LAND RESOURCE
EXPLOITATION: FOOD PRODUCTION
Population
Growth and Food Production:
Malthusian
Theory:
The relationship between
food production and food supply was first expressed by an English Economist
called Thomas Robert Malthus (1798 -1823). Malthus stated that population increased in a geometric
progression (ie., 2, 4, 16, 132…) while food production increased in
arithmetic progression (ie., 2, 4, 6, 8…). Thus
population grew faster than food production and tended to outstrip it in a
short time. He wrote; unless humans can limit reproduction voluntarily through
self-restraint, population would be reduced by catastrophic events such as
diseases, starvation, misery and wars.
He
wrote at a time of great social and economic upheaval in
a)
In economically
advanced countries
b)
In poor
developing countries
a)
The theory has formed the basis for several policies on population growth and
development assistance (ie., birth control & family planning).
b)
Neo-Malthusians have revived these views to support public policies about
population growth.
Global
Population Growth:
The
human population has increased enormously in recent decades.
a)
1880 = I billion
people
b)
1930 = 2 billion
c)
1960 = 3 billion
d)
1975 = 4 billion
e)
1999 = 6 billion
f)
2025 = 8 billion
people (estimate)
Population
Growth rates:
1)
First half of the 20th Century = Averaged 0.8%.
2)
Late 1960’s & early 1970’s = Around 2% p. a.
3)
1970 world population grew at = 2.06% p.a.
Growth
rates in the developed countries continue to fall sometimes below 1% but those
in the developing world exceeded 2.5%.
Food
Production:
Growth
in food production has exceeded population growth in many areas. Expansion in world’s
food output has outpaced that of demand resulting in declining prices for major
food crops - cereals, root crops, meat, milk and fish - in international
markets.
Per Capita Food Production (each person).
Advanced
countries:
a)
1960’s = 2300 calories a day per person
b)
1990’s = 2700 calories a day per person
The
developing world:
a)
1960’s = 2400 calories a day per person
b)
1990 = 2500 calories a day per person
In
absolute terms, food has become more abundant but there are major disparities
between the food supply and demand. Mal-distribution lay at the heart of the
food problem.
Spatial imbalance in food
supply:
Socio-economic imbalance:
World’s
food production has increased but not all people are adequately fed. Even the
poor in developed countries often go hungry or rarely get the normal calories
of food to eat.
The
rate of increase in yields and hence in total food production is slowing. 3.7%,
2.5% and 2.1% respectively in the 1960’s, 1970’s and the 1980’s.
a) Emergence of pests
resistance to pesticides,
b) Contamination of water bodies by fertilizers
and pesticides residues,
c) Transfer of fertile agricultural land to
urbanization,
d) Land degradation,
e) Aging Farmers and no replacement
f) Ethical issues about genetic
engineering.
How Governments Intervene in Agricultural Production
a)
Funding of
research in agriculture
b)
Direct price
support (subsidies for fertilizer, pesticides, land leases etc)
c)
Protection
against imports of similar goods produced by local farmers
d)
Incentives to
modernize agriculture
e)
Tax exemptions
and reliefs.
f)
Direct cash
payments to farmers to reduce prices of agricultural goods below world market
price.
a)
Food security and
stability in hard times
b)
Check inflation and
ensure low cost of living.
c)
Ensure food
self-sufficiency.
Food Aid:
Many
developing countries cannot or do not grow enough food and cannot also afford
to import grains so in times of disasters, US and other advanced nations rally
to provide food aid.
a)
Free, low-cost
food aid drive down food prices in causing local farmers to lose out.
b)
Food aid can
become an essential part of the national food supply denying recipient
countries
of self-sufficiency in food
production.
c)
Distribution of
the food does not always reach those in greatest need who often live in remote
rural areas than in the urban areas
d)
Food aid may be
offered in exchange of political support
e)
In reality the
food given as aid is often surplus food that accumulates in developed
countries.
Genetically Engineered
Foods (Biotechnology):
The area planted with GM
crops increased from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 27.8 million hectares in
1998. In 1999, the area under cultivation was 39.9 million hectares.
Over 99% of increases in GM
foods have occurred in just three countries:
1.
2.
3.
4.
9 other countries
- China, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, Spain, France, Portugal and Romania -
were growing transgenic crops in 1999 with total areas just one percent of the
global total area.
Advantages:
1.
Tropical
agriculture is less productive than agriculture in the temperate regions of the
world
because of poor soil, extremes of
moisture and heat, drought, and a host of pests and parasites
that attack crops. For example, over
30% of crop yield is lost to pathogens and pests in parts
of
2.
Pesticide use
would be reduced through the use of herbicide resistant gm varieties. This will
reduce
runoff of pesticides into surface streams and groundwater.
3.
The planting of
high yielding gm plant varieties would halt expansion in agricultural land to
increase
crop yield. This could reduce deforestation and land degradation in the
tropics.
4.
Scientist in
developing countries will benefit from research already done in developed
countries.
Disadvantages:
1.
If gm crops
continue to be developed by private firms, farmers in developing countries
would
find seeds too expensive to purchase.
2.
Developing
countries would come to depend upon private foreign companies whose
operations are based
on profit rather than food security and low food prices.
3.
The problem of
using indigenous plants from developing countries to develop new gm crops
and applying foreign patent laws to own them.
4.
Disagreements
over genetic uniformity of crops thereby narrowing biological varieties we
have today
5.
Developing
countries have few institutions that can monitor and abate hazards that
accompany
gm food production & the social problems of its commercialization
The risks of genetically
modified crops:
a)
The likelihood of
transgenes escaping from cultivated crops into wild
relatives (or
contaminating organic
varieties on nearby farms). A potential solution is to incorporate the
gene in the
plastids genome.
b)
Creation of new
viruses and plant diseases with no known properties through the exchange of
genes.
c)
The potential for
pests to evolve resistance to the toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis
(plants with Bt genes).
d)
Crops carrying
antibiotic genes used as selectable markers may generate anti-resistance in
livestock or humans.
The advantages of
genetically modified crops:
a)
Increases in
yields and hence a faster route to feed the world’s teeming population
b)
Reduction in
pesticide and fertilizer usage hence less groundwater pollution
c)
Increases in the nutrient
value of basic foods
d)
Plants that are
better able to tolerate drought, salinity, diseases and lack of soil nutrients
e)
Possibility of
using food as drugs to heal people.