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4 ways you can help organics feed the world Buy a yearly subscription to a Community Supported Agriculture organic farm. For a fee, usually ranging from $350 to $500, the farmer will supply you weekly deliveries of a whole season of fresh, organically grown produce, herbs, eggs, and flowers.
Vote with your pocketbook at the supermarket by buying certified-organic foods and beverages. The costs are often comparable to nonorganic brands. n Make a tax-deductible donation to a nonprofit organization that helps organic farmers. Two possibilities are the Organic Farming Research Foundation, Box 440, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 (www.ofrf.org); and The Rodale Institute, 611 Siegfriedale Rd., Kutztown, PA 19530 (www.rodaleinstitute.org).
Teach a child the connection between healthy soil and healthy food.
Not Enough Food?
Maybe it's time to think again Imagine 100 fully loaded 747 jumbo jets crashing each day, killing all aboard. That's the number of people—24,000 of us, mostly children—who die around the world daily of causes related to hunger. And that's just the beginning. The United Nations predicts that today's world population of 6 billion people will jump to 9 billion by 2030.
It seems utterly logical, then, that more food is needed. But when you look beyond these daunting numbers, you find that the world's farmers already grow enough to feed us all.
The amount of grain produced in the world last year could sustain 8 billion people if it would be evenly distributed, not fed to animals, and not lost to pests or rot between harvest and consumption.
In the United States, 7 of every 10 pounds of the grain produced is fed to animals rather than being eaten directly by humans. Worldwide, channeling just one-third of the grain fed to livestock to the hungriest people could end death by starvation, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
If we could simply eliminate postharvest loss, which ranges from 10 to 40 percent depending on the crop and locale, the population could expand by 25 percent with plenty of food.
Perhaps our assumptions need to change:
Our population need not grow so rapidly. Birth rates are a matter of choice, not fate.
Growing affluence need not mean unhealthful, wasteful diets. What might happen if the same glut of advertising dollars now used to sell grease, sugar, and excess were instead directed at promoting a moderate, nutritious diet?
The food supply could increase as surely by reducing spoilage and waste as by growing more. In the United States alone, 27 percent of the food that reaches stores, restaurants, or homes is thrown out simply because it is cosmetically imperfect or spoils before it is eaten.
Whether we advocate feeding the world by producing more or by wasting less, the additional food must reach those who need it.
Throughout the Irish Potato Famine (1845—1849), Ireland exported grain to England. Although it has 200 million hungry people, India exports food and animal feed. Where there is hunger, what seems to be lacking is not food but entitlement to food. Blame it on discrimination or just plain poverty. People who have no land can grow no food. People who have no money can buy no food—no matter how much food there is.
SOURCES: 1. Natural Resources Defense Council, 1998.
2. Pesticide Action Network North America and Californians for Pesticide Reform, 1997.
3. Pesticide Action Network North America and Californians for Pesticide Reform, 1999.
4. Environmental Working Group, 1999.
5.Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, 1999.
6. Environmental Working Group, 1999.
7. Food and Drug Administration, 1999.
8.Beyond the Chemical Century, a report of the Environmental Health Fund, 1999.
9.Journal of Pesticide Reform, Fall 1998.
10. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1996?97.
11. U.S. Census Bureau.
12. Elaine R. Ingham, Ph.D., soil scientist, Oregon State University.
13. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1994.
14. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, reported in USA Today, May 22, 2000.
15. Californians for Pesticide Reform.
16. Peter Rosset, executive director, Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy.
17.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1999.
18.Under the Blade: the Conversion of Agricultural Landscapes, Westview Press, 1999.
Buy a yearly subscription to a Community Supported Agriculture organic farm. For a fee, usually ranging from $350 to $500, the farmer will supply you weekly deliveries of a whole season of fresh, organically grown produce, herbs, eggs, and flowers.
