Food, water and aid BEFORE READING Look at this ad, which appeared in various magazines and newspapers. Answer as many of the questions as you can. a. What does FAO stand for and what does it do? b. Who was Miriam Makeba, in addition to being a FAO ambassador? c. Why do you think that 820 million do not have enough to eat? d. In what parts of the world are many people undernourished? Overnourished? The world s food and water today At present the world produces enough food for its nearly 6.5 billion people. However, today s agriculture depends on crops that are genetically similar worldwide, so it is vulnerable to diseases that could cause its collapse and then how will we feed the estimated population of 8 billion in 2025? Another problem is that the global food supply is not evenly-distributed. The developed nations produce surpluses and their consumers have so much to choose from that overnourishment is a problem in the U.S., Canada and various Western European countries. Many countries cannot feed their populations; only China has succeeded in reducing under-nourishment from 45% in 1970 to 16% in recent years; however, this trend may be reversed by 2020, since both the population and the demand for a wider variety of foods are growing faster than agricultural production. In other areas, even the present situation is critical. In Afghanistan, 73% of people are undernourished due to the effects of civil wars, natural disasters and already-existent poverty. In the former Soviet Union nations, wars and pollution have changed these countries from grain exporters into grain importers; some of them need more emergency food aid than is available. In Bangladesh the undernourishment figure is 34% and in India 21%, principally because of inefficient agricultural techniques and periodic natural disasters. In the Caribbean-Latin American area, undernourishment reaches 49% in Haiti, 29% in Nicaragua. Here the cause is the result of colonialism: large areas of farmland under the control of a few wealthy individuals, political instability and corruption. By far the most serious situation is in subSaharan Africa, where many countries have module 8 Unit acute food shortages requiring emergency aid. Here population growth, wars, political corruption, drought, desertification and inefficient farming mean that there are twice as many chronically-undernourished people as 20 years ago. Of course food cannot be produced without the most essential element of all: water. Two-thirds of the Earth is covered with water, but 97.5% is salt water; only 2.5% is fresh water suitable for human use. 70% of this is used by agriculture (with 1/2 lost by evaporation or runoff); industry uses another 20% (again with high losses). That leaves 10% of fresh water for domestic use and The Aral Sea today is 10% of its original size: this abandoned fishing boat is now far from the remaining water.