POPULATION GROWTH
Cities & Population Growth
There are two forms of pressure resulting from population increase: absolute numbers and increasing wealth leading to increased consumption of resources. The impact of one US citizen is about 40 times that of an African. Urbanization and the growth in cities has been accelerating since 1960, and for the first time more than 50% of the world population lives in them. A further 300 million Chinese people are expected to move into its urban sprawls by 2050. Cities are often at the end of complex food supply chains and at increased risk from changes in availability, supply and therefore prices. Food price inflation has already led to recent riots in Greece, Mozambique and Brazil - this unrest will only increase.
China's exploding cities
The liveability of the mega cities and their urban slums are another major issue. Air quality in cities like Mumbai, Beijing and Los Angeles is affecting the health of their inhabitants. China is now creating new green cities but this will not be enough - existing cities will also need to become green. Future cities may well be key to our survival as they make education and healthcare easier to deliver, and urbanisation has proved the most effective contraceptive for mankind. Most estimates suggest that the world needs to prepare for at least another an additional two billion inhabitants over the next thirty years.
Animal Cities & the Agri-Industry
As man has urbanised so have animals - into cities of their own. Industrial farming from cities of 12 million chickens or a town of 40,000 dairy cows in the Saudi desert animal production has become a multinational business. Using all the scientific advances available to man, animals are bred, fattened, flavoured and slaughtered in the shortest possible time. The application of antibiotics, growth hormones, GM and chemical feeds have turned the four animals man domesticated to produce chicken, beef, lamb and pork into global commodities. It may relieve the short term issues of how to feed the world but it has its risks. We are what we eat - and our food is already changing us with obesity and earlier puberty becoming global phenomenon.
Chemical feeds, pharmaceuticals & GM: man-made food
12 million chickens on one farm - an animal city
The Protein Crunch:
Civilisation on the Brink
JASON DREW with David Lorimer
