We've heard it from economists, business leaders, and the UN, and now Britain's top scientist is joining the chorus of voices warning that humanity will soon be facing serious food shortages. Professor John Beddington said last week that factors such as a skyrocketing human population, changing eating habits, and crop failures due to global warming were creating a food crisis that would affect humanity far sooner and more severely than climate change alone.

Beddington noted that the efficiency of agricultural production will have to double over the next few years in order to meet our ever-expanding needs. He did not, however, elaborate on how this super-productivity was going to happen in an environment where supplies of clean water and arable land are diminishing rapidly. Moreover, most increases in farm productivity in the past have been linked to mechanization and chemical fertilizers, both of which are reliant on increasingly expensive fossil fuels. Clearly a lot of research is going to have to happen very quickly if we're going to feed a human population that's expected to grow by an astonishing 3 billion people in the next 50 years or so.

Beddington was particularly harsh in his criticism of the biofuel industry, which he said had to work towards sustainability, characterizing the idea of cutting down rain forest to grow biofuels as "profoundly stupid."

What can we do as individuals? Eat little or no meat. Buy locally grown foods to encourage agriculture where you live. Learn how to garden. And remember, Soylent Green is people!

via [treehugger]