Back to the Farm

Humankind’s steady migration from fields to cities may have to take a slight detour. There are a lot of people in the world now and feeding them is becoming a problem. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders we face a “historic opportunity to revitalize agriculture,” warning that production would have to go up by 50 percent over the next 20 or so years.

BBC:

Mr Ban told a UN-sponsored summit in Rome that food production would have to rise by 50% by 2030 to meet demand.

Mr Ban said export restrictions and import tariffs ought to be minimised to alleviate the crisis.

The summit comes as food costs have reached a 30-year high in real terms, causing riots in several countries.

The host of the conference—the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)—has warned the industrialised countries that unless they increase yields, eliminate barriers and move food to where it is needed most, a global catastrophe could result.

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