DNA Special: Food on Earth may run out in 27 years?

A man works hard day and night to provide ample food to his family but the whole world, as of now, is at a point where, in 27 years, people will struggle for the same good that they are enjoying right now. 

A report by The World Count, an organisation tracking social and economic data, has raised the alarm of famine all over the world. 

According to this report, there is going to be such a crisis of food grains in the world that by the year 2050, there will be a major scarcity of food grains. 

Releasing this report, The World Count has also put a countdown of the end of grain on its website. According to this countdown, now there are only 27 years, 238 days and 3 hours left for the grain to be exhausted from the earth.

According to the report of The World Count, after 27 years from today, lentils and roti will become a rarity. It is also possible that then some such museums will be built in the world, where pulses, rice, wheat, maize, and jowar are kept on display. 

Here is what the report says; 

By the year 2050, the world's population will exceed one thousand crores. In such a situation, there will be a demand for 70% more food in the year 2050 than in the year 2017.

Meanwhile, Earth is losing 7,500 million tonnes of fertile soil every year.

In the last 40 years, one-third of the cultivable land in the world has been lost.

In the next 40 years, people will have to produce as much grain which has not happened in 8 thousand years.

That is, by the year 2050, there will not be enough fertile land for cultivation on the earth, on which food grains can be produced for one thousand crore people.

The report states that the impact of the global food crisis will be seriously visible from the year 2030 itself. By 2030, rice will be costlier by 130% and maize by 180%.

To understand it in another way, if life is not discovered on other planets like Mars in the next 27 years, and the possibility of water and agriculture is not discovered there then Earth will not be able to provide abundant food to the people.

We often say that the war of the future will be over water but this grain crisis suggests that the future war may also be over lentils-bread and bread cookies. This food crisis of the future is related to our present food style.

In Indian culture, food or grains are considered to be the offerings of Goddess Annapurna. We have a tradition to start the meal by reciting the Bhojan Mantra before the meal and saluting the plate. There is also a saying, "Take only what is required in the plate so that you don't have to throw it in the drain". 

According to the UN Food Waste Index Report for 2021, in the year 2019;

1. 930 million tonnes of food grains were wasted in the world
2. In this, Indians wasted 60.87 million tonnes of food grains.
3. In this, 61% of the grain was wasted in houses, in the form of leftovers.
4. 26% of food grains wastage was due to hotel-restaurant, and food delivery.
5. Every person in the world wastes 121 kg of food every year. Out of this, they spoil 74 kg of food in the form of leftovers.

That is, the whole world is responsible for the wastage of food. In India, every person leaves 50 kg of food waste in a year. At the same time, every person in America leaves 59 kg of food in a year and in China, every person leaves 64 kg of food. In Pakistan, 74 kg and in the UK 77 kg of food is thrown from each plate into the dustbin annually.

If this food is saved, the stomach of crores of people can be filled. 

According to a UN report, 82 crore people in the world go to bed hungry every night. Had 931 million tonnes of food grains been loaded in trucks, it would have taken 23 million trucks and the queue of those trucks would have been so long that it would have taken 7 rounds of the earth.