Sustainable Agriculture: Solving Food Insecurity
Oscar Kong ’25
Eugenie Kim ’25
By the year 2050, the earth is projected to reach a population of ten billion people (United Nations, n.d.). Two billion more people to feed when currently 30% of the global population is moderate to severely food insecure (Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform, n.d.). Food insecurity cannot be alleviated with the current agricultural practices that are inefficient and destructive to the environment. Agricultural practices must progress towards being more productive and less wasteful. With the limited and quickly depleting resources provided on earth, the first step to preventing food insecurity is addressing the fundamental faults of current agricultural practices.
The revolution for agricultural practices lies between the crossroads of tradition and innovation. Traditional agricultural practices, enriched with modern scientific knowledge, can create productive food systems through sustainable soil, land, water, nutrients, and pest management. Traditionally, crop diversity is emphasized to ensure a healthy ecosystem. However, uneducated modern farmers often expand into nutrient-rich land and utilize inadequate farming techniques that prioritize maximizing profits, such as monocropping, when facing declining harvests, creating a vicious cycle that further destroys biodiversity and results in more people's food insecurity (WWF, n.d.). Therefore, farmers must receive education on the environmental consequences of certain agricultural practices to foster a more sustainable future of agriculture.
The UN’s Zero Hunger Challenge has jump-started education and cooperation amongst governments worldwide regarding environmental policy-making. This challenge was launched at the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), where world leaders reaffirmed the human right to adequate, healthy food (FAO, n.d.). The Zero Hunger Challenge builds off the second Sustainable Development Goal to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture (United Nations: Sustainable Development, n.d.).” Through SDG 2, the interconnectedness of sustainable agriculture, rural poverty, and food insecurity are made clear.
There are three main takeaways from the Rio+20 conference and the Zero Hunger Challenge. Firstly, through sustainable agricultural practices, yields can be boosted on existing farmlands, relieving the pressure to clear forests for new land and ultimately breaking the vicious cycle. Secondly, wise water management, such as improving irrigation and storage technologies and developing new drought-resistant crop varieties, collectively contribute to sustaining dryland productivity. Lastly, the Rio+20 document calls for an environmentally land-degradation-neutral world. With our understanding of desertification, land degradation, and drought still evolving, there is no doubt that navigating this last measure will be tricky (Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform, n.d.). However, the benefits from land restoration for food security and for mitigating climate change are immense, and should not be overlooked.
By combining modern technology with conventional farming practices, sustainable agriculture can be innovated to address food insecurity worldwide. Farmers, scientists, and governments can work together towards ensuring food justice for all by increasing harvests on existing farmlands, encouraging efficient water management strategies, and reversing land degradation.
References
FAO. Food security and nutrition around the world. (n.d.). https://www.fao.org/3/CC3017EN/online/state-food
-security-and-nutrition-2023/food-security-nutrition-indicators.html
Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform. Food security and nutrition and
sustainable agriculture. (n.d.). https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/foodagriculture
United Nations: Sustainable Development. Goal 2. (n.d.). https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal2
United Nations. Population. (n.d.). https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/population
WWF. Sustainable agriculture. (n.d.). https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sustainable-agriculture
