Cargando…
When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs?
Sustainably feeding the next generation is often described as one of the most pressing “grand challenges” facing the 21(st) century. Generally, scholars propose addressing this problem by increasing agricultural production, investing in technology to boost yields, changing diets, or reducing food wa...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2018
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198966/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30352069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205683 |
_version_ | 1783365049343016960 |
---|---|
author | KC, Krishna Bahadur Dias, Goretty M. Veeramani, Anastasia Swanton, Clarence J. Fraser, David Steinke, Dirk Lee, Elizabeth Wittman, Hannah Farber, Jeffrey M. Dunfield, Kari McCann, Kevin Anand, Madhur Campbell, Malcolm Rooney, Neil Raine, Nigel E. Acker, Rene Van Hanner, Robert Pascoal, Samantha Sharif, Shayan Benton, Tim G. Fraser, Evan D. G. |
author_facet | KC, Krishna Bahadur Dias, Goretty M. Veeramani, Anastasia Swanton, Clarence J. Fraser, David Steinke, Dirk Lee, Elizabeth Wittman, Hannah Farber, Jeffrey M. Dunfield, Kari McCann, Kevin Anand, Madhur Campbell, Malcolm Rooney, Neil Raine, Nigel E. Acker, Rene Van Hanner, Robert Pascoal, Samantha Sharif, Shayan Benton, Tim G. Fraser, Evan D. G. |
author_sort | KC, Krishna Bahadur |
collection | PubMed |
description | Sustainably feeding the next generation is often described as one of the most pressing “grand challenges” facing the 21(st) century. Generally, scholars propose addressing this problem by increasing agricultural production, investing in technology to boost yields, changing diets, or reducing food waste. In this paper, we explore whether global food production is nutritionally balanced by comparing the diet that nutritionists recommend versus global agricultural production statistics. Results show that the global agricultural system currently overproduces grains, fats, and sugars while production of fruits and vegetables and protein is not sufficient to meet the nutritional needs of the current population. Correcting this imbalance could reduce the amount of arable land used by agriculture by 51 million ha globally but would increase total land used for agriculture by 407 million ha and increase greenhouse gas emissions. For a growing population, our calculations suggest that the only way to eat a nutritionally balanced diet, save land and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to consume and produce more fruits and vegetables as well as transition to diets higher in plant-based protein. Such a move will help protect habitats and help meet the Sustainable Development Goals. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6198966 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-61989662018-11-19 When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs? KC, Krishna Bahadur Dias, Goretty M. Veeramani, Anastasia Swanton, Clarence J. Fraser, David Steinke, Dirk Lee, Elizabeth Wittman, Hannah Farber, Jeffrey M. Dunfield, Kari McCann, Kevin Anand, Madhur Campbell, Malcolm Rooney, Neil Raine, Nigel E. Acker, Rene Van Hanner, Robert Pascoal, Samantha Sharif, Shayan Benton, Tim G. Fraser, Evan D. G. PLoS One Research Article Sustainably feeding the next generation is often described as one of the most pressing “grand challenges” facing the 21(st) century. Generally, scholars propose addressing this problem by increasing agricultural production, investing in technology to boost yields, changing diets, or reducing food waste. In this paper, we explore whether global food production is nutritionally balanced by comparing the diet that nutritionists recommend versus global agricultural production statistics. Results show that the global agricultural system currently overproduces grains, fats, and sugars while production of fruits and vegetables and protein is not sufficient to meet the nutritional needs of the current population. Correcting this imbalance could reduce the amount of arable land used by agriculture by 51 million ha globally but would increase total land used for agriculture by 407 million ha and increase greenhouse gas emissions. For a growing population, our calculations suggest that the only way to eat a nutritionally balanced diet, save land and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to consume and produce more fruits and vegetables as well as transition to diets higher in plant-based protein. Such a move will help protect habitats and help meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Public Library of Science 2018-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6198966/ /pubmed/30352069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205683 Text en © 2018 KC et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article KC, Krishna Bahadur Dias, Goretty M. Veeramani, Anastasia Swanton, Clarence J. Fraser, David Steinke, Dirk Lee, Elizabeth Wittman, Hannah Farber, Jeffrey M. Dunfield, Kari McCann, Kevin Anand, Madhur Campbell, Malcolm Rooney, Neil Raine, Nigel E. Acker, Rene Van Hanner, Robert Pascoal, Samantha Sharif, Shayan Benton, Tim G. Fraser, Evan D. G. When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs? |
title | When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs? |
title_full | When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs? |
title_fullStr | When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs? |
title_full_unstemmed | When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs? |
title_short | When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs? |
title_sort | when too much isn’t enough: does current food production meet global nutritional needs? |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198966/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30352069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205683 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT kckrishnabahadur whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT diasgorettym whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT veeramanianastasia whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT swantonclarencej whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT fraserdavid whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT steinkedirk whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT leeelizabeth whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT wittmanhannah whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT farberjeffreym whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT dunfieldkari whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT mccannkevin whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT anandmadhur whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT campbellmalcolm whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT rooneyneil whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT rainenigele whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT ackerrenevan whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT hannerrobert whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT pascoalsamantha whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT sharifshayan whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT bentontimg whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds AT fraserevandg whentoomuchisntenoughdoescurrentfoodproductionmeetglobalnutritionalneeds |