Food Scarcity and How It Affects You

With a growing population and more people earning and eating more, the demand for food is outpacing production. There are already people without enough to eat and it could get worse.

While food scarcity has been a subject of concern for a few years now, it really hit home for many of us when Covid-19 hit South Africa and we had our first level 5 lockdown. Stores no longer had certain staples in stock, which was made worse by panic buying and hoarding. The supply chains are working well again, but it did make us pause and think about food and how we can take it for granted that there will be enough food in the shops.

What is food scarcity?

Right now, there are millions of people that are hungry. The Food and Agricultural Organisation says that over one billion people are affected by hunger. The International Food Policy Research Institute says 33 countries sitting at “alarming” or “extremely alarming” levels of hunger according to its Global Hunger Index.

Currently, enough food is produced worldwide that if it was split evenly, everyone would have enough food. But due to a whole host of factors, from armed conflict to socio-economics, this food isn’t shared out evenly, and in some cases, it is wasted.

The demand for food will continue to grow, while arable cropland is already at capacity. Add in the loss of farm yields to pollution and climate change. This demand for food is quickly outpacing the yields of farming produce like cereal.

Changing demands

As people move to the cities and earn better incomes, their eating habits change. In general, the more affluent a population, the higher the calorie intake per capita. Eating meat is a sign of wealth in many cultures, meaning more meat is in demand. Producing meat is a rather water and grain intensive process. To produce 1kg of grain-fed beef you need 10kg of grain. Pork uses 4kg of grain to produce 1kg, while chickens use 2kg to produce 1kg of meat.

1kg of grain-fed beef also takes 15,000 litres of water to produce, while 1kg of wheat requires 1,500 litres of water. Over half of the cereal produced globally is used as animal feed, and meat consumption is steadily increasing.

Besides meat, there is another process that is hungry to take produce from farms and use it for something other than food. Biofuels are increasing in popularity and while reduced reliance on fossil fuels is a large benefit, there is a real cost to pursuing biofuels. Many farms that used to provide food are now shipping off their corn, wheat, sugar beet, and sugar cane to bioethanol refineries, while soya beans and palm oil are sent to biodiesel plants. 30% of America’s corn production is turned into biofuel and Europe has devoted 9% of its arable land to biodiesel. 

In 2008 a price spike in food prices can be attributed directly to biofuels, as 125 million tons of cereals were diverted from food stores to make biofuel. Cereal production is not on the rise to meet this demand, which could lead to further price hikes in food.

What about me?

There are a few things that people can do to help with food scarcity, or at least prepare for things getting worse as we head towards 2050. Changing your eating habits, or at least being more aware of which foods use up a lot of water and energy to create them can help and growing a few things for yourself means you will never be without food. While arable land is more or less at capacity, there are several urban farming options, from grow rooms in basements to rooftop gardens and vertical farms. Even a small pot plant for veggies or having a fruit tree with low water requirements could provide you with something fresh to eat or your own delicious jams!

Food scarcity is a heavy, scary topic, but with enough people doing sustainable urban farming, we could make a change for the better in our neighbourhood or community.