Executive Summary – Global Food Security Program

Global hunger can be cut in half by the year 2015 by producing sufficient food and keeping it wholesome until it can be secured and eaten by hungry people.  Agricultural production is necessary and most efforts to reduce hunger focus on production.  Much less effort is concentrated on following distribution of that agricultural production, and losses between 20 and 60% are evident around the globe.

This program proposes to apply the principles of two of the most successful agricultural production systems into an international program to extend the delivered food supply sufficiently to meet the above hunger goal.  The first program is the US Land Grant system (developed in 1862) which sponsored agricultural universities in every state and provided the means (extension service) to disseminate agricultural knowledge to the people.  As a result, the US has the most efficient food production and distribution system in the world.  The second system is Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) which promoted the international exchange of research and development in agriculture.

Many countries, specifically developing countries, already have substantial post harvest efforts within their countries.  These efforts are performed locally and many efforts are duplicated in multiple countries – with each developing the technologies for loss reduction independently.  This program proposes to form an International cooperation between countries similar to CGIAR and the US system between states.  The analogue of the extension system is a Knowledge Resource Center (KRC) composed of experts who agree to help disseminate post harvest technologies and information.

Many technologies already exist to utilize more of the food currently produced.  Since the food has already been expensed, recovery takes considerably less money and labor, and yields extra food immediately rather than requiring a growing season.  We estimate that food recovery efforts could feed 34 million people within 3 years for a cost below $1 per person per year through the economies of scale of the program.  It may not be able to feed the anticipated 200 million people shortfall expected for the goal to reduce hunger by 50% by 2015, but it will get us closer to that goal.  In addition, better fed people can more effectively build economies and make permanent improvements against poverty.

Will feeding more people result in a population explosion?  Such a result seems logical, but history shows the opposite.  Every country that has drastically reduced hunger has experienced reduced population growth.  The explanation is that families wish to assure their future generations, and high mortality requires more progeny to do so.  Reduced mortality, especially from hunger, assures future generations with less offspring.  Economics then influence the number of offspring.