to slow by 2050 to perhaps 8.9 billion people, U.N. demographers say.
The story cited food industry experts as saying the world had the technological know-how to produce enough food to keep pace with the birth rate, and cast doubt on Malthusian prophecy that the world's population would eventually outstrip its resources.
They said developing countries had the potential to boost crop yields by using conventional technology.
David King, Secretary General of the Paris-based International Federation of Agricultural Producers was quoted as saying, "If you look at the yields of crops in developing countries and compare them with the average of developed countries, there is still a huge way to go with conventional technology."
Bill DeMaria at the International Grains Council in London was quoted as saying, "I think there is sufficient productive capacity to meet world demand for food."
Food industry officials, noting that the biggest population growth in the coming years would be in Africa and Asia, said economic development and political stability were key to a country's ability to supply its own food needs.
But they forecast increasing flows of food aid from richer nations to the world's poorest countries.
Food industry officials said that the debate in Europe and Japan over the environmental and health impact of genetically modified (GM) foods was a luxury of rich countries, which did not worry about their ability to feed themselves.
They said GM technology would benefit poor countries' farmers by raising resistance to pests, disease and drought as global warming and urbanisation increased pressure on agricultural land and reduced water supplies for cultivation.
"The world will have to feed more people with less land and less water," King said.
