Change in farming ‘can feed world’

The world produces enough food for everyone, yet more than 800 million people go hungry,  says a major report which calls for radical changes in world farming to avert increasing food shortages, escalating prices and growing environmental problems.
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The authors say GM technology is not a quick fix to feed the world’s poor and argue that growing biofuel crops threatens to increase

worldwide malnutrition. But the US, UK, Australia and Canada disagree and have not yet endorsed the report, the Guardian reported on
Wednesday.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development [IAASTD] says rising populations and incomes will
intensify food demand, especially for meat and milk which will compete for land with crops, as will biofuels.

"The unequal distribution of food and conflict over control of the world’s dwindling natural resources presents a major political and social challenge to governments, likely to reach crisis status as climate change advances and world population expands from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050," the report says.

According to the World Bank, 33 countries are now in danger of political destabilisation and internal conflict following food price inflation.

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