Biotechnology's Greatest Challenge

TLDR: In this paper, the authors highlight a reality that may constitute the single most important challenge facing humankind for the coming decades: how can all the world's citizens be assured access to food supplies, health, and economic well-being, and how can these people be sustained without destruction of the remaining forest and wilderness regions? Malthusian Optimism The Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25 (1), states that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and wellbeing for himself and of his family, adequate food, clothing, housing and medical care."

Abstract: Can the great potentials of biotechnology ensure food security and economic development in the developing world? The human race recently passed two milestones that captured brief international press coverage. Late in 1999, the world's population passed the 6 billion mark, having doubled in only 40 years, and just a few months later, India's billionth citizen was born. These milestones drew public attention to an issue of international importance: continued population growth and the threat this growth poses for global food security and Earth's ecosystems. Presently, 80 percent of the world's population resides in developing countries. Despite declining birth rates, the world populations will continue to rise, reaching between 8 and 10 billion people by the year 2050. Almost all this increase will occur in the developing countries, where population density is expected to nearly double from approximately 55 people per square kilometer (142 persons per square mile) at present, to 90 to 100 people per square kilometer (260 per square mile) by 2050. [1] These statistics highlight a reality that may constitute the single most important challenge facing humankind for the coming decades: how can all the world's citizens be assured access to food supplies, health, and economic well-being, and how can these people be sustained without destruction of the remaining forest and wilderness regions? Malthusian Optimism The Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25 (1), states that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being for himself and of his family, adequate food, clothing, housing and medical care...." Despite these idealistic words, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recently estimated that approximately 800 million people in the developing world do not have enough to eat. A population equivalent to North America and Western Europe combined does not have access to sufficient food to maintain body weight and perform light activities such as preparing food, caring for family members, or attaining employment. Children suffer most from undernutrition, which leaves them susceptible to disease and hinders their full physical or mental development. Surprisingly, that figure is viewed as a partial success. It actually represents a drop in real numbers and a significant reduction since the early 1970s in the percentage of the population in developing countries that suffers malnutrition. Nevertheless, the rate of progress in addressing food insecurity in the developing countries is below that set at the World Food Summit in 1996, which demands that 20 million people per year be removed from the trap of persistent hunger. Regional inconsistencies are also cause for concern. While some regions have seen significant improvements, sub-Saharan Africa is regressing, with the actual number of Africans suffering from insufficient nutritional intake increasing since 1992. [2] Present and future access to sufficient food depends not just on increasing crop yields--the so-called Maithusian optimism--but is dependent on a complex interaction of factors. The most important of these are the price and availability of agricultural products, access to employment, and the income or purchasing power of any given individual. These in turn are determined by large and small-scale economic factors, international trade policies, and uncontrollable parameters such as weather patterns. Some commentators in the industrialized North currently believe there is enough food in the world and that it just needs to be distributed better. That, in our opinion, is dangerously misleading. It is a delusion to seriously consider that the surpluses of the North can or will be sustained indefinitely to feed present and future populations in the South. Market Forces Agriculture is the foundation of human nutrition and health and the major economic activity in most developing countries. …