Nourishing the Planet Worldwatch Institute Project on Hunger and Poverty Alleviation - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Nourishing thePlanetWorldwatch Institute Project on Hunger and Poverty Alleviation

Danielle Nierenberg

Senior Researcher, Worldwatch Institute

dnierenberg@worldwatch.org

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/

www.worldwatch.org

Nourishing the Planet Part II: Our Challenge in the 21st Century?

Finding ways to nourish both people and the planet with environmentally sustainable methods of food production

Source: Bernard Pollack

Challenge of Reducing Hunger

Demographic, economic, and natural forces all conspire to make the challenge of reducing hunger more difficult, including:

Soaring petroleum and food prices
Population growth and urbanization
Climate change
Gender inequity
Changing diets
Unfair trade practices
Subsidies

Challenges: Population Growth

79 million more people each year

By 2050, population will exceed 9 billion

Source: World Bank

Challenges: Population Growth

Challenges: Urbanization

More people now living in cities than in rural areas
Urban consumers pay more for their food than people in rural areas
Urban and peri-urban agriculture are growing, but can also create food safety problems

Source: Bernard Pollack

Women comprise up to 80 percent of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

Many lack access to land tenure, credit, extension services

Studies show that gender inequity can negatively affect natural resources, including by causing deforestation

Source: World Bank

Challenges: Gender Inequity

Challenge: Changing Diets

Growing middle-class populations are able to include more animal products in their diets
Livestock are responsible for 18% of GHG emissions
Spread of zoonotic diseases and foodborne illness

Source: EcoAgriculture Partners,Sajal Sthapit

Challenges: Biofuels

The increased biofuel demand between 2000 and 2007 is estimated to have accounted for 30 percent of the increase in weighted average grain prices(IFPRI 2008)

Worldwide, the amount of coarse grains converted to energy jumped 15 percent to 255 million tons in 2007

Challenges: Biofuels

Source: World Bank

Challenges: Climate Change

The impacts of rising temperatures and more-extreme weather events will likely hurt the poor, especially rural farmers, the most
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), agricultural yields in Africa could decline by more than 30 percent by 2050

Opportunities and Growing Interest in Agriculture

The same high food prices that handicap food-aid organizations and threaten hundreds of millions of people with hunger are also pushing governments to commit to long-term, agricultural investment

They are also responsible for establishing food security as a global priority

The Single Best Way to Alleviate Poverty

A recent United Nations analysis of Asia and the Pacific found that 218 million people could be lifted out of poverty by raising agricultural productivity

Growth originating from agriculture is known to be twice as effective in reducing poverty as GDP growth originating from outside of agriculture (World Bank, WDR 2008)