SPECIAL REPORT: THE WORLD’S FOOD CRISIS Feeding theFuture

The world has plenty of food, yet millions starve every day. We can end hunger, obesity, and most environmental destruction by adopting a veg diet, but will the projected population boom bring with it an unsustainable taste for meat? Writer Mark Hawthorne investigates the future of feeding the world.

28 VegNews Think. Eat. Thrive.™ March+April 2010 With 1.3 billion mouths to feed (and Determined to turn China into an industrial 44,000 babies born every day), China knows a power to rival the US and the former Soviet thing or two about hunger. The world’s most Union, Mao forced farmers off their land to populous country, China instituted a strict work on massive infrastructure projects, policy of one child per family 30 years ago, yet creating a loss of food production that left tens it still faces food-security challenges. Though of millions of people dead from starvation. As rice has been an Asian staple for thousands if to exorcise those years of extreme scarcity, of years, there’s been a dramatic shift toward today’s Chinese are choosing to eat several animal protein in China, where an emerging rungs up the food ladder. Thirty years ago, middle class is scaling back on traditional when China had a population just shy of 1 grain- and vegetable-based diets in favor billion, the average Chinese person ate 44 of more industrially produced meat, eggs, pounds of meat annually. Today, an additional and dairy foods. In fact, the country recently 300 million people later, the average is 120 emerged as the largest meat producer in the pounds—still well below the whopping 260 world, thanks to help from such international pounds of meat consumed by the average food giants as Smithfield andT yson Foods and American each year. their pack-‘em-in-tight model of agriculture. This movement toward more expensive, Large-scale operations in China are adapting “luxury” foods is also demonstrated in an eight- quickly to their Western counterparts, with year study published in 2003 by the American some businesses developing a streamlined Society for Nutritional Sciences, which noted food-production system in which everything that while the intake of vegetables declined involved in the farm-to-fork trade—raising in China, the consumption of fruits, generally animals, producing feed, pharmaceuticals, more costly than veggies, increased. The transportation, and slaughter—is owned and country’s nascent love of pears and mandarin managed by a single company. oranges hasn’t been enough to offset the City dwellers are also contributing to the chronic ailments associated with eating meat country’s demand for factory flesh, says Mia and dairy, however. Osteoporosis, for example, MacDonald, executive director of Brighter has been linked to increased levels of animal- Green, a nonprofit that is documenting the based proteins. Once practically unheard of growth of factory farming in Africa, Central in Asia, this disease of compromised bone and Latin America, and most of Asia, known density has become a major health concern in collectively as the Global South. “Nearly half of China, where the International Osteoporosis China’s people live in urban areas more than Foundation believes cases of osteoporosis will six months of the year, and urban Chinese more than quadruple in the next decade to consume more meat and dairy products than 286 million. China is also seeing an increase in people in rural areas of China,” she says. obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes— “Considering that every fifth person on the all linked to meat-based diets. planet is Chinese, even a small increase in China’s meat and dairy consumption will Traditional Turmoil have a major impact on the environment. For generations, Subhash Mahapatra’s family Clearly, what the Chinese eat, and how they has grown rice on their loamy parcel of land in produce their food, affects not only China, Odisha, a mountainous Indian state formerly but the world.” known as Orissa. Mahapatra, 41, is among But why their demand for meat in the India’s 600 million farmers—who comprise first place? For millennia, the foundations of half of the country’s 1.2 billion population— the Chinese diet were grains (especially rice) and he relies on his nine-acre paddy to feed his and vegetables. Meat was rare, a side dish at family and earn enough rupees to scrape by. best. Like India and other cultures that have Farmers throughout the subcontinent revere prospered, China’s recent economic success the soil, reaping from its fertility life itself, has been reflected in its cuisine, with more and they take pride in every nutritious crop. Chinese viewing animal-based foods as both “I was born a farmer, and I will die one,” says status symbols and protein sources they were Mahapatra. But state officials have other ideas denied in previous generations. Famine is for the land: They are eager to make way for still a painful memory for those who survived a manufacturing plant that will provide the under Mao Zedong’s attempts at radical community with jobs and help industrialize a social transformation in the 1950s and ‘60s. traditionally agrarian society.

