Food for All in the 21st Century by Gordon Conway
Food For All In The 21st Century By Gordon Conway
Gordon Conway is president of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. His expertise is in the field of agricultural ecology. This article is drawn from his most recent book. The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the 21st Century (Ithaca. N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 1998). Conway is a former contributing editor of Environment. He can be contacted at the Rockefeller Foundation, 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018.
For most of the industrialized countries, there does not seem to be a food problem. They produce a surfeit of food, and health problems have more to do with being overweight than with hunger. In the rest of the world there are periodic famines, but few in the industrialized countries realize that millions of people lack enough food most days of their lives.1 The Green Revolution was one of the great success stories of the second half of the 20th century. Food production in developing countries kept pace with population growth. Yet today about 800 million people, or some 15 percent of the world's population, get less than 2000 calories per day and live a life of permanent or intermittent hunger and are chronically undernourished.2 Many of the hungry are women and children. More than 180 million children under five years of age are underweight, that is, they are more than two standard deviations below the standard weight for their age. This represents one-third of the under-fives in the developing countries. Young children cruically need food because they are growing fast and, once weaned, are liable to succumb to infections. Seventeen million children under five die each year, and malnourishment contributes to at least one-third of these children's deaths. Lack of protein. vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients in the diet is also widespread. About 100 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency.3 As has long been known, lack of this vitamin can cause eye damage. Half a
Gordon Conway is president of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. His expertise is in the field of agricultural ecology. This article is drawn from his most recent book. The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the 21st Century (Ithaca. N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 1998). Conway is a former contributing editor of Environment. He can be contacted at the Rockefeller Foundation, 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018.
For most of the industrialized countries, there does not seem to be a food problem. They produce a surfeit of food, and health problems have more to do with being overweight than with hunger. In the rest of the world there are periodic famines, but few in the industrialized countries realize that millions of people lack enough food most days of their lives.1 The Green Revolution was one of the great success stories of the second half of the 20th century. Food production in developing countries kept pace with population growth. Yet today about 800 million people, or some 15 percent of the world's population, get less than 2000 calories per day and live a life of permanent or intermittent hunger and are chronically undernourished.2 Many of the hungry are women and children. More than 180 million children under five years of age are underweight, that is, they are more than two standard deviations below the standard weight for their age. This represents one-third of the under-fives in the developing countries. Young children cruically need food because they are growing fast and, once weaned, are liable to succumb to infections. Seventeen million children under five die each year, and malnourishment contributes to at least one-third of these children's deaths. Lack of protein. vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients in the diet is also widespread. About 100 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency.3 As has long been known, lack of this vitamin can cause eye damage. Half a