Core Human Population 4.3 Population-resource relationships

Food Security

• Food security is defined as consistent access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for a healthy, active life.
• The world produces enough food for a healthy diet for everyone, but distribution problems exist.
• Some countries have food surpluses or the means to buy food, while others face deficits and lack financial resources.
• About one in nine people worldwide are chronically undernourished, with the distribution of undernourishment changing.
• Food summits were held in Rome in 1974 and 1996 amid rising food prices.
• Concerns include global warming's impact on land productivity and the consequences of genetic engineering.
• Rising food prices and problems in food production have led to the term 'global food crisis'.
• Investing in agriculture in regions with poverty and hunger is necessary.
• Geographical imbalance exists between food production and consumption.
• Three main strands of food security: availability, access, and food use.

Adverse Influences on Global Food Production

• LICs have long complained about subsidies and import tariffs imposed by HICs.
• Production for local markets has declined in some LICs due to increased export market production pushed by trans-national corporations (TNCs).
• Demand for cereal grains has outstripped supply, and rising energy prices have increased costs.
• Underinvestment in agricultural production and technology in LICs has resulted in poor productivity.
• The production of food for local markets has declined in many LICs.
• Poor weather and severe events impact harvests in key food-exporting countries.
• Soil degradation is increasing in both HICs and LICs.
• Declining biodiversity may impact on food production in the future.
• The global agricultural production and trading system creates distortions, favoring production in HICs.
• An inadequate international system exists for food relief monitoring.
• Disagreements occur over trans-boundary resources such as river systems and aquifers.

Causes and Consequences of Food Shortages

• About 800 million people suffer from hunger, mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
• Food shortages are results of natural issues, such as soil exhaustion, drought, floods, tropical cyclones, pests, and disease.
• Economic and political factors contribute to food shortages, for example, low capital investment, rapidly rising population, and poor distribution.
• LICs are most intensely affected due to the lack of adequate food stocks.
• Short-term and long-term effects arise from food shortages.
• Malnutrition can affect children significantly in a short period and reduces resistance to disease.
• Starvation of nutrients leads to diseases, which includes beri-beri, rickets, and kwashiorkor.
• Nutrient deficiency limits physical and intellectual potential, reduces work capacity, and locks developing regions in a cycle of ill-health and underdevelopment.

Technology and Innovation in Food Production

• The world has undergone many stages of food production throughout history.
• Contemporary food science and technology has significantly contributed to the success of modern food systems.
• Integration of various academic disciplines solves food system related issues, for example, improvement of nutrition deficiencies and food safety.
• Handling, processing, distribution methods are lacking in LICs, leading to food waste
• Starvation and nutritional deficiencies are still prevalent in LICs, however, science-based improvements in agricultural production are improving food distribution.

Case Study: Sudan and South Sudan

• Sudan and South Sudan have suffered food shortages for decades, and were one country until 2011.
• The long civil war and drought are major reasons for famine in Sudan.
• The civil war between the government in Khartoum and rebel forces in Darfur and South Sudan lasted over 20 years.
• Oil wealth sharing was a big issue between the two sides of the civil war.
• The UN estimates up to 2 million people were displaced by the civil war, and over 70,000 died from hunger and diseases.
• The UN World Food Programme stopped delivering vital food supplies due to dangerous conditions.

Agricultural Technology

• Agricultural technology includes the development of high-yielding seeds.
• Includes genetic engineering, though its use remains controversial.
• Includes precision agriculture, which integrates information to improve site-specific production.
• Considers environmental modeling for optimal genetics on specific soils and employing advanced techniques to remediate damaged land.
• Encompasses integrated pest management, considering site-specific conditions, values, and business considerations.

