Sustainability

     According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), by 2030 we will have a global population of more than 8 billion and world food production will have to increase by 60 percent to properly nourish all of us.  Amid the usual din of gloom and doom about the future, the FAO has been making some rather remarkably positive outlook statements about how we are going to accomplish this.  Water is the key (http://www.fao.org/news/2000/000306-e.htm).  Recently, in Mexico, I had the opportunity to hear a Brazilian food consultant begin to map some of this out with respect to future shares of global food production.  He was a rather compelling guy.

Let’s switch gears a minute and really go off the wall, since we have been looking at variation and crop prices in the last week or two. Some of you may be aware that there is a growing moment in the country to encourage the production of locally produced food. It is sometimes called the “slow food” movement which is to distinguish it from “fast food” which is almost uniformly condemned by everyone except those who consume it. The movement is more than just the local farmer’s market that may be springing up on your town square every weekend.