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FOOD

3 November, 2015 - 14:03

The earth's capacity to produce enough food for the people who occupy it has long been the subject of considerable research. A lack of conclusive evidence has not prevented heated controversies. 1 At one extreme are the prophets of doom, sometimes known as Neo-Malthusians, who believe that the earth's carrying capacity is near exhaustion: croplands cannot be extended much further and land resources are being steadily depleted. At the other extreme are those who believe that enough food is available or could be made available to feed perhaps twice the world's current population. According to this view, what is needed is more arable land, better production methods, a better and more equitable distribution system, and a free marketplace for agricultural products.

Personal beliefs aside, there are certain cruel facts that an international manager must recognize. 2 First, hunger and sometimes famine are harsh realities for millions of people throughout the world. Second, because of good harvests during the sixties and the resulting great surpluses, the food shortages of the 1970s caught the world by surprise. Third, much of the agricultural activity in most of the world has more to do with making money than with supplying food to the people who need it. Fourth, one of the most disturbing aspects of Western agriculture is its heavy emphasis on the output of meat and dairy products. Almost one quarter of all the grain produced each year is consumed by livestock. Together the industrialized nations, including the USSR, allocate more grain to livestock than is consumed by all less-developed countries. A mere 10% of the grain fed to beef cattle in 1974 would have met the entire Asian shortfall for that year. Unfortunately, cereals and grain eaten by livestock lose about 90% of their original vegetable protein when they are converted into beef. Fifth, three-quarters of the world's grain trade consists of traffic from the United States, the biggest agricultural exporter of all, to Europe. Finally, because they consume space and agricultural resources, cash crops such as cotton, rubber, coffee, and cocoa bring relatively little benefit to the bulk of a country's indigenous population.