Green Revolution

• Innovation in food production has been essential to feeding a rising global population.
• The Green Revolution aimed to solve food issues in many LICs and MICs such as India.
• India's high-yielding variety seed programmes (HVP) started in 1966-67.
• New hybrid varieties of wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, and millet were introduced.
• Advantages includes doubled yields, extra crops, increased incomes, and diversified diets of rural communities.
• Local infrastructure was upgraded to support stronger markets, creating employment with farms, higher returns prompted increased irrigation.
• Disadvantages of the Green Revolution entail high inputs of fertilizers and pesticide which are costly.
• Rural indebtedness has risen sharply and HYVs require more weed control and are more susceptible to pets.
• The diet of many people in LICs and MICs is now extremely lower in micronutrients such as zinc, iron, vitamin A.

Perennial Crops

• Development of perennial crops may solve many of the world's current agricultural problems.
• Today’s annual crops die off once harvested, but perennial crops would protect the soil from erosion.
• Plant biologists aim to breed plants resembling domestic crops with a perennial habit.
• Classical crossing methods and genetic engineering aim to speed up the process.
• The objective is to find genes linked to domestication and insert them into wild plants.

Constraints in Sustaining Populations

• Significant potential constraints are affecting the development of resources to sustain populations.
• War and other conflicts can greatly increase the constraints on resource development.
• War can significantly retard development and decades, and food is deliberately destroyed to make life difficult.
• Trade barriers imposed by wealthier countries limit export potential and hinder development.
• Climatic and other hazards, along with climate change, impact resource utilization.
• Drought has a considerable impact and volcanic eruptions devastate large areas.

Carrying Capacity

• Carrying capacity is the largest population that an environment can support.
• Advances in technology can significantly increase carrying capacity.
• Resources can be renewable or flow resources and non-renewable or stock resources.
• Aesthetic resources are being increasingly recognized and renewable resources are sustainable if resource management is employed.
• The global economy has impacted the planet's resources and natural environment.
• The responsibility lies with the rich countries of the world in the planet's resource depletion.
• The world's richest 20% hold 94% of the world's wealth, while the poorest 80% own just 5.5%.
• Climate change impacts resources and increases competition, leading to potential resource was.
• The ecological footprint is a measure of humanity's demands on the environment.

Ecological Footprint

• The ecological footprint measures natural resource consumption and how it varies by country over time.
• A defined ecological footprint for a country measures land for food, fiber, timber, waste absorption and infrastructure.
• Six components of the ecological footprint include built-up land, fishing grounds and carbon footprint.
• The ecological footprint is measured in global hectares as the demand side of the equation.
• The total productive area of the planet is the equation's supply side, and Earth is living beyond environmental resources with this demand.
• Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Denmark have the highest footprint, with other countries like Bangladesh having the lowest.
• The carbon footprint is the dominant element of an area's ecological footprint, with international trade as an important factor.
• The ecological footprint provides the snapshot of demand and availability but does not predict the future.

Overpopulation, Optimum Population and Underpopulation

• The idea of optimum population has been understood in an economic sense.
• Initially, increased population allows for fuller resource exploitation, with increasing standards of living.
• The highest average living standard marks the optimum population or the economic optimum.
• Countries can be termed to be overpopulated or underpopulated respectively, before and after a certain amount of resources is met.
• Periods of rapid population growth paralleled eras of technological advance, increasing the carrying capacity of countries.
• Countries can also be lead from optimum population to the dynamic concept or optimum rhythm of growth.

The Ideas of Thomas Malthus

• Rev. Malthus (1766-1834) produced his Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798.
• Said that the population increases, if unchecked, and will exceed the possibility of an adequate food supply territory.
• Malthus thought that food supply increased through arable production, while population increases constantly.
• Population will outstrip food supply until a catastrophe of famine, disease, or war occurs.
• These limiting factors maintained balance between population and resources.
• 'Moral restraint' was an important factor in controlling population.

Neo-Malthusian and Anti-Malthusian ideas

• Neo-Malthusians argue that expanding populations will lead to pressure on food and other resources, whereas Anti-Malthusians argue the contrary.
• They highlight the steady decline in farmland per person, and the steep rise in product costs.
• They call attention to the switchover from food production to the production of biofuels to reduce environmental and financial issues.
• Anti-Malthusians believe that human ingenuity will continue to conquer resource problems through innovation and intensification.
• They also address many examples of human history and highlight number of advances for resource optimists.