Modern farming must be weaned off chemical use
Chandran Nair says the use of pesticides and fertilisers damages our health, as well as the planet's
For most people in the developed world, food security is not an issue thought about on a daily basis. But this may soon change. In recent years, food prices have risen sharply and have become much more volatile.
All of this has not gone unnoticed. Many governments and militaries have been increasing their stockpiles of food. Even investors are getting in on the action.
But almost nothing is being done to address the actual problem: global food supplies are under enormous pressure from an expanding world population and a burgeoning global middle class encouraged to overconsume.
The resulting practice of producing more food through industrial and chemically intensive agriculture is putting a densely populated world on a collision course with catastrophic food crises.
This is not the first time the world has been on the brink of such a disaster. In the 1960s, world population grew exponentially, food prices were rising and countries such as India seemed on the brink of mass famine. Thankfully, the green revolution massively increased agricultural output through the use of hybrid crop strains and modern farming techniques.
But while the green revolution saved millions from starvation, there was nothing "green" about it. It left crop yields dependent on the liberal use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. And by averting the crisis of the 1960s, it sowed the seeds of the present one.