A limit to how many people the planet can feed

There are limits to Earth’s capacity to feed humanity. Even if we use available resources at maximum efficiency (meaning if EVERYONE on the planet agrees to become vegetarian) the world’s farmland could not support more than 10 billion people, according to Harvard sociobiologist Edward Wilson.

"If everyone agreed to become vegetarian, leaving little or nothing for livestock, the present 1.4 billion hectares of arable land (3.5 billion acres) would support about 10 billion people".

- Edward Wilson, sociobiologist, Harvard University.

There is little room for flexibility. "The constraints of the biosphere are fixed" as Mr Wilson puts it.

Western eating habits are draining the planet

It’s unlikely that everyone will agree to stop eating meat so the actual limit is lower. If everyone shared the diet of the average american, the world could feed just 2.5 billion people.

Meat is a very inefficient food source

The reason the world could feed a much larger population if we didn’t eat meat is that it requires more energy to produce meat than any other food. For example, it takes 75 times more energy to produce meat than corn. And it takes an estimated 2-3 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of protein from soybeans or wheat. For beef it takes 54 calories of fuel to produce 1 calorie of protein.

The food crisis is coming - and even faster than climate change

In his book “The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do to Avoid It”, Professor Julian Cribb warns that the world has ignored a number of facts pointing to an upcoming food crisis. And that it’s happening fast!

"It is arriving even faster than climate change”

- Professor Julian Cribb

According  to Professor Cribb, shortages of water, land, and energy combined with the increased demand from population and economic growth, will create a global food shortage around 2050. Lack of technology and knowledge will add to the crisis.

Food prices will skyrocket

As part of the food crisis, prices of foods such as corn and rice are likely to increase rapidly - by 180 and 130 percent, respectively, by 2030.

Earth is losing a key foundation for food production: Topsoil

We will need to double food production to feed humanity. But the basic resources for food production are becoming scarce. The world is currently losing 75 billion tonnes of topsoil a year.

Topsoil is the upper 5-20 cm of soil with the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms.

One third lost in 40 years

Scientists have estimated that we've lost a third of the world's soil in the last 40 years - and the loss is happening at an increasing rate.

At the same time, global demand for food is increasing massively:

“To meet the increasing demand from a growing population, we will need to produce more food in the next 40 years than has been produced in the previous 8,000 years”

- Jason Clay, Senior Vice President WWF, 2013

A time bomb - literally

Besides the obvious problems of famine itself, the shortage of food is also likely to cause other problems such as conflict, mass migration, and even war. In the future, wars are likely to be fought over access to food and water resources.

“the next world wars could be fought over resources like food and water”.

- Professor Usha Haley, West Virginia University.

Running out of food - and planet

It’s not only food we’re running out of. Human consumption and population growth is putting pressure on nature’s regenerative capacity across the biosphere meaning basically all ecosystems. We are exploiting the Earth’s ecosystems beyond their limits and producing more waste than the planet can absorb. We currently overexploit Earth by about 75 percent and will need the equivalent of two planets by 2030 unless major changes are done.

Up to half of all food is wasted. HALF!

It sounds too crazy to believe but in a situation of an upcoming food crisis between one third and half of all food produced is lost or wasted before or after it reaches consumers.

Natural resources

We extract roughly 90 billion tons of natural resources from Earth annually to feed the consumer society. The number is expected to double between 2015 and 2050.

The world’s forests could be virtually gone by the end of the century...

...and the world’s oceans could be emptied for fish.