VN celebrates 10! vegnews.com VegNews 29 SPECIAL REPORT: THE WORLD’S FOOD CRISIS

Displacing farmers like Mahapatra in excessive use of water, depressed property favor of enterprises that supplant productive values, and loss of crop and species diversity. FastFoodPlanet farmland with pollution-spewing factories Fueling Asia’s growing appetite for certainly seems shortsighted—at least from The Grain Drain meat, KFC, McDonald’s, Burger King, a food perspective. With the world’s human Whether we favor the output of modern and other fast-food mega-chains have population on track to hit 7 billion by 2011, technology or the GMO-free harvests of organic extended their fatty franchise fingers and more than 9 billion by midcentury, farming, the question staring us in the gut is across the Pacific, tailoring their menus scientists, food-security advocates, and the the same: Why are more than a billion people to local tastes and positioning themselves green cognoscenti are debating how best living with chronic hunger when there are just as family-oriented restaurants. In the US, to feed all those stomachs. Perhaps the as many people overweight? The short answer where rising prices and unemployment family farm cannot compete with hyper- is that, well, there are no short answers. The have contributed to a 14-year high in productive systems, especially with powerful global food system is so complex that even a the nation’s hungry (now pegged at 49 multinational interests and vertically capricious change in the weather can affect million), cash-strapped households integrated agribusinesses nudging small-scale food supplies, costs, and distribution. Droughts often rely on burger joints and other farmers out of the way. Or can it? According in India and flooding in the Philippines last “convenience” retailers as a way to fill to the United Nations Food and Agriculture year, for example, are expected to double the up on cheap calories and keep starvation Organization (FAO), one-third of the world is price of rice on international markets this at bay. Not only are fast-food outlets made up of farmers owning and working a year. Elsewhere, political instability, trade consuming a high percentage of grain small piece of land, and FAO Director General protectionism, and economics put even greater through meat production, but they are Jacques Diouf says that supporting them would strain on the malnourished, while the world’s helping to pack unhealthy pounds be “the most effective way to eliminate hunger growing desire for meat can leave farmers on diners. from the face of the earth.” wondering where their next meal will come The paradox of poor families becoming obese is a concern for Lauren Ornelas, founder and executive director of the Food experts often argue about scarcity versus Food Empowerment Project (FEP), which distribution.“ But it’s not one or the other—it’s both. helps consumers recognize the power of ” their food choices. “One of the areas we Others are even blunter. When asked from. “Instead of using their land to grow food work on when it comes to food insecurity recently if we can feed the planet without for their families and become self-reliant, is the lack of conveniently accessible, help from industrialized agriculture, Michael farmers in Third World countries devote their healthy foods in low-income communities Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and resources to meat production, either in the and communities of color,” she says, In Defense of Food, quipped that we’re not form of raising livestock or crops to feed those adding that liquor stores and fast-food currently feeding the world with it. Indeed, animals,” says John Robbins, who asserts in restaurants in these neighborhoods although agribusiness apologists continue to his book The Food Revolution that using 2.5 promote animal-based diets. “The way we tout mega-farms as The Answer to starvation, acres of land to raise cattle would only support at FEP look at this is that the corporations mounting evidence suggests that organic the energy requirements of one human being, that are exploiting and killing animals agriculture, which rejects the use of genetically while the same land growing potatoes will are the same ones exploiting these modified crops and synthetic pesticides meet the needs of 22. “Initially, the hope was communities. Their only interest is and fertilizers, can match or even surpass that increased beef production would help money.” Ornelas explains that often conventional methods of producing food. A the people in poor countries. This hasn’t been people who would otherwise choose lengthy initiative at Iowa State University, the case. In Latin America, for example, more plant-based foods cannot regularly for example, concluded that agro-ecological than half the beef produced is exported to reach farmers’ markets or grocery stores, practices outpace their industrial counterparts wealthier countries, and what remains is too making convenience stores and junk food through greater crop yields, lower production expensive for most of the farmers to purchase. their only option. “It’s an injustice when costs, replenished groundwater supplies, In Costa Rica, the average family consumes less such communities cannot obtain healthy and reduced soil runoff. Researchers at the meat than the average house cat eats in the foods, making it difficult to even attempt University of Michigan, meanwhile, found that United States.” to follow a vegan diet.” on average organic farming can produce 30 Robbins thinks it’s no coincidence that percent more food than non-organic systems the hunger crisis grows while 40 percent of worldwide and as much as 80 percent more the world’s grain (about 740 million tons) is in developing countries. And all this comes used for meat production. “The truth is, the without burdening the planet with the more grain that goes to feed livestock, the less environmental and social devastation that are there is to feed people,” he says. “The National the hallmarks of corporate farming models— Cattlemen’s Beef Association has said that the namely, deforestation, degradation of soils and amount of grain needed to produce a pound ecosystems, hazardous work environments, of beef in the US is four and a half pounds,

