Beef Cattle Science Handbook, Vol. 20

Frank H. Baker

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429725593
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Biologia

The 1984 International Stockmen's School Handbooks include more than 200 technical papers presented at this year's Stockmen's School, sponsored by Winrock International. The authors of these papers are outstanding animal scientists, agribusiness leaders, and livestock producers who are expert in animal technology, animal management, and gene

Part 1
Global and National Issues

1
Applying Agricultural Science and Technology to World Hunger Problems

Norman E. Borlaug

Agriculture and food production have been my primary concerns in research, but by necessity, I have developed interest in the broad fields of land use—or misuse—and demography.

If one is involved in food production, it naturally follows that one must be concerned about the land base upon which we depend for food production and the number of people that land base must feed.

In the total plan of things, our earth is very small. On the surface, more than three-quarters of it, approaching 78% or 79%, is water, most of it salt water or ocean. Some is inland water, sweet waters, and lakes. Less than one-quarter of the earth's surface is land, but 98% of worldwide food production was produced on the land in 1975.

When we examine it, some of the land in the world is bad real estate (table 1). As far as arable land is concerned, only 11% of the total land area is classified as suitable for agriculture. Another 22% is classified as

TABLE 1. LAND RESOURCES OF THE EARTH

Land type	Area, ha (millions)	% of total land area
Arable land (annual and permanent crops)^a	1,457	11
Permanent meadows and pastures^b	2,987	22
Forest and woodland	4,041	30
Other (tundras, subarctic wastes, deserts, rocky mountainous wastes, cities, highways)	4,908	37

Source: FAO Production Yearbook (1972).

^aOf the arable land area, 48% (698 million hectares) is cultivated to cereal grains.

^bTotal agricultural land, therefore, is about 33%.

suitable for grazing and animal industry. Both of these agricultural uses account for about 33% of our total land area. An additional 30% is classified as forestland and woodlots. The remaining 37% is called "other." "Other" means mostly wasteland, arctic tundra, deserts, rocky mountain slopes with very little soil on them, or good agricultural land that has been covered by cities, pavements, and highways. We continue to cover this good land at an appalling rate in many parts of the world, not only in the U.S. Several million acres of good land go out of production each year because it is easier and less costly, apparently, to build on flat land than on sloping land. On the surface, at least, this seems to be the case.

Feeding Four Billion People

When we talk about food, we need to have some concept of how much food is needed to feed this population of 4.6 billion and about the possibilities of producing enough to maintain stability—social, economic, and political—in the next 4 decades.

When we consider food, we must consider it from three standpoints:

1. From the standpoint of biological need, which should be self-evident, for without food you can live only a few weeks at most, assuming you entered the famine or starvation situation in good health.
2. From an economic standpoint, the worth of food depends entirely on how long it has been since you had your last food and what your expectancies are for food in the future.
3. From the political standpoint, the importance of food can be observed when stomachs are empty. It makes no difference whether it is a socialistic or communistic system or whether it is a free enterprise system. To illustrate, think back several years ago to the devastating drought in the Sahel. You saw the consequences on your television screens—the misery and poverty and hunger. Six governments fell as a result of the shortages of food and the misery and suffering of their masses.

Anyone engaged in attempting to increase world food production soon comes to realize that human misery resulting from world food shortages and world population growth are part of the same problem. In effect, they are two different sides of the same coin. Unless these two interrelated problems and the energy problem are brought into better balance within the next several decades, the world will become increasingly more chaotic. The social, economic and political pressures, and strife are building at different rates in different countries of the world, depending upon human population density and growth rate and upon the natural resource base that sustains the different economies. The poverty in many of the developing nations will become unbearable, standards of living in many of the affluent nations may stagnate, or even retrogress. The terrifying human population pressures will adversely affect the quality of life, if not the actual survival, of the bald eagle, stork, robin, crocodile, wildebeest, wolf, moose, caribou, lion, tiger, elephant, whale, monkey, ape, and many other species. In fact, world civilization will be in jeopardy.

Unfortunately, in privileged, affluent, well-educated nations such as the U.S., we have concerned ourselves with symptoms of the complex malaise that threatens civilization, rather than with the basic underlying causes. In recent years, we have been attacking these ugly symptoms by passing new legislation or filing lawsuits against companies, individuals, or various government agencies for polluting the environment. Most of these lawsuits just fatten the incomes of lawyers without solving the basic problems.

The Human Population Monster

Most of us are either afraid, or are unwilling, to fight the underlying cause of most of this malaise.. .The Human Population Monster. The longer we wait before attacking the primary cause of this worldwide problem—with an intelligent, unemotional, effective, and humane approach—the fewer of our present species of fauna and flora will survive.

About 12,000 yr ago, the humans who had been roaming the earth for at least 3 million yr, invented agriculture and learned how to domesticate animals. World population then is estimated to have been approximately 15 million. With a stable food supply, the population growth rate accelerated. It doubled four times to arrive at a total of 250 million by the time of Christ. Since the time of Christ, the first doubling (to 500 million) occurred in 1,650 yr. The second doubling required only 200 yr to arrive at a population of 1 billion in 1850. That was about the time of the discovery of the nature and cause of infectious diseases and the dawn of modern medicine--which soon began to reduce the death rate. The third doubling of human population since the time of Christ, to 2 billion, occurred by 1930...only 80 yr after the second doubling. Then, sulfa drugs, antibiotics, and improved vaccines were discovered. They reduced infant deaths spectacularly and prolonged life expectancy.

