By Bethanee Jensen July 3, 2015
There has been a lot of conversation about how farmers are going to have to feed nine billion people in the near future. If some changes were made in the way our society deals with food, this could already be accomplished now.
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I have previously addressed waste and political manipulation to be some of the contributing factors and I discussed how we can make changes in these areas to help feed the world. The next key issue I will be discussing is how the type of products farmers grow affects the issue of feeding the world.
One of the major crops grown in North America is corn. With the focus of today being on yield, farmers have been able to increase production from 40 bushels per acre to 200-300 bushels, with advances in technology, synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and genetic modification to help them achieve this. Government subsidies have helped fuel overproduction and driven down the price. However, the corn that is being grown cannot be consumed and is used in the following places:
Livestock feed: Over half the corn that is being grown is used for livestock feed. The livestock is being taken off the land and relocated into feedlots, allowing the farmers to use the land to grow more corn and raise the livestock cheaper.
High fructose corn syrup: High fructose corn syrup can be found in most food products in our grocery stores and contains very little nutritional value. According to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, high fructose corn syrup is contributing to the crisis of obesity and is placing a burden on our health care system due to Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The production of ethanol: Our government has mandated and subsidized the production of ethanol. It is marketed as being cleaner for the environment. However, given the energy required to produce it, the related societal costs of subsidies, lack of sustainability and biodiversity, and the opportunity costs of not growing food, its value as a product should be questioned.
Soybeans are the other major crop grown North America. Its overproduction is used to make biodiesel, plastics and other manufactured products that have nothing to do with food, because we must find ways to use the excess.
One of the major reasons to why farmers grow these types of crops is for profitability. They need to be given a fair price for what they grow. If we converted some of our soy and cornfields into growing food for consumption, there may not be a hunger problem. And farmers could truly say they were feeding the world. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Bethanee Jensen is on the Board of Directors for the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. The CFFO Commentary represents the opinions of the writer and does not necessarily represent CFFO policy. The CFFO Commentary is heard weekly on CFCO Chatham, CKNX Wingham, and UCB Canada radio stations in Chatham, Belleville, Bancroft, Brockville and Kingston. It is also archived on the CFFO website: www.christianfarmers.org. CFFO is supported by 4,000 family farmers across Ontario.
