Don't panic, he's probably immortal.
Don't panic, he's probably immortal.
Well aside from "Invest into genetics research to develop better crops of greater hardiness and nutritional value with higher yields." in that very post, from the huge mountains of food that go rotten because there are no buyers, or the stunning amounts of waste that occur throughout the food chain. We do not have a food shortage in the world today, we have a failure to distribute it. For the future 100% efficiency in food production and consumption would, with no other changes (such as to farming methods, amount farmed, what is farmed, and so forth), increase the amount of food we have available as a planet by around half. Just a few percent increase in efficiency is enough to provide food for a whole lot of people.
Other possible measures for the future;
- As I mentioned, genetic modification
- Meat is an impressively inefficient form of food, and converting meat production to grain or vegetable farms would increase the amount of food produced per acre by something like two hundredfold
- More realistic use-by dates on less perishable goods. Things like fruit and dairy products have fairly tight use-by limits but a lot of food does not
- Linked to the above, improve preservation technologies so that food lasts longer, which means we can both distribute it more widely with ease, and we can keep it longer when we have it rather than throwing something out because it's a day out of date
- Educational campaigns that demonstrate how to make the most use of foods to reduce waste
- Research possible new food sources such as vat-grown meat, aglae, and so forth
- Control the rate of population growth (Through the only effective method, which is to educate and empower women)
So we're not really on the brink of mass starvation by any means, there are many options to help if we get to that point. But I really have to reiterate that it's a political problem, not a scientific one, that plagues the world today.
Don't you dare take away my meat.
Just share some of your meat with the dying african kids. Or, you know, some dying SoCal kids.
Sometimes I want to try being a vegetarian and then I remember that I hate most vegetables.
Edit: I'm going to try it anyway and see how long I last.