30 VegNews Think. Eat. Thrive.™ March+April 2010 BioHazard It makes sense that an excellent way to reduce our dependence on petroleum is to embrace fuels derived from plant- based sources. Trouble is, biofuels not only swallow up international grain production, but what remains then In China— becomes more expensive, further home to 1.3 billion exacerbating the food crisis. “About people—the average 75 percent of the calories produced person eats worldwide—the raw sources of all 120 pounds of food—come from just four crops: meat per year. corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice,” says Michael Roberts, agricultural and resource economist at North Carolina State University. Of that 75 percent, he which is bad enough. But that estimate is Food Fight says, roughly five percent goes toward too conservative. According to the USDA Clearly, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to making biofuels. According to the FAO, Economic Research Service and Agricultural alleviating world hunger. Two easy marks long that five percent represented 104 million Research Service, the amount of grain needed targeted by development veterans are food’s metric tons in 2009, most of it corn. “We to produce one pound of US feedlot beef is limited supply and getting those supplies to estimate that prices of the staple grains— actually 16 pounds.” the underfed. “Food experts often argue about corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice—would These figures matter because farmers grow scarcity versus distribution. But it’s not one go down by about a third, on average, if about 2 billion tons of grain a year—plenty to or the other—it’s both,” says Dawn Moncrief, we got rid of corn-based ethanol,” says satisfy our nutritional needs—but humanity’s executive director of A Well-Fed World, which Roberts. “That would probably make for myopic appetite for animal flesh overlooks promotes the benefits of plant-based solutions less hunger in the world.” the much better use of corn, soybeans, and to global food-security issues. “When scarcity other food resources. “If we were to all eat like is high, distribution problems become people in India, we could support 10 billion exacerbated because there is even less food “If you look at the numbers, at first glance it people,” says Janet Larsen, director of research to go around. Increased scarcity increases appears that world hunger dropped as a result at the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington, hunger, and meat increases both scarcity of the Green Revolution.” But most of that DC-based environmental think tank. “Average and distribution disparities,” since meat is progress was occurring in China; in the rest Indians consume about 200 kilograms of grain resource-intensive, exacerbating the demand of the world, hunger actually increased by 11 per year, most of it directly because they have for grain, and raises the cost of all food. percent per capita. “The economies of scale, largely vegetarian diets.” Heavy meat-eating Annie Shattuck doesn’t agree scarcity is necessary to cash in on the Green Revolution’s countries like the US tip the scales at 800 the problem. An analyst at the Institute for technological gains, put many small farmers kilograms of grain per capita a year for food Food and Development Policy (better known out of business and into urban slums,” says and animal feed, she says, leaving enough as Food First), Shattuck cautions that “The Shattuck. “These small farmers turned slum food for only about 2 billion people. “Clearly, largest mistake is the myth that if we just ramp dwellers and seasonal workers are now we’ve overshot our population if we’re all up production we can solve hunger. That dependent on the increasingly volatile global going to be eating like the average American.” approach has been failing for the past 30 years market for their daily bread.” Larsen’s recommendation is becoming a and will continue to fail. Increases in food Shattuck believes sustainable practices familiar refrain: Cut back on foods made from production have been outstripping population hold the answer, and she cites a report from animals, and eat more vegetables, fruits, growth for two decades.” Shattuck illustrates the International Assessment of Agricultural and grains. “That helps not only in terms of her point by observing that agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for distributing limited resources to growing output expanded during the Green Revolution Development (IAASTD) that recommends numbers of people, but on the climate front (an initiative that used technology and focusing on small-scale agriculture and because livestock production has a heavy plant breeding to boost crop yields in many expanding low-input farming that makes carbon footprint.” (Does it ever. According developing nations during the latter half greater use of traditional knowledge. “The to a widely cited 2006 UN report, the meat of the 20th century), but hunger escalated IAASTD suggested we shift our technological industry accounts for 18 percent of worldwide nonetheless. “In the 1970s, the Global South development toward technologies that are greenhouse gas emissions, while a 2009 study exported about a billion dollars a year in locally controlled and easily adaptable— by the Worldwatch Institute reckons the figure food. By the year 2000, they were importing toward locally controlled seed systems, small- at an astounding 51 percent.) more than $11 billion worth of food,” she says. scale family farms, and agro-ecology—not

VN celebrates 10! vegnews.com VegNews 31 SPECIAL REPORT: THE WORLD’S FOOD CRISIS

TheWorld’sWaists The planet simultaneously has too much and too little food— China both obesity and hunger Hunger: 5.7% could be mitigated by Obesity: 3.4% adopting a plant-based diet. Here’s what the world weighs.

