Yesterday I read this months cover story in Natl Geographic about the looming food shortage. I wasn’t aware there was a food shortage because in my part of the world a shortage or problem merely translates into higher prices that i may or may not even notice. When I want food I trade a few dollars for whatever food I want. Half of which I will probably never get around to eating. It has nothing to do with survival, it’s just what suits my taste and what i like. I imagine most people I know are the same way. Most of the time I take the every-day luxury of eating for granted.
Apparently a similar situation began surfacing a few decades ago and through increased irrigation and fertilization, food production increased enough to support population growth. But now population growth has once again caught up and for the last several years the world has been consuming more food that it was able to produce…thus the higher prices. No surprise, this issue, as with many global issues is hitting Africa, the middle east, and asia that hardest. Sometimes I think it’s hard for people in North America to really grasp these large scale issues because they seem so far removed from us. I know I don’t truly ‘get it’ most of the time. And even if I do, what difference does it honestly make?
This time around could be more complicated because ground water and good soil is running out, or already used up in many parts of the world that are being hardest hit. From my frame of reference this seems hard to believe, but I sometimes don’t realize that the central united states, while it seems normal and ordinary to me, is actually quite an anomaly as far as planet earth goes. Growing food here is about as simple as putting seed in the ground.
Anyways, reading some of the facts and data in the article just further confirms my theory that population growth is the biggest issue facing humanity that no one is talking about.
While this is a major issue, I agree that we don’t see it or notice it as much as we should. However, the sick and twisted truth of the matter is this- if you believe in evolution, then this is not an issue. A shortage of food WILL regulate what you believe is the biggest issue facing humanity. Humanity will not become extinct because of food. The planet can produce food to feed more than 6 billion inhabitants. Thus, it’s not a humanity threat. Rather, it is a threat to part of humanity, or our humane nature, because we will allow poverty to dictate who lives and who dies, and let the ‘natural selection’ of hunger weed the planet’s population to manageable levels. The issue strictly arises out of morality, wherein our belief in the value of life as supreme, starts to override our belief of survival of the fittest. Since this is a moral issue, I can think of no one better to champion the cause than Christians. The trouble is, with today’s self-centered western culture, and the silo effect of religious bodies, the most powerful force on the planet is gathering dust.