How will we feed another 2 billion? The world population is
expected to grow from 7 billion in 2011 to 9.1 billion by 2050.
In parallel, economic growth and individual wealth are shifting
diets from predominantly starch-based to meat- and dairy-based,
requiring more water. Producing 1 kg rice, for example, requires
about 3500 litres of water, 1 kg of beef 15 000 litres of water
and a cup of coffee about 140 litres. This dietary shift has had
the greatest impact on human water consumption over the past 30
years and is showing no sign of abating. The combination of
rapid population growth and changing diets may increase the
demand for food by 70% by 2050, according to the recently
released 4th UN World Water Development Report. The main
challenge facing the agriculture sector will not be so much to
grow 70% additional food in the next 40 years as to make 70%
more food available on the plate. Reducing losses in storage and
along the value chain would go some way towards offsetting the
need for more production –