Food Shortages, Rising Prices, Offer New Challenges

Global food prices have increased by 83% over the past three years, according to a recent report by the World Bank1. Rising food prices have led to violent public protests in Asia and Africa.

A variety of factors are impacting food prices, but five stand out:

• Strong economic growth in the world's most heavily populated countries – China and India – is changing diets in these countries and increasing the demand for grains, cereals and meats, the later highly dependent on grains.
• Energy is a significant cost of producing food, and record oil prices are making it more expensive for farmers to buy fertilizer and power their farm equipment. Rising energy prices also increase the cost of processing foodstuffs and transporting them to markets and consumers.
• Poor weather and drought conditions are reducing crop yields in some countries, such as Australia (a leading grain producer), parts of Africa, and central and western Asia.
• Rising urbanization across the developing world impacts food production in two ways: fewer farmers in rural areas, and changing urban diets – more people eating more food.
• In the face of potential shortages, some food-producing countries are cutting back on exports to better manage the domestic social impact of escalating prices.

As a result of these combined factors, world commodity stocks are declining. According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global cereal stocks are today only enough to meet demand for eight to twelve weeks, and grain supplies are at their lowest level since the 1980s. The FAO is encouraging developing countries to invest in irrigation, storage facilities, and rural infrastructure to increase agricultural productivity and meet the challenge of food security.

Here in the United States, farmers have increased crop yields over the past decade with the aid of agricultural biotechnology. Today, 73% of the U.S. corn acreage is planted with biotechnology varieties. (Editor’s note: In some areas of the Cotton Belt, genetically modified are planted on 100% of the cotton acreage.) Corn yields have increased 33.1% since 1996, when the first biotech variety was commercially planted. In addition, with about 90% of the U.S. soybean acreage now planted with biotech varieties, soybean yields increased 16.7% between 1995 and 20072. Outside the United States, farmers in Argentina, Brazil and Canada have seen corn, soy and canola yields increase with the introduction of biotech crop varieties.

Researchers in agricultural biotechnology companies are developing new plant technologies that will enable crops to consume less water and increase their resistance to drought and pests, all of which will produce even greater crop yields. The benefits of agricultural biotechnology are passed on through a seed or a plant cutting, so that farmers everywhere around the world can share in this technology – especially in developing countries where most people farm for a living, and which today is experiencing the most serious food shortages.

Through technological innovations such as agricultural biotechnology, farmers around the world are able to increase crop production to provide for global food and fuel needs.

To learn more about the benefits of agricultural biotechnology, see: www.whybiotech.com