Lisa Palmer’s book, Hot, Hungry Planet, The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change, presents seven case studies of individuals working in different continents in the race against hunger, noting that “with a growing population, the demand for rice and other cereals is expected to rise by 14 percent every decade.”
A journalist, and affiliate of George Washington University’s Global Food Institute, Palmer explores how farmers are adopting new technologies and land management strategies to increase productivity while minimizing environmental harm such as “climate-smart villages,” where farmers apply solar-powered irrigation systems to manage and conserve water, reduce carbon emissions, and sell excess energy back to the local electrical grid. Regenerative agriculture methods such as no-till farming and cover cropping can help capture and sequester carbon out of the air.
Her case studies are drawn from farms in India, Uganda, Kenya, the U.S. Colombia, Syria and Indonesia. She writes, “We are on the cusp of a global food crisis… How is the global food system meeting the demands of people right now? Of the more than 7 billion people in the world, about 1 in 6 go to bed hungry every night. This is not because we don’t have enough food.” She points to the growing paradox: “once people have sufficient funds to afford food, they almost immediately want better food, which puts greater strain on the food system.” As a result, she observes, “the rapid rise of the global middle class is driving half the increase in the world’s predicted food consumption To prevent more hunger, farmers would have to more than double their production by 2050.”
She extolls drought-tolerant maize and heat-resistant crop varieties. She argues for plant-based proteins instead of livestock, which demands more inputs.
She points to advances in precision agriculture, using satellite remote sensing and drones for crop monitoring and soil sensors. For growing urban populations, she points to vertical farms (indoor, high-tech farms using LED lighting and hydroponics) which can locate food production nearer to cities, reducing transportation costs and emissions. She further gives examples of how integrating trees into agricultural landscapes (including “forest gardens”) can enhance biodiversity, improve soil health, and promote ecosystem services.
See: https://smpa.gwu.edu/anneliese-lisa-palmer
