New
perspectives on food production
Solving the food problem requires
scientific progress, but also an understanding of social context and cultures
Is new technology needed for
global food production?
The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations notes that domestic prices of staple food
are continuing to increase, leading to a rise in the number of people worldwide
who are chronically underfed. According to Erik Millstone, a food and
agriculture researcher funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC), the natural science community tends to view world hunger as if it were
a problem that could be solved simply by increasing total production. But, he
says, 'Most people who are chronically hungry are so not because of the
scarcity of food but because they are unable to afford what is available. In
addition, the food trade is so globalised that food is often exported from
areas where people are hungry and sent to countries where people already have
sufficient.
Millstone believes the problem can
only be solved by changing the conditions for poor subsistence farmers and
providing the support they need to grow more food. And that is not enough on
its own-they also have to have facilities for storing it so that their food can
be kept safe and in good condition until it is needed. But, he adds, increasing
productivity through technology is not the answer. An example is the new
genetically-engineered varieties of high-performance maize. The problem with
these new varieties is that if you save seed and plant it again next year, its
vigour has diminished. Most North American and European farmers can afford to
get new seed every year; poor farmers cannot, so they need traditional
varieties whose seed can be saved and replanted. Giving farmers access to
credit also doesn't help; it adds risk. 'Poor farmers should not be thought of
as entrepreneurs looking to invest their money. They are looking to diminish
their risk.' Ultimately, he concludes, 'Instead of devoting resources to
research for intensifying commercial farming, we should devote them to
enhancing the techniques available to subsistence farmers, and to developing
appropriate tools for them to use, because their need is the greatest.
Increasing their productivity will do more to enhance food security for those
who are hungry than anything else we can do.'
Looking for local solutions in
the UK
In contrast to Millstone, Gareth
Edwrds-jones a professor of agriculture and land use at the University of
Bangor in Wales, focuses on food production in the UK. In recent years 'local
food' has become fashionable in the UK without any real understanding of the
issues involved. First and foremost, it is necessary to define more precisely
what is meant by 'local' Is bread bought in England from an English bakery
"local if the wheat it is made from was grown in Canada? Funded through
the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme, Edwards Jones is studying people's
perceptions of" localness' and seeking to establish whether there is any
science behind the popular belief that "local is better'.
His work involves studying the
carbon footprint* of foods grown in different areas of the UK, as well as such
common sources of supply as Spain, Kenya, and Uganda. He has made some
surprising discoveries. Which has the lower carbon footprint: sugar made from
sugar cane grown in Africa, or from sugar beet flown in from Europe? The answer
is sugar from sugar cane in Africa. Similarly, trucking vegetables in from
Spain may have a smaller carbon footprint than growing them locally in the
UK-because growing them locally requires adding all the emissions of running a
heated greenhouse.
And, he asks, how far down the
life cycle should you go? He discovered early in his research that the methods
used to prepare foods to be eaten can have a huge impact; boiling potatoes
accounts for fully half their carbon footprint. Ultimately, it’s a mistake to
look at just one part of the food chain. You could have a policy where you’re
going to really pressure farmers to try to get emissions down, but
decarbonising fuel and electricity is a much more effective method of
protecting the environment, he says.
Another of Edwards-Jones’s
research projects involved visiting farm workers in each of the above countries
to assess their health and well-being. ‘We found that farm workers in Kenya had
better physical and mental health than the average Kenyan,’ he says, attributing
the difference to both better income and to the benefits-housing, schools,
medical care provided by their large corporate employers. He finds it ironic
that after years of ‘trade not aid’ all of a sudden people are starting to say
the UK shouldn’t be importing food from Africa.
The other problem with insisting
on locally grown food, he says, is that the UK is not suited to growing most
fruits and vegetables-the key elements in a healthy diet. These crops need our
best land-which means demoting other crops that do grow well in the UK to lower
quality land. ‘There’s a domino effect so that increasing self sufficiency may,
from an environmental perspective, be quite bad,’ he says.
Questions 1-8
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the
passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-8 on
your answer sheet.
The problem of world hunger
CAUSE
Some scientists see world hunger
as due to a general 1. ________________ of food.
But it may be because:
- hungry
people cannot 2. ________________
- food
is not available because it has been 3. ________________.
SOLUTION
- provide
support for subsistence farmers in growing and 4. ________________ their
food
ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS
- don’t
use 5. ________________ to increase food production, e.g. 6.
________________ varieties of maize are better for poor farmers as the
seed can be replanted
- don’t
provide opportunities for farmers to have 7. ________________ - too risky
- don’t
do research into intensifying commercial farming
- do
improve techniques and 8. ________________ available to subsistence
farmers
Questions 9-13
Do the following statements agree
with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 9-13 on your answer
sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with
the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
9. Importing sugar to the UK from
other parts of Europe is less environmentally harmful than importing sugar from
Africa.
10. The way in which some foods
are cooked may affect their impact on the environment.
11. The best way to reduce harm to
the environment is to oblige farmers to use more environmentally friendly
farming methods.
12. Imports of food to the UK from
African countries such as Kenya have fallen recently.
13. Growing fruit and vegetables
is better for the environment than raising animals for food.
1. scarcity
2. afford
3. exported
4. storing
5. technology
6. traditional
7. credit
8. tools
9. FALSE
10. TRUE
11. FALSE
12. NOT GIVEN
13. NOT GIVEN PASSWORD: RECENTLYASKEDPDF
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