Articles from Auriga Magasinet No. 2, September 2005
One and a half times as many people in 2050
The demand for food in the world is increasing due to population growth and higher standards of living in the developing countries.
The world’s population today represents more than 6 billion people, and it keeps growing. A lot is being done to limit population growth, and birth rates are decreasing. However, it will be many years before the effect of the falling birth rates will be felt in earnest. The world’s population is expected to carry on growing until about 2050, and stagnation will then follow. By that time, there will be just over 9 billion people on earth.
Hunger and malnutrition
The many people inhabiting the world today need food, and farming accounts for more than 98 per cent of food production. In principle, enough food is currently being produced to feed the present population. However, uneven distribution as a result of economic factors combined with transport and storage problems mean that not all the food is being used optimally. Consequently, 800 million people are still affected by hunger and malnutrition.
Strongly growing demand for food
If the problems relating to economy, transport and storage were solved by the middle of this century, the agricultural sector would by 2050 have to produce 50 per cent more than today simply to keep up with population growth. To this should be added that the demand for food will increase at an even greater rate as a number of developing countries experience economic growth which will enable their populations to change their eating habits and to increase food consumption further.
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