World population doubled again...to 4 billion people in 1975. That took only 45 yr and represents an increase of 256 fold—or eight (8) doublings since the discovery of agriculture. Currently, it has reached 4.7 billion.

It is obvious that the food/population ratio and competition between species is getting worse dramatically as the numbers of humans increase so frighteningly. And the interval between doublings of human population continues to shorten. At the current world rate of population growth, population will double again, reaching 8 billion souls by 2015 (figure 1)!

Figure 1. World demographic growth

Two Worlds

It is a sad fact that on our planet Earth, at this late date, there are two different worlds as far as food production and availability are concerned—namely, the "privileged world" and the "forgotten world" (Borlaug, 1978). The privileged world consists of the affluent, developed nations comprising about 33% of the world population. In these nations agriculture is efficient—and industrialization is well advanced—with only 5% to 20% of the population engaged in agriculture but capable of producing sufficient food for their own nation's needs as well as surpluses for export. The consumer in these nations has an abundant and diverse food supply available at a low price; his entire food budget represents only 17% to 30% of his income after taxes. Most of the people in these nations live in a luxury never before experienced by man. The vast proportion of the population (70 to 80%) in these countries is urban. They take the abundance of cheap food for granted. Many of them think it comes from the supermarkets and fail to understand the large investments in land and machinery required, the management skills, toil, struggle, risks, and frustrations on the ranches and farms that are required to produce the abundance they take for granted.

The "forgotten world" is made up of the developing nations where most of the people, comprising 50% of the world's population, live in poverty with hunger a frequent companion and fear of famine a constant menace. In these nations, a vast segment of the total population—ranging from 60% to 80%—is tied to a small plot of land in an inefficient subsistence agriculture. In these nations, food, and especially animal protein, is always in short supply and expensive. The urban consumer in such countries expends 60 to 80% of his income on food in normal times, and when droughts, floods, diseases, or pests reduce the harvests, all of his earnings go for food—and even then he is unable to buy what he needs. Many of the subsistence farmers themselves are often short of food, and even a larger proportion are suffering from protein malnutrition.

Why does this great discrepancy exist between the privileged and the forgotten nations in food production? Although many factors are involved, the four major causes are: 1) the difference in per capita endowment of natural resources, i.e., good arable land; 2) the availability or nonavailability of proper modern technology developed by research for increasing yields; 3) the presence or absence of strong economic and extension infrastructures; 4) and adequate or inadequate visionary policy supported by government. Of these, the two greatest problems of the developing countries are the small amount of arable land available on a per capita basis coupled with low and stagnant per hectare yields.

Table 2 illustrates the comparative food production capabilities of land exploited under hunting and various

TABLE 2. COMPARATIVE FOOD PRODUCTION CAPABILITIES OF LAND EXPLOITED UNDER HUNTING AND VARIOUS TYPES OF AGRICULTURE

System of exploitation	Area required, ha	No. of people fed
Hunting^a	2,500	1
Foraging^b	250	1
Hoe agriculture^c	250	3
Plow agriculture^d	250	750
Modern agriculture^e	250	2,000^f

Source: Storck and Teague (1952).

^aIndians of the North American plains before European influence.

^bCalifornia Indians before European influence.

^cEastern woodland Indians of North America before European influence.

^dAncient Egyptian agriculture.

^eHighly developed modern agriculture of the U.S., based on 1950 yields.

^fIf 1980 yields were used, this figure would increase by 80% to 90%.

types of agriculture. It is apparent that modern American agriculture employing advanced technology is capable of producing much more food per unit of land than are other methods of exploitation.

Our Obligations

"Human rights" is a Utopian issue and a noble goal to work toward. But it can never be achieved as long as hundreds of millions of poverty-stricken people in the world lack the necessities of life. The "right to dissent" doesn't mean much to a person with an empty stomach, a shirtless back, a roofless dwelling, the frustrations and fear of unemployment and poverty, the lack of education and opportunity, and the pain, misery, and loneliness of sickness without medical care. My work has brought me into close contact with such people and I have come to believe that all who are born into the world have the moral right to the basic ingredients for a decent humane life. How many should be born and how fast they should come on stage is another matter. This latter question requires the best thinking and efforts of all of us if, in my opinion, we are to survive as a world in which our children and their children will want to live and, more important, be able to live in.

Those of us who work on the food-production front, I believe, have the moral obligation to warn the political, religious, and educational leaders of the world of the magnitude and seriousness of the food/population problem that looms ahead. If we fail to do so in a forthright unemotional manner, we will be negligent in our duty and inadvertently through our irresponsibility will contribute to the pending chaos.

In the next 30 to 50 yrs, depending on how the world population continues to grow, world food and fiber production must be increased more than it was increased in the 12,000-yr period from the discovery of agriculture up to 1975. This is a tremendous undertaking and of vital importance to the future of civilization. Failure will plunge the world into economic, social, and political chaos. Can the production of food and fiber reach the necessary level in the next 31 yr? I believe it can, providing world governments give high enough priority and continuing support to agriculture and forestry. It cannot be achieved with the miserly and discontinuous support that has been given to agriculture and forestry during the past 50 yr.

We are all aware, from history and archaeology, of the disappearance of one civilization after another. We know that in some of the theocracies of recent t...