https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/201...-shortages
EXCERPT: If everyone around the globe began to eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, there wouldn't be enough to go around. That's the conclusion of a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health. Currently, only about 55% of people around the globe live in countries with adequate availability of fruits and vegetables [...] With economic growth, presumably, production will expand. But the researchers project that by 2050, an estimated 1.5 billion more people will live in places with insufficient supply – unless challenges such as food waste and improved productivity are solved.
The report comes at a time when poor diets are a leading cause of premature death. In fact, a recent study found diets are now responsible for more deaths than smoking around the globe. [...] "Current diets are detrimental to both human and planetary health and shifting towards more balanced, predominantly plant-based diets is seen as crucial to improving both," write the authors of the new Lancet Planetary Health study. Currently, the global supply of calories is more than enough to meet consumption. But many people eat poor-quality diets ... These factors promote obesity – so we now live in a world where many people are simultaneously overweight and malnourished...
[...] The authors argue that several actions are needed to meet the challenges: increased investments in fruit and vegetable production; increased efforts to educate people about the importance of healthy diets; and – given that about one-third of food produced globally is wasted – new technologies and practices to reduce food waste. The predictions for fruit and vegetable shortfalls are based on modeling. The researchers draw on food production data, but there is uncertainty in their estimates, given factors such as a lack of data on global waste.
[...] The report spells out other fixes, too, including reducing the use of biofuels that divert edible crops to produce energy and reducing food waste... Yet another proposed fix: Nudge people toward a more plant-centered diet. Currently, agriculture uses nearly half of the globe's vegetated land – and at least 30 percent of all cropland is used to grow feed for animals. The resource intensiveness of meat production is a leading cause of deforestation. If current trends continue, the WRI report estimates that we'd need an extra 593 million hectares – an area that is almost twice the size of India — to feed the population in 2050. [...] the report concludes that we would have to clear most of the globe's remaining forests to feed the world. ...
Demand for meat is growing as more people, in more countries, can afford it. The WRI estimates that if people in the U.S. and other heavy meat-eating countries reduced their consumption of beef (and other meat from ruminants) to about 1.5 burgers per person, per week, it would "nearly eliminate the need for additional agricultural expansion (and associated deforestation), even in a world with 10 billion people." (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: If everyone around the globe began to eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, there wouldn't be enough to go around. That's the conclusion of a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health. Currently, only about 55% of people around the globe live in countries with adequate availability of fruits and vegetables [...] With economic growth, presumably, production will expand. But the researchers project that by 2050, an estimated 1.5 billion more people will live in places with insufficient supply – unless challenges such as food waste and improved productivity are solved.
The report comes at a time when poor diets are a leading cause of premature death. In fact, a recent study found diets are now responsible for more deaths than smoking around the globe. [...] "Current diets are detrimental to both human and planetary health and shifting towards more balanced, predominantly plant-based diets is seen as crucial to improving both," write the authors of the new Lancet Planetary Health study. Currently, the global supply of calories is more than enough to meet consumption. But many people eat poor-quality diets ... These factors promote obesity – so we now live in a world where many people are simultaneously overweight and malnourished...
[...] The authors argue that several actions are needed to meet the challenges: increased investments in fruit and vegetable production; increased efforts to educate people about the importance of healthy diets; and – given that about one-third of food produced globally is wasted – new technologies and practices to reduce food waste. The predictions for fruit and vegetable shortfalls are based on modeling. The researchers draw on food production data, but there is uncertainty in their estimates, given factors such as a lack of data on global waste.
[...] The report spells out other fixes, too, including reducing the use of biofuels that divert edible crops to produce energy and reducing food waste... Yet another proposed fix: Nudge people toward a more plant-centered diet. Currently, agriculture uses nearly half of the globe's vegetated land – and at least 30 percent of all cropland is used to grow feed for animals. The resource intensiveness of meat production is a leading cause of deforestation. If current trends continue, the WRI report estimates that we'd need an extra 593 million hectares – an area that is almost twice the size of India — to feed the population in 2050. [...] the report concludes that we would have to clear most of the globe's remaining forests to feed the world. ...
Demand for meat is growing as more people, in more countries, can afford it. The WRI estimates that if people in the U.S. and other heavy meat-eating countries reduced their consumption of beef (and other meat from ruminants) to about 1.5 burgers per person, per week, it would "nearly eliminate the need for additional agricultural expansion (and associated deforestation), even in a world with 10 billion people." (MORE - details)