Presently, food supplies do not have to be a problem.  However, though there is more than enough food available to feed everyone in the world, many people do not have enough to eat.

Every year, between 12 and 20 million people die from undernutrition, malnutrition, starvation, and diseases caused by lack of food.  Food problems come from food quality, quantity, storage, and distribution, as well as other factors such as poverty.

Food.  Photo Credit: ClickART Image Pak.

Rapidly rising population levels are increasing the need for food.  To worsen the problem, the added people will have to live on land that could otherwise be used for food production.

Food is grown differently in rich and poor nations.  The developed world uses industrialized methods of food production, while less developed countries use methods more reliant on land and labor.

Industrialized countries have learned how to increase food output from creating hybrid crops.  In poorer countries, some governments have redistributed land on a more equal basis, decreasing starvation.

Some people think that if dry lands and topical forests were converted into crop-growing land, food production could be greatly increased.  However, other people disagree, arguing that these areas could not support farming.

Neo-Malthusians advocate a sustainable-earth agricultural system in the developing countries.  That system would mean land would be redistributed, and human labor and natural fertilizers would be used in place of chemicals and industrial processes.