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Stop Saying Farms Must Feed the World
How to think about feeding the world, productively.
I was in 9th grade the first time I heard that, in 2050, there are going to be 9 billion people in the world. At the time, 2050 was about a million years in the future, as unfathomable as the amount of food it would take to feed 9 billion humans.
Since then, I’ve encountered endless speeches, articles, and tweets about how farmers (America’s in particular) are now feeding, and/or must in the future feed, the world. We hear it from all sides, from those defending genetically modified crops to those advocating for the end of animal agriculture to those looking to turn farming into a tool to counter climate change.
Many of the world’s wealthy are taking an interest as well, with research and demonstration farms becoming the pet projects of many a billionaire or major company. Their aim seems to be to show that, with the right intention and “a little startup capital,” farms can feed the world without destroying it. (Which is extra rich, given that several of the world’s billionaires could pay to end world hunger, and thus ‘feed the world,’ right now)
But the thing is, the idea that farmers feed the world is a total crock.
