Better distribution a must to feed 9 billion

DUBAI // Ministers from around the world called for improvement in the global distribution of food to be able to feed an expected 9 billion people by 2050.

Education, fewer trade barriers, science- based regulations and technology transfer were some of the key areas they said required urgent attention to reduce malnutrition and meet future food demands.

“Science and innovation will make sure we can feed the world in the future,” said Peter Walsh, Australia’s minister for agriculture and food security and minister for water for the State of Victoria. “We will invest in science and its application on farms to double our production by 2030.”

Lyle Stewart, Canada’s minister of agriculture in Saskatchewan, said it was vital to have sciencebased regulations.

“We can all agree that global food security is dependent on successful trade among countries,” he said. “They’re necessary to ensure that we’re not limited in the tools we use to attain global food security as our population grows.

“So we need to establish reasonable low- level policies for genetically modified organisms. Policies that restrict the movement of proven safe goods are misguided so we need to cross these barriers if we’re serious about food security.” He said all the science-based tools at our disposal would be needed to feed a hungry world. “We’re focused on producing bigger and healthier crops to meet the demand from across the globe,” said Mr Stewart. “We will continue to invest in research.” Hector Timerman, Argentina’s foreign minister, said the main problem lied in the distribution of food. “We need to put an end to hunger in the world,” he said. “We must be conscious that hunger is a distribution problem.” According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s latest data, 842 million people – about one in eight of the world’s population – suffer from chronic hunger as they lack sufficient food. “This situation is not explained by a quantitive deficit in food production, since the FAO estimates that the quantity of food produced is equivalent to one and a half what is needed to satisfy the global population demand,” said Mr Timerman.