Training Resource Description
What challenges are there for food security?
- Instability in food production due to climate shocks, crop diseases, pests, and hazards [stability].
- Increased demand for affordable food and infrastructure due to rapid urbanization in Africa & Asia [availability & access]
- Economic growth yielding increased demand for meat and dairy products [availability]
- Inequalities in accessing technologies of food systems [availability & access].
- Increased consumption of highly processed and poor micro-nutrient food [utilization]
The food gap
The food gap is the difference between the crop calories produced in 2010 and those that the world will likely require in 2050 based on projected demand (WRI 2019). This gap can be closed both through measures that decrease the rate of growth in demand and measures that increase supply. The more the gap can be closed through demand-reduction measures, the smaller will be the challenge of increasing food production. And as that challenge decreases, so does the risk that the world will fail to meet food needs, which would most harshly affect the poor. Increased population and trends in consumption patterns mean that by 2050 we will need to produce 70 % more calories than we do now.
Can the world adequately feed nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050 in ways that help combat poverty, allow the world to meet climate goals, and reduce pressures on the broader environment?