Food Security
Further information: Risks to food security, Agriculture and population limits, Food vs fuel and 2007–2008 world food price crisisSince the 1940s, agriculture has dramatically increased its productivity, due largely to the use of petrochemical derived pesticides, fertilizers, and increased mechanization (the so-called Green Revolution). During this time, the world population has more than doubled. Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%.
By late 2007, increased farming for use in biofuels, world oil prices at nearly $100 a barrel and growing consumer demand in China and India pushed up the price of grain. Food riots occurred in many countries across the world in 2007 and 2008. In December 2007, 37 countries faced food crises, and 20 had imposed some sort of food-price controls. Geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer claims that the coming decades could see spiraling food prices and massive starvation on a global level such as never experienced before.
Read more about this topic: Effects Of The 2000s Energy Crisis
Famous quotes containing the words food and/or security:
“I really don’t think this war will end soon. We are completely aware of the difficulties, no food or fuel, the danger, but we want to be stronger than all that. With each child, we are fighting back with our love of life.”
—Tina Bajraktarebic (b. 1965)
“Is a Bill of Rights a security for [religious liberty]? If there were but one sect in America, a Bill of Rights would be a small protection for liberty.... Freedom derives from a multiplicity of sects, which pervade America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)