Effects of The 2000s Energy Crisis - Food Security

Food Security

Further information: Risks to food security, Agriculture and population limits, Food vs fuel and 2007–2008 world food price crisis

Since 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.