Japan United States Hunger: < 5% Hunger: < 5% Obesity: 3.3% Obesity: 33.2% Mexico Hunger: < 5% Obesity: 28.1%

India Brazil Ethiopia Hunger: 23.9% Hunger: < 5% Hunger: 30.8% Obesity: 2.8% Obesity: 13.1% Obesity: .7%

chemical fertilizer and genetically engineered This argument has found traction among benefit a region in which one-third of people seeds,” she says. “Technology is never neutral. other social-justice advocates, including Diet are malnourished. “Fortunately, numbers Hunger is not due to lack of production, but for a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappé, do not reflect the creativity, diversity, and rather lack of control over food producing who maintains that a lack of democracy— resilience of the world’s small farmers,” says or other economic resources, and in order people having no say in where their food comes Shattuck. “The UN recently conducted a study to actually end hunger we need to attack from—undermines production and access on organic agriculture in Africa, which said that poverty at the root—something industrial ag to food worldwide. With her daughter Anna, small farmers there have already built truly technologies have never done.” Lappé founded the Small Planet Institute to sustainable African agricultural systems that support grassroots democracy movements are better at fighting hunger and poverty than addressing hunger and poverty. “As my mother the Western industrial model. The ingenuity of has been articulating for nearly 40 years, these communities—their steadfast refusal to Humane hunger isn’t caused by a scarcity of food, but lose hope—that is what is inspiring.” Assistance by a scarcity of democracy,” says Anna Lappé. Far from the African continent, Patrick Rather than donating to hunger-relief “We will end hunger when all of us, including Brown isn’t losing hope, either. A Stanford organizations that exploit animals, such the most vulnerable communities, have a real University biochemist, Brown is currently as Heifer and Oxfam, consider these voice in what food is grown, how our food is exploring ways to increase the world’s humane alternatives that help underfed raised, and what happens to the food once it consumption of plant-based foods, which will people in developing countries: leaves the fields.” ease the hunger crisis and global warming. “In principle, because the human-useable protein > Food for Life Global: ffl.org Seeds of Change and most other nutrients in the crops we feed > Fruit Tree Planting Foundation: ftpf.org Though humanity has its issues, we’re nothing to livestock greatly exceeds what we recover > HIPPO: hippocharity.org.uk if not dreamers; we love a challenge. Perhaps from those animals in meat and milk and > Sustainable Harvest International: the biggest one facing us today is balancing eggs, the net effect [of eating less meat] should sustainableharvest.org efficiency, abundance, and equitable food be much greater food security,” says Brown. > Vegfam: vegfamcharity.org.uk distribution (in which everyone counts) with He is networking with experts in agricultural agriculture that is sustainable, safe, and economics, environmental sciences, food Finally, brush up on your vocabulary and ethical. This may prove especially difficult in security, international trade, and behavioral help feed the world at FreeRice.com, sub-Saharan Africa, where the hunger crisis economics to alter the way humans farm which asks users to define words and is the greatest, soil can be poor, and irrigation and eat. “I’m also trying to persuade people then donates rice to the UN’s World Food water is scarce. It will certainly take more in the food industry that they should be Program with each correct answer. than food relief from China, India, and the working to develop and market plant-based US—the world’s three biggest producers—to alternatives to animal-based mass-market

