Nearly a billion go hungry

Just this week, the Washington Post published an article about recent world hunger estimates from the U.N. food aid organization. It says that the number of hungry people in the world could soon reach a new record of 1 billion. What’s hungry? Well, by their definition: Hungry is those who receive fewer than 1,800 calories per day. According to Food and Agriculture Organization experts, it is likely that well over 100 million more people will go hungry this year. They say this is due, in part, to the global economic crisis. Many of those individuals are from developing countries with low, yet rising, consumption of meat and dairy products. What can be done to change this?

To start — by the year 2050, we will need to produce 100 percent more food, with only 10 percent more tillable land not already in agricultural production. Jeff Simmons, president of Elanco, recently authored a whitepaper which addresses this growing challenge of feeding our world’s population. Simmons cites the FAO saying, “The FAO concludes that 70 percent of the world’s additional food needs can be produced only with new and existing agricultural technologies.” The dairy industry has made great strides in efficiencies and production within the last century. Will we continue this progress, or will consumer groups challenge this? How can we (as dairy advocates) promote farming efficiencies at home, abroad, and especially in developing countries in order to feed the world? Discuss below.