President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Bob Stallman, just finished up his part of a panel discussion at World Agricultural Forum, entitled Strategies, Actions & Policies for Long-Term Security in Agriculture & Food Production.
Right at the outset, Stallman stressed the American farmers’ commitment to making sure that not only people in the U.S. are fed but that the entire world has enough to eat.
“Any hungry person should be great cause for concern to all of us.”
Stallman says agriculture needs to figure out how it will feed the 9 billion people who will live on the planet by the year 2050… on basically the same amount of land used to feed about 6 billion today (including the nearly 3 billion who now don’t get enough to eat). But, he says global hunger has less to do with production than it does with infrastructure and politics. “Hunger in the world today is not a lack of calories. It’s a problem of distribution,” he said.
Stallman says policies, in particular, the trade protections that too many developing countries insist upon, are some of the political decisions that are having a tremendous impact on world food supplies. He also defended biofuels, which had been a bit maligned during this session, as not being to blame for the spike in food prices the world has seen. Stallman pointed out that American farmers are getting better at sustainability practices.
Stallman tells the group in St. Louis that there are some solutions to the daunting tasks world agriculture will face over the next couple of decades.
“We must continue to seek out new production technology, adapt new production technology and not fear new production technology. Those countries that choose to turn their backs on tech will be left behind.”
Stallman says open borders and open trade are also part of the solution to how to feed those 9 billion people by 2050.
You can hear more of Bob’s comments during the session here: Stallman1.mp3
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