Alternatives: tried and tested for food security

Hi readers! Get ready for some pleasant shocks.

 

You must have already been surprised to know how much food is being wasted at various stages and how much is being fed to the animals? If we are really concerned about global food security,

 

Why are we just beating around the bush and not ready to do the right things?

 

Now, let’s talk about some more options of ensuring global food security?

 

 

Improve varieties but why?

Because from 1960 till to date, crop yields have increased globally by 77% just by exploiting the genetic potential, which has been exhausted and required re-evaluation

 Also, many varieties currently are producing only 30-35% of what is agro-ecologically attainable under comparable environments, and we strongly believe that climate change has further aggravated the situation hence,

we need to improve varieties.  For example,

 

Chinese plant breeders in collaboration with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, worked for 12 years to developed

GREEN SUPPER RICE:

a series of rice varieties which produce more than conventional varieties.

 The “green” means environmentally friendly. Researchers say, it will produce as much grains as other rice plants but with fewer input, whereas

“Super” means the rice is designed to resist droughts, floods, salty water, insects, and disease.

 

Green super rice, as claimed could increase yields in Asia enough to feed an extra 100 million people. Several varieties are available to farmers in parts of Asia and Africa. If this is not performing well in Pakistan, it can be improved, or something like of this can be produce

“Green Super Rice at least has shown the world the way to improve varieties conventionally”.

Hats off to CSSA and IRRI

 

Go organic

Dear readers, you might be familiar with a word “Industrial agriculture” which is the large-scale, production of crops that involves chemical fertilizers, genetically modified crops, heavy use of pesticides, and other practices: the impact of which has been extensively documented as soil depletion, erosion, pollution, loss of biodiversity, increased greenhouse gas emissions (methane, and nitrous oxide from fertilizers) and overuse of pesticide leading to potential pesticide toxicity.

 

As an alternative, organic farming was introduced which referred to the way agricultural products are grown and processed. In U.S., organic means crops must be grown without using synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, or bioengineered genes (GMOs).

 

The term “Go organic” means buy only organic food and use only organic methods of farming which is not always an easy choice as most of the farmers can’t afford it.

 

Organic soils are naturally rich in organic matter. Additional nutrients are provided through organic fertilizers to boost and sustain growth. By this token, organic farming must proceed with addition of organic fertilizers to the soil before sowing crop/plants and must also precede (after harvest) with organic fertilization to balance the nutrients taken out of the soil especially if the soil in not virgin.

 

Organic fertilizers don’t form toxic buildup on the soil because they are produced either through plant biproducts such as Alfalfa, Corn gluten, Cottonseed meal, Soybeans, Kelp, or animal biproducts such as Bat feces, Blood meal, Bone meal, Feathers, Fish emulsion, Fish meal and powder Seaweed.

Though, organic fertilizers are expensive but organic food is healthy and risk free, and comparatively more expensive all over the world.

 

There is another dimensions of the term “go organic” which is more important than being “expensive, healthy, and risk-free food.

 

A study made by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimated that, 3 calories of energy were needed to create one calorie of edible food. Grain-fed beef requires 25 calories from grains to produce one calorie of beef (https://cbey.yale.edu). This study didn’t include the energy used in processing, storage, and transportation of food but other studies that included all this, estimated that it takes another 7-10 calories of input energy to produce one calorie of food (https://sustainability.emory.edu).

 

Now imagine how much energy would be required to meet the calories demand of 70% increase in population by 2050? and of reduction in calories due to perceived climate change?

 

The question is

Can we live without energy intensive industrial farming?

We must because

 

Approximately, 40% of energy used in the food system goes towards production of pesticides and artificial fertilizers synthesized from atmospheric nitrogen and natural gas: a process that takes significant amount of energy and increases GHG emission and other environmental pollutants. Producing and distributing these chemicals requires additional 5.5 gallons of fossil fuels per acre.

 

Replacing fossil fuels with biofuels was an option because biofuels are produced from renewable organic material, has the potential to reduce conventional and greenhouse gas emissions, exhaustible resource depletion, and dependence on unstable foreign supplies. Demand for biofuels could also increase farm income.

