Wired Magazine Says Science is the Answer, but is it?

Last month, Wired Magazine published an article entitled The Future of Food: How Science Will Solve the Next Global Crisis. The article (a series of stat based graphics) did little in the way of convincing the reader that science will actually solve the growing food crisis, other than the vague implication that it must, if we are to keep up with increasing demand.

Here are a few of the statistics that stuck a chord with The Reluctant Eater:

• Of the corn grown in this country:
  • 41.1 billion pounds is turned into sweeteners (2/3 of which is HFCS)
  • 333.2 billion pounds becomes animal feed
  • 5.8 billion pounds are eaten by people as corn (we only eat around 2.8% of the corn we produce…2/3 of that is as cereals)

• Quoted from the article: “Spend $2.87 on a Big Mac (the national average) and $0.54 goes to energy. In return you are responsible for producing 4.83 pounds of greenhouse gasses.” (the biggest drain is storage, which accounts for roughly 1/3 of the gasses, and 1/4 of the cost)
• It takes 8235 gallons of water to keep a milking cow and it’s equipment clean and hydrated for a year
• It takes 6 tons of grain and hay to turn a steer into beef

Interestingly, the data itself seemed to offer non-science solutions to several of the problems. If we aren’t producing enough food (which is not necessarily the case, we’re just allocating much of it towards animals), clearly more food will need to be grown in Africa and South America, both of whom only produce food on roughly 15% of their available farmland. By contrast, the US & Europe use around 50%, while India and China use over 70%.

In terms of decreasing the environmental impact, it seems like we should be heading away from science, or rather, use traditional “science” to create more sustainable, local sources of food. Everywhere but India and Russia, food imports more than doubled for every major worldwide food producing regions, and in some cases were 5 or 6 times higher than just 30 years ago. What has changed so much in the last 30 years that we cannot feed ourselves more locally?

My prediction? Food prices will continue to rise worldwide, forcing people to change their consumption habits, which will be reflected primarily in decreased consumption of meat, and more emphasis on local food production.