justinian said:
There may be plenty of space to cultivate food but why are so many millions in the third world starving and food prices in the developed world rocketing? How are more people going to make this easier? I guess the answer would be better global management but so far this hasn't happened and I won't hold my breath. Apart from food, for the past few decades North America, Parts of Europe and Japan were largely the major consumers of the world's resources. Some 800m people give or take. Now with China and India adding a potential 2.5b to the mix with their rocketing economies these already strecthed resoures will be pulled even further. Listening to certain politicians in the west some (if not scretly all) see a major conflict in the future between east and west over said resources. I agree.
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Millions of people are starving in third world countries because of land mismanagement caused by corrupt governments who gained power through the populist policies of wealth redistribution. Zimbabwe is the classic example of this, but the theft of productive land and/or punitive actions by the government against "wealthy" farmers are often seen in the rapid decline in food production in countries; and often predate famine. Beyond that, many western developed nations often have very negative policies in place that create artificial limits on food production, and these tend to include subsidies to not produce food; either to artificially limit supply and increase prices, or to (foolishly) subsidize the production of other crops (often for the production of ethanol).
Often the poverty and famine make matters worse because they encourage increased birth rates because children are (effectively) an "investment" in your retirement; and if you're likely going to lose multiple children to famine you need to have more children to ensure that some survive to adulthood.
