View from the Cab: Feeding a growing world

By Kent Casson

Gazing out over the snow-covered corn stalks reminds me spring isn’t far off.

It’ll be another season of racing to get seeds in the ground to feed a growing world.

A social media post by Pro Farmer caught my attention the other day which said global food demand could increase by up to 70 percent by the year 2050 due to population growth and rising incomes. This information came from BloombergNEF.

Factors for the increase in food demand include income shifts toward high-calorie diets that are rich in vegetable oil and animal products and the global population climbing to 10.8 billion.

It is estimated there needs to be a 47 to 61 percent increase in crop production around the globe.

While South America makes more farmland, it doesn’t seem we are doing the same here in the U.S. In fact, our acres seem to be getting squeezed by outside factors, resulting in a smaller amount of ground to actually farm.

We, as farmers, are forced to do more with less and this has been the case for some time. Luckily, seed traits have been improved greatly in recent years so our yields keep climbing higher but prices often move in the wrong direction. We need all of the yield we can get at this point.

To meet the demand for global food in the future, the United Nations believes production in developing countries will almost need to double. Widespread action will be needed by land users, governments, organizations and market actors.

Since 2010, USDA has created appropriate programs to support ag development in target countries and regions which include: Ghana, Kenya, East Africa, Bangladesh, Haiti, Guatemala and Central America. International food aid programs from USDA benefitted around 34 million people around the globe with assistance valued at $1.6 billion.

From 2009 on, the United States invested more than $3.7 billion to address global food security, launching the Feed the Future initiative and exceeding the President’s commitment. The G8 nations committed to act with the urgency needed to achieve sustainable global food security in 2009.

Through Feed the Future, research investments designed for global food security more than doubled from $50 million in 2008 to $120 million by 2011. The research strategy focuses on the four agro-climatic zones where global hunger and poverty are concentrated and it targets two to four major problems in every zone to maximize the impact on poor families.