Do Humans Have Enough Food in the 21st Century?

The subject of food is very broad. Food is not only in the center of any country’s culture but also a country’s economy. According to experts, there are two basic problems that come with issues about food.

The first problem is hunger and the diseases caused by malnutrition. Despite the amount of food that is produced with the help of technology, many people still do not have access to quality food.

The second problem is food explosion and luxury diseases such as obesity, anorexia, and bulimia. This problem is probably due to people consuming more food than their body requires. Many people no longer simply eat to nourish their body. Eating is now a common recreation which accounts for different types of eating disorders and diseases.

Food consumption is no longer just driven by the needs of the human body. It is now the driver of the capitalist food industry. People don’t simply demand for delicious food but also demand for different food experiences from other countries, influencing the emergence of new restaurants here and there.

Projections show that the human population will surely continue to grow which means that there will be billions of mouths to feed. One of the most important but often overlooked questions is: Will people have enough food?

Experts say the produce of traditional agriculture methods will not be sufficient to feed the human population by 2025. To continually sustain the needs of the growing human population, they say that it is more likely for world food production to be dictated by genetic engineering. According to calculations, traditional farming methods can only feed about 4 billion people in the world given the current amount of agricultural land in use. Billions of cows will also be needed to supply the amount of fertilizer needed.

To counter the threats of food insecurity and to decrease the risk of having luxury diseases, different movements — like farm-to-table, veganism, and backyard farming — have emerged. Many people are now becoming more conscious of what they eat and where they buy food which has opened a different market of consumers. People these days can go to restaurants that serve dishes made with all-organic meat and vegetables or restaurants that serve only vegan or all-natural dishes.

Also, many experts are now looking into different food production alternatives that have lesser environmental impact but impart more nutritional value. Some experts believe that humans will probably turn to consuming grasshoppers, wild crickets, kangaroos, crocodiles, and other types of insects and animals especially that food production systems and consumption patterns have changed a lot.