By Aviva Hope Rutkin
We need more food, and we need it fast.
But how do we continue to produce enough food for a burgeoning population and at the same time make sure we’re protecting Earth’s limited natural resources and using them wisely? Scientists and economists tackled that question Feb. 18 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.
The world’s population will increase by two billion within the next forty years, the United Nations projects. And with one billion people already malnourished and a growing middle class demanding a more diverse diet, food production will have to double to keep everyone fed. Figuring out how to do that in way that promotes sustainability and conservation doesn’t just fall to farmers, but also to experts in a wide range of fields, from agronomy to public policy.
“That’s going to be the defining challenge of not only this century but perhaps the next several,” said ecologist Jonathan A. Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. “Nothing else comes close. Nothing.”
Harmful agricultural practices such as deforestation, overirrigation and greenhouse gas production already need to be dramatically curbed in order to protect the environment. One way to do that is to prevent agricultural expansion, the panelists said.
Ruth DeFries, a professor of sustainable development at Columbia University, has had some success working with soy farmers to limit deforestation in the Amazon rainforest by encouraging the use of abandoned pastures rather than the cutting down of untouched forests. The approach seems to have worked well for the farmers: Several years after the initiative began, soy production in the region was at an all-time high.
“Thinking about making it fit is not so much about the technical aspects,” DeFries said. “What really matters is that we have the policies and the political will in place to work out usable solutions at the scale at which they matter.”
Effective communication between scientists and politicians is key. And international agreements such as The Stockholm Memorandum—a call by Nobel laureates for global leaders to take action on a number of sustainability priorities—can convey urgency and potentially inform government policies.
Corporations must also be part of the solution, the researchers said. A consortium called The Natural Capital Project is trying to help corporations become more environmentally responsible. Jointly run by Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund, the group develops tools for assessing how a particular business venture might affect the surrounding environment. Companies can analyze their own projects using free software provided.
But the greatest task ultimately will be to convince companies to adopt important projects or sustainable practices, said economist W. Michael Hanemann, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. For example, companies may be deterred by the high cost of complex projects such as building pipelines to carry fresh water to at-risk communities, especially when the health and economic benefits are not immediately apparent.
“The largest issue is the lack of interest in providing capital,” Hanemann said.
Aviva Hope Rutkin studies neuroscience and Chinese at Union College. She is the editor-in-chief of the weekly student newspaper, the Concordiensis. Reach her at avivahr@gmail.com or via her website, www.avivahoperutkin.com.
