Wednesday, Jun. 20, 2012
World Hunger
The world can be relatively proud about the progress that has been made over the past 20 years to reduce hunger. Famine is increasingly a thing of the past in all but the poorest nations, and the citizens of fast-growing developing nations like China are moving up the food chain. But 925 million people still go hungry around the world, with the vast majority found in sub-Saharan Africa or in India. At the same time, given rising population and incomes, the world may need to produce twice as much food in2050 as it does now — even as yields improvements have begun to slow. And agriculture even as it's practiced now can be extremely polluting. The challenge in Rio and beyond will be feeding the world — without destroying the planet.