Feeding Seven Billion

As we head into a new year tonight, and after last week’s  futuristic post , I am inspired to look more deeply at the future of food. The world population is expected to increase to almost ten billion  by 2050. Estimates predict that, with this population rise as well as increasing prosperity across the developing world (meaning a higher demand for meat and animal products), crop production will need to double  by 2050. As I have discovered in previous weeks, the way we produce  and consume  food today is damaging to the environment and largely unsustainable. I want to know how we will change the ways we produce and consume food in order to feed the future. Harvest in Kansas , Lab-grown burger , Kimbal Musk , UN  statistics . Two approaches to feeding ten billion: In my research I came across two main approaches towards changing the way we produce food. One places faith in technology and the other in small scale farming.  Barack Obama ...

Happy Christmas everyone! I thought it would be fun to have a festive food post this week. While what we eat at Christmas differs around the world, I think it’s safe to say that food is an important part of any Christmas celebration ( here is a fun article looking at Christmas foods you might not have seen before). I thought about exploring the impact different Christmas dinners have on the environment this week, but realised that it wouldn’t be especially festive   (if you are interested, this article describes Christmas food’s carbon footprint, referencing this paper ).   Instead, I thought I would take a quick look at the future of Christmas food. There are plenty of interesting ideas out there about what a Christmas dinner might look like in 2050: 3D printed food , hydroponic vegetables from our own kitchens , and modified Turkeys grown in bioreactors     have all been suggested. Bompas & Parr , a London-based company, created and hosted a Christmas me...

I came across a really great video published by Vox this week, which I would strongly recommend watching (here is the accompanying article too). It provides more explanation to my previous  'Raising Twenty Billion' posts in showing how making small changes to your diet can make a big difference in helping fight climate change. Let me know what you think of the video and if you are persuaded by their argument in the comments!

Photo © iStockphoto.com/littlen So far on the blog I have just looked at the ‘food’ part of feeding seven billion; this week I thought I would briefly explore the packaging associated. Since the start of The Great Acceleration , the amount of food packaging we produce, use and throw away has dramatically increased. For example, the mass production of plastics began in the 1950’s and has since become a huge environmental issue , with up to 12.7 million tonnes , a large part being food packaging, ending up in our oceans each year. On land, only around two-thirds  of food packaging is recycled. Here is an infographic to highlight some other issues related to food packaging from the Guardian :   However, food packaging is not always a bad thing. In fact, sometimes it can be a good thing for the environment. As this  Econo mist article explains, food packaging can extend the shelf-life of products, which results in less food waste and emissions over...