8 Facts for World Food Day

1. An abrupt disruption in the world food supply is not a distant concern. Rather, it could be just one poor harvest away.

2. Aquifer depletion now threatens grain harvests in the big three grain producers: China, India, and the United States.

3. China’s meat consumption is already half that of the US. Meat production tends to be grain-intensive, to raise the livestock on a big scale.

4. Not eating at all some days is how the world’s poor have coped with the doubling of food prices since 2006. These are known as “foodless days.”

5. Water supply is now the principal constraint on efforts to expand world food production.

6. Worldwide, there will be 219,000 more mouths to feed tonight than last night. Many will have to go without eating.

7. Mountain glaciers are melting in the Andes, the Rockies, the Alps and beyond. These key water reserves, which supplement farm irrigation, are simply evaporating away.

8. China, where grain consumption is growing fastest, is still adding 8 million people to its population each year.

From Global Food Security by Lester Brown (The Earth Policy Institute)