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which is expected to rise by 60% over the coming 30 years – and to generate electricity for the
1.3 billion people currently without it,” said the report.
11 Overeating, undernourishment and waste are all on the rise and increased food production
may face future constraints from water scarcity.
12 “We will need a new recipe to feed the world in the future,” said the report’s editor, Anders
Jägerskog.
13 A separate report from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said the best
way for countries to protect millions of farmers from food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa and
south Asia was to help them invest in small pumps and simple technology, rather than to
develop expensive, large-scale irrigation projects.
14 “We’ve witnessed again and again what happens to the world’s poor – the majority of whom
depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and already suffer from water scarcity – when they
are at the mercy of our fragile global food system,” said Dr Colin Chartres, the Director
General.
15 “Farmers across the developing world are increasingly relying on and benefiting from small-
scale, locally-relevant water solutions. [These] techniques could increase yields up to 300% and
add tens of billions of US dollars to household revenues across sub-Saharan Africa and south
Asia.”
© Guardian News and Media 2012
First published in The Guardian, 26/08/12
Level 2 Intermediate
Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists
John Vidal, environment editor 26 August, 2012
1 Water scientists have given one of the strongest warnings ever about global food supplies.
They say that the world’s population may have to change almost completely to a vegetarian diet
by 2050 to avoid catastrophic shortages.
2 Humans get about 20% of their protein from animal-based products now. However, this may
need to decrease to just 5% to feed the extra two billion people expected to be alive by 2050,
according to research by some of the world’s top water scientists.
3 “There will not be enough water to produce food for the expected nine-billion population in
2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in western nations,” the
report by Malik Falkenmark and colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute
(SIWI) said.
4 “There will be just enough water if the proportion of animal-based foods is limited to 5% of
total calories.”
5 Warnings that water scarcity could limit food production come at the same time as Oxfam and
the UN prepare for a possible second global food crisis in five years. Prices for items such as
corn and wheat have risen nearly 50% on international markets since June. The price increase
has been caused by severe droughts in the US and Russia, and weak monsoon rains in Asia.
More than 18 million people are already facing serious food shortages across the Sahel.
6 Oxfam says that the price increase will have a devastating effect in developing countries that
rely heavily on food imports, including parts of Latin America, North Africa and the Middle
East. Food shortages in 2008 led to fighting and riots in 28 countries.
7 Changing to a vegetarian diet is one way to increase the amount of water available to grow
more food in a world where the climate is becoming increasingly erratic, the scientists said.
Animal protein-rich food uses five to ten times more water than a vegetarian diet. One third of
the world’s arable land is used to grow crops to feed animals. Other options to feed people
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