 

But there are certain serious drawbacks as well. Since many biofuels are produced from feedstocks which requires land, water, and other resources; therefore, biofuel production may need extra land presently not under cultivation. This extension may trigger changes to land use patterns that can again increase GHG emissions, pressure on water resources, air and water pollution, and increased food costs but, to meet the calories deficiencies, countries are expending biofuel utilization to varied extent depending upon their specific conditions and requirements. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will utilize 8% more biofuel in 2050 than she is using in the year 2020. Latin America and Caribbean (LSC) will expand biofuel utilization to over 7% and MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) to 5.5% in 2050 compared to what they are using in 2020 (Pl. see figure).

 

 

Can organic farming solve the Problem?

Yes, 100%, because organic farming if practiced on community basis will not be using energy in processing and transportation. This way, that extra energy cab be saved while healthy and fresh farm products and clean environment notwithstanding provided, someone watch the business interests of those who matter in energy business?

 

Another option is “Using Alternate foods” for example Artificial meet?

As demand for meat is expected to be 73% more by 2050 than it is now, expanding the scale of factory farming is therefore inevitable, and so would be the strain on our food system.

 

The term factory farming refers to large, industrialized facilities commonly known as CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) where large number of live animals are confined for more than 45 days per year with food provided to them inside to these CAFOs without allowing them to graze outside which is a natural way for animals. Large size CAFO is usually filled with 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 large pigs, or 82,000 egg-laying hens which is harmful to the environment, the health of nearby communities, and are terrible for animal welfare.

Modern meat production thus, involves such shockingly inhumane conditions, mass use of antibiotics: worrisome for public animals/birds health and is terrible for nearby communities and environment.

 

Cultured meat: meat created through cell culture techniques within a laboratory or manufacturing facility, is produced by growing master cells collected from cattle, chicken, fish, and lamb, and other types of livestock and seafood.

 

Compared to only 4 in 2016, 99 companies worldwide are currently developing cultured meat components, services, and end-products.

 

Nearly 40 life science firms have declared and formally launched products to supply market competitors with the essential inputs they need to support cultured meat and seafood production.

 

Cultured chicken product developed by the company “Eat Just” had already made its debut in 2020 on a restaurant menu in Singapore, after the country’s food agency approved its sale to the public. The regulatory approval of this product within Singapore provides hope that other regulatory approvals could follow worldwide. It is already being used extensively in UK, Israel, India, and China.

 

In 2017, China signed a trade agreement with Israel worth $300 million.

Three Israeli companies met this increased export demand of cultured meat just because Chinese consumers were eager to eat lab-grown meat. “Impossible” a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat products, launched in partnership with Burger King, its signature product, “the Impossible Burger” in July 2016. Impossible Whoppers are being sold by Burger chain since summer 2019 with a perfect imitation of the texture and taste of a meat burger “Impossible”.

 

Consumers in China, Mexico, UK, Germany, and the United States are eating more meat substitutes now than they do previous. Burgers dominate the meat alternatives in US while soy protein is king in Asia. Pea protein has seen a 35% increase in new product launches in the past five years. Other plants on the rise in meat substitutes include pulses, beans, nuts, rice and spent grains. 

 

Sea weeds that refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae are also being used as alternative food. Seaweed, such as green, brown, gold, and red algae that grows naturally in ocean, rivers, and lakes can also be grown artificially in homemade ponds for food purposes.

 

Seaweeds:

• Can be grown when we cannot vacate land to produce more food crops,
• Are at the bottom of the food chain but are already being eaten widely in Japan and China and are being used as fertilizers, soil conditioners and animal feed,
• Seaweeds ranges from giant seaweeds and kelps to microscopic slimes, are capable of fixing CO₂ in the atmosphere and providing fats, oils, and sugars,
• Are eaten by everything from the tiniest shrimp to the great blue whales,
• Are the base of all life and a would-be future food for human,
• Under optimum conditions, commercial algae farms can produce 5,000-10,000 gallons of oil per acre, compared to just 350 gallons of ethanol per acre grown with maize,
• Could feed millions of animals and act as a fertilizer,
• Replacing all US ethanol production with algae oil would need around 2M acres of desert but, it would allow 40 million acres of cropland (planted with maize for ethanol production) to be planted with human food and save billions of gallons of irrigation water every year.

 

Amazing, isn’t it? What else do HUMANS need for her food security? Think about that dear reader and I will see you next week with some more options of how to be food secure?

Till then, Bye