Can The US Feed A Starving World?

Today, in 2011, the World Health Organization, projects that 18 million human beings will starve to death. (Source: www.worldhealthorganization.org ) That's eight million adults and 10 million children under the age of twelve.

In 2011, the United States virtually feeds Egypt with 82 million people and projected to exceed over 100 million by mid century.
Africa as a whole expects to grow from 850 million to 1.4 billion by mid century.

China, at 1.3 billion, adds eight million net gain annually while India adds another 11 million annually on their way to become the most populated country at 1.6 billion in 40 years.

As those countries continue adding enormous populations, they destroy cropland. At some point, they will not be able to feed their overwhelming populations. Can the United States feed a starving world without starving its own citizens? Answer: not a chance!

Lester Brown, author of Plan B, Mobilizing to Save Civilization, and director at www.earth-policy.org, gives his appreciation for what humanity faces in the next 40 years.

"In 1994, I wrote an article in World Watch magazine entitled "Who Will Feed China?" that was later expanded into a book of the same title," said Brown. "When the article was published in late August, the press conference generated only moderate coverage. But when it was reprinted that weekend on the front of the Washington Post's Outlook section with the title "How China Could Starve the World," it unleashed a political firestorm in Beijing.

"The response began with a press conference at the Ministry of Agriculture on Monday morning, where Deputy Minister Wan Baorui denounced the study. Advancing technology, he said, would enable the Chinese people to feed themselves. This was followed by a government-orchestrated stream of articles that challenged my findings.

"The strong reaction surprised me. In retrospect, although I had followed closely the Great Famine of 1959-61, during which some 30 million people starved to death, I had not fully appreciated the psychological scars it left. The leaders in Beijing are survivors of that famine. As a result of that traumatic experience, no leader could acknowledge that China might one day have to import much of its food. China, they said, had always fed itself, and it always would.