It Came From The Library 11: Food Crisis

By: Jonathan Milder

We're hearing a whole lot less about a global food crisis these days than we were a year ago. No longer do we read week-in-week-out of food riots in the developing world or grain shortages or skyrocketing inflation. Publishers are printing fewer books with apocalyptic titles like ' The End of Food,' ' Stuffed and Starved,' and ' The End of the Line.' The spectre of Malthusian collapse looms a little less large.

But lest you thought the global food crisis was over, several recent films and articles have come along to remind us that we're not out of the woods yet. Far, very far, from it. The world is still hot, crowded, and hungry, and getting more so. Demand is growing faster than supply; agricultural productivity is flattening; and 'the world is in desperate need of a green revolution, a greener revolution.' A must-read National Geographic article does a nice job of walking through the debates taking place over just what shape this 'greener revolution' will take.

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