Food Shortages and World Stability

Will the world ever simply run out of food? A recent article in Scientific American suggests that it won’t be that simple. The article’s author postulates that local or regional food shortages will be followed by starvation, which in turn could result in the collapse of governments and a rise in terrorism in poor countries and refugee problems in neighboring countries. Countries most likely to become the first failed states include Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Chad, according to several international peace groups. Destabilization of governments could eventually spread worldwide, if food prices rose beyond the means of less wealthy nations.

Could such a scenario be prevented? The article goes on to say that in the long run, maintaining the world’s food supply will require drastic action, including solving the global warming problem, conserving fresh water, and stopping the current rate of topsoil losses. Otherwise, we may all be fighting each other for the last scraps of food sooner (perhaps in just hundreds or thousands of years) than we think. It’s something to think about.

Reference: “Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” Scientific American pp. 50-57, May, 2009.