๐ฌ๐ผ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป’๐ ๐๐ผ๐น๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐’๐ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ๐บ’๐ ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐’๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ต๐ป๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฒ๐.
I’ve been reading the 219 page The Economics of Water report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Waterย and besides a few hundred words on alternative proteins I can find little on new, water efficient food production technologies. I find this in many reports on the global food system, where it’s all about improving existing technologies (a good thing to do) but ignores the potentially huge upside of new technologies. A massive missed opportunity in this report.
Food production is at the mercy of the twin tyrannies of food production, arable land and fresh water. if countries have lots of both they have lots of food and if they’re short of one or both then they have less food. And from the report water is currently at the heart of limiting food production.
The advantages of funding new, water efficient technologies include:
โข Alleviating water stress from food production.
โข Improved food security.
โข Improved food sovereignty.
โข Reduced water pollution from run-off.
For countries developing their food systems, adopting new food technologies will enable them to avoid the massive resource usage and pollution problems of current advanced food systems.
There’s only so much food we can make within planetary boundaries using the existing global food system. We need to reimagine the global food system if we’re to produce the 50 – 70% more food required to feed the growing global population and middle classes as we race towards 2050. Decoupling a significant portion of global food supply from these twin tyrannies will give us a fighting chance of staying within planetary boundaries for food production.
New water and arable land efficient food technologies will play a vital part in achieving this, but only if they get the attention they deserve.
