Safira Prabawidya Pusparani
This essay is made for the July Writing Challenge of Research and Development Division in ISAFIS.
People today live in a world full of irony, where some countries live in a problem of obesity while others live in severe famine. The world contains enough food to feed everyone in this planet yet 870 million people still suffer from chronic undernourishment. How is this possible? There clearly is a breakdown in the process for distributing food towards all parts of the globe’s population. However, distribution remains a small aspect on the current food crisis. The production of food has become a lethal process to how foods are available for communities. The World Bank has found that the globe needs to produce at least 50 per cent more food by 2050 to feed the expected global population of nine billion people.[1] However, these efforts are heavily hampered by low stockpiles, increasing population, high fuel prices, depleting natural capital but most of all, climate change. If we are to change the current conditions of poor food production and distribution, the problem of climate change needs to be solved as well.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation has stated that, “food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.[2] Unfortunately, this is not the case of today. Demands are outstripping supply thus triggering the high spike in food prices over the last decade. Agricultural productivity is not growing at a fast enough rate to meet population growth and increase in demand.[3] This is mainly due to the unstable climate conditions that have made crops fail to adjust to the current weathers. However, agricultural results are not only the victims, their ways of producing produces also contribute to the phenomenon of global warming. From using non-renewable energy to exploiting lands without environmental consideration, this event proves that the condition of the environment definitely plays an imperative role on the success of providing sufficient food production for people around the globe.
The impacts of climate change and global warming has affected the health and well being of people all over the world, both directly and indirectly. Environment exploitation that humans have done throughout generations has built up higher concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere which has eventually degenerated the quality of crops and severely decreased the amount of fertile lands. Through this, we can see that the problem of climate change is becoming more severe each day. From polar vortexes to heat waves, we can see that Mother Nature is suffering and calling for our help. The climate is changing in a very odd pattern that even we humans cannot predict in precise. The extreme environment conditions have made the earth a ticking time-bomb for us humans. If concrete actions are not taken soon, the people of the world are endangered with the possibility of not having breathable air to breath in while also surviving in a state where inedible crops are the only available foods to eat. If the environment is cared for, then food production will not be a problem. Thus, it is our duty to act immediately upon this phenomenon of climate change for the sake of our lives and future generations.
A green revolution is needed to counter-act the problem of food crisis, but what is it exactly? The revolution is an initiative to enhance research and development and technology transfers for the sake of increasing agricultural production but also on the goal of preserving Mother Nature during the process.[4] Several aspects included in this ‘green revolution’ include the expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, and the distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.[5] These are key solutions for solving the problem of food crisis. Sadly, many of the previous conducts of the green revolution has emerged many critics on the usage of dangerous chemicals which has polluted lands and also greenhouse gas emissions that seem to have come from the projects. However, the spirit of the ‘green revolution’ should not die just because several countries have used shortcuts to increase their agricultural production. In response to the many agricultural activities that have used non-renewable energy and dangerous chemicals, this revolution still has potential for making food manufacture more eco-friendly whilst boosting its production amount. This can only happen as long as the parties involved use the right method of revolutionizing their agricultural state. A green revolution is the only key to providing the citizens of the world for their consumption needs while preventing further damage to the earth’s crust.
Many developing nations have undergone this revolution to provide their people with more food produce. Currently, India is on their way for conducting their second ‘Green Revolution’ since 1961.[6] Due to the need of having instant and fast crops from growing, the methods yet again consist of heavy environmental damaging – from soil pollution to mineral depletion. Countries may lead on to this path due to the limitation of their budgeting and lack of awareness towards environment matters. This is the ultimate problem on why food crises still happen even after the revolution. There needs to be further effort on putting elites and the communities to understand that environment needs to be preserved and taken care of. Shortcuts are never the answer. A green revolution will only be effective when the parties responsible are taking ‘green’ steps towards the matter.
To make the ‘green revolution’ happen ideally, all parties (local communities, NGOs, interest groups, etc.) must be involved in the action by pushing governments to support such revolution and by acting initiatively upon the matter. Youths may take action by engaging in environment activist groups or by little things such as buying organic crops and eco-friendly products. When that happens and governments decide to implement green revolution policies, citizens drowned in famine will have a chance to obtain crops and produces much easier because of the green revolution. The world food crisis can be decreased slowly. Not only that, the carbon footprint outcome from this process will reduce significantly from the previous non-green agricultural processes.
A green revolution does not wait for the government to take action, but it is triggered from initiative individuals. A green revolution may not be the only solution towards the global food crisis, but is surely is a key to trigger both benefits for humans and the nature. All humans need to take responsibility for what they have done to Mother Nature. In order to prevent the impacts of climate change much further and to minimalize the possibility of escalating food crises, we need to take imminent actions immediately. It is time to start acting progressively in saving the environment before it is too late.