Word: cropped
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...paying for their oil imports-up from $3.7 billion in 1972 to $15 billion this year-the developing countries had little left to buy the chemicals and nutrients that their high-yield, intensive farming requires. India, for example, can afford only half the fertilizers that it needs for maximum crop yields...
...important source of protein, many in the industrial West eat much more meat than is nutritionally necessary. They probably do so because they like meat's taste; it is also a status symbol of a high living standard, even in Communist countries. When the Soviets suffered a crop shortfall two years ago, they did not slaughter cattle to conserve grain (as they had done in 1963), but instead they imported 28 million tons of corn, wheat and soybeans. So long as the industrial nations continue to favor meat over direct grain consumption, says Sylvan Wittwer, Michigan State University agricultural...
...principal and residual supplier of grain to the world," explains Willard Cochrane, a University of Minnesota agricultural economist. "It is the country to which all countries come when they are short." This year, despite the recent restrictions on sales abroad, the U.S. will probably export about 41% of its crop-at least 82 million tons of wheat, soybeans, corn and sorghum, valued at about $17 billion. This is enough to provide about one-quarter of the world's 3.9 billion people with at least one meal daily...
...their first priority, the delegates must approve a program to aid those who will face starvation during the next decade. In order to have supplies on hand for immediate aid to the victims of crop failures and natural disasters, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization will propose stockpiling national grain reserves as a "system of world food security." FAO officials expect this to ensure "that minimum food supplies are always available to those needing them on reasonable commercial terms or on grant terms." Because grain stocks are now so depleted, it will probably take at least five years...
Even the Chinese success is not complete. According to U.N. estimates, Chinese get only 91% of their caloric requirements; a major crop failure could trigger widespread hunger. At best, the Chinese are buying time during which population growth can be checked. Chinese families are encouraged to have no more than two children if they live in the city and three if they live in the countryside...