Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 10/19/11

An international team of researchers outlined a five-point plan to further the goal of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 that includes converting cropland currently dedicated to growing animal feed to direct food production.

In a report to be published in the Oct. 20 issue of the magazine Nature, researchers from the United States, Canada, Sweden and Germany outlined five actions that could help meet escalating global food needs while protecting the planet’s natural resources, including:
• Halting farmland expansion in the tropics
• Closing yield gaps on underperforming lands
• Using agricultural inputs more strategically
• Shifting diets and
• Reducing food waste.

The report argues that because one-third of crops are used for livestock feed, biofuels and other nonfood products, the number of hunger-abating calories produced per cultivated acre is far lower than it could be – even in fields with high-yielding, but animal-feeding, crops.

Specific to shifting diets, the report suggests that growing animal feed or biofuels on top croplands, no matter how efficiently, is a drain on human food supply. It said dedicating croplands to direct human food production could boost calories produced per person by nearly 50 percent. Even shifting non-food uses such as animal feed or biofuel production away from prime cropland could make a big difference, the report asserted.

Scientists from the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, McGill University, UC Santa Barbara, Arizona State University, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, Stockholm Environment Institute and the University of Bonn worked together for two years to assemble the recommendations.
An online version of the article will be made available at www.nature.com.

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