Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Can the Agriculture of Today Feed the World of Tomorrow By Bridget Alexander Do small scale dairies in New England and up-state New York have an answer The world population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050. The current population is over seven billion right now. That is a 35 increase in population. However the expected demand on agriculture will require a doubling of food production. Developing countries like China and India will have the more dramatic population increases but its not just a numbers game. Increased individual wealth urbanization and westernization of diet in developing countries will contribute to the doubling in food demandspecically a diet with more meat and more dairy. All these new dairy cows beef cows pigs and chickens need to eat too. Grain crops which could be fed directly to humans will be grown as animal feed to match the worlds changing dinner plates. This is one of two reasons agricultural production will have to increase at a rate much faster than popu- lation growth. The second reason the world may need to double agricultural production is the ever-increasing use of food crops for biofuelsethanol made from corn or sugarcanebiodiesel made from palm oil just to name a few examples. Unlike fossil fuels ethanol crops are renewable. However a lot happens in between. It would be great if we could just cram a few corncobs in our gas tanks. Unfortunately a lot of energy pesticides and fertilizer go into converting the plants into usable fuels and it is a legitimate scientic and social ques- tion as to whether using corn for fuel is a net gain for the environment and climate or for the well-being of disadvantaged and underserved people. Many people view the life-cycle assessment of ethanol as worse than fossil fuels for the atmosphere. Crops that get diverted to fuel can cause forestland to be cleared elsewhere around the globe to make up for the food shortfallalso referred to as indirect WINTER 2014 MANOMET PARTNERSHIPS 3