32 VegNews Think. Eat. Thrive.™ March+April 2010 foods, anticipating the likelihood that the costs is up, or so says Dickson Despommier, a of animal-based foods will skyrocket as soon as professor of environmental health sciences we have an effective greenhouse-gas cap-and- and microbiology at New York’s Columbia Spreading trade system or other GHG limits, creating a University. Despommier’s vision is that cities Solutions huge opportunity for any company with the of the future will rely on vertical farms—sort of Bernard Brown has four words in foresight to develop inexpensive, yummy like high-rise greenhouses in which produce response to the hunger crisis: peanut plant-based competing products.” is cultivated via hydroponics within a self- butter and jelly. Using social media Moreover, says Brown, reducing the huge sufficient ecosystem. How many people would sites, Brown and his volunteers at the carbon hoof print from animal farming should a skyscraper farm feed? “It would depend on PB&J Campaign (pbjcampaign.org) have help mitigate climate change and the risks it how big it was,” he says. “My class computed launched an initiative to raise awareness presents to global food security. “Reducing that a 30-story vertical farm one New York City about global issues and extol the virtues consumption of animal-based foods in the square block in footprint could feed around of one of nature’s perfect foods. Though developed world would almost certainly 50,000 people.” Vertical farms are strictly the tone of the campaign is mostly fun (a recent Twitter post asked “Does Anthony Vertical farms are strictly theoretical today, but Bourdain want a PB&J?”), the message is serious: Eating a plant-based meal rather Despommier expects China or the Netherlands than meat, eggs, or dairy foods can have to build the first one within three years. a significant impact on the world. “We grow more than enough food to feed all have a rapid positive effect by decreasing theoretical today, but Despommier expects the people in the world,” says Brown. the inefficiencies in converting the nutrients China or the Netherlands to build the first one “Eating a PB&J, a bean burrito, or a bowl in plant-based foods into meat and milk within three years. of vegetarian chili is a vote for a rational, and eggs. But the answer is certainly much If vertical farms sound like a fairy tale, efficient, and ultimately a more equitable more complicated, and I don’t want to give animal flesh grown in a laboratory may way to run our food system.” a glib answer because there are enormous smack of science fiction. But lab-grown differences in the flexibility and resilience meat, also called cultured or in vitro meat, is of food-production systems from one part of currently being developed, and it’s poised to the world to another, and the economics of revolutionize the way the world eats. “Yes, solutions to the problem of world hunger are food production and trade are complicated I think cultured meat could play a role in rooted in consuming more plant foods and enough that any change can have unintended feeding a growing world population,” says fewer animal products,” says Robbins. “It gives consequences.” To that end, Brown is Jason Matheny, cofounder of New Harvest, me tremendous hope that the food choices consulting with experts in agricultural which funds research on in vitro meat. “Due most likely to rid the world of hunger are also economics and trade to develop a carefully to population growth and increases in per- those that are easiest on the environment, are considered strategy that avoids unintended capita meat consumption in the developing clearly the safest, contribute the most to the harm to food security. world, global meat consumption is expected long-term health of humans, and are also by to double before 2050. It might be possible for far the most compassionate toward the beings Growing Solutions conventional livestock-based agriculture to with whom we share this planet.” Of course, one need not be a scientist or satisfy this growing demand, but it would do Back in India, farmers have been waging development expert to initiate sustainable so at a severe cost to the environment, human their own battle against corporate hegemony: food programs, although being a trendsetter health, and animal welfare.” Matheny’s POSCO, South Korea’s largest steelmaker, certainly doesn’t hurt. When Michelle Obama answer calls for fat stem cells and muscle to be has been coveting Odisha’s mineral-rich land converted part of the White House lawn into a extracted from an animal, soaked in a nutrient- and is eager to turn the fertile rice paddies vegetable garden last year, the first lady was rich solution, and “grown” into real meat. in Subhash Mahapatra’s rural village into a planting more than seeds: She was inspiring Though it’s a concept that is getting plenty of massive manufacturing plant. Though the the world to take direct control of their access attention, Matheny guesses we’re still about 10 state granted POSCO building rights years ago, to nutrition, even in cities. Though not many years away from in vitro burgers. local farmers recognize the significance of backyards can accommodate 1,100 square Animal flesh in some form will likely be on growing their food, and they have refused to feet of sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, berries, the world’s menu for a while—at least until surrender the only way they know to keep their herbs, and other organic goodies, urban vegan entrées are universally available and families from going hungry. “They can offer me farming can be as simple as a tomato plant on the international community accepts ethical a million rupees, but I will not part with even the balcony, as creative as a rooftop crop, or eating as the most practical option for enduring one hectare,” says a defiant Mahapatra. “This as civic-oriented as the 1 million community food security. In the meantime, advocates is our livelihood.” gardens that have taken root in neighborhoods like John Robbins will continue to be vocal across the US. opponents of inequitable agricultural practices Mark Hawthorne is the author of Striking at Where real estate is really tight (think and the corporate policies that protect their the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism downtown Manhattan), the best way to grow existence. “I believe that truly sustainable (strikingattheroots.com).

VN celebrates 10! vegnews.com VegNews 33