COMMENTARY: Food production growth comes at environmental cost

In 1687 Sir Isaac Newton, an English physicist and mathematician, examined the fundamental forces of nature and concluded that "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." About 225 years later Albert Einstein, another physicist, extended this law by adding, "with every problem there’s a solution; just a matter of taking action."

Throughout our existence as an earth-bound species, we have struggled to hunt and gather enough sustenance to survive. And in many respects, we have become hugely successful in tackling the dilemma of extreme human poverty and starvation. Data from the the World Bank show that In the past 25 years alone, we have lowered the numbers of humans suffering severe privation from 30 per cent globally to almost 10 per cent. Those of us who continue to suffer from starvation are found principally in war-torn countries — presently, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

Much of the improvement in feeding the world has come from agricultural activity.

Indeed, we have gone beyond all expectations as the world’s agriculture production has increased by more than 50 per cent in the past quarter-century, at twice the rate of growth in our human population. We can presently feed a billion people more than the world’s current inhabitants. 

Simultaneously, the reactive impact of this Newtonian force of human advancement brings troubling environmental consequences. For example, 26 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases come from food production. Fifty per cent of the globe’s habitable land is used for agriculture (and growing). Agriculture consumes 70 per cent of our freshwater and accounts for nearly 80 per cent of ocean and freshwater pollution. Livestock now accounts for 94 per cent of the mammal biomass (excluding humans) and over 70 per cent of bird biomass is composed of poultry. 

The impact of our food production processes alone is estimated by the World Agricultural Organization to take us past the 2.0 C mark by the end of this century.

Still, there is hope. Worldwide, we waste 17 per cent of our food production (120 kilograms per person per year), enough to feed another one billion people. 

As Einstein stated, a 17 per cent solution is just a matter of taking action.

We can be much more effective in tackling our pollution problems than focusing our principal efforts on gas pump taxation and taxing our families to invest in making lithium car batteries.