February 9, 1996. Copyright, 1996, Graphic News. All rights reserved

FEEDING THE WORLD WITH GRANDPAÕS ALLOTMENT
By Nicholas Booth, Science Editor

LONDON, February 9, Graphic News Ð Food shortages are in the news again. Recent sharp rises in the price of grain have triggered an impassioned debate over the future of food supplies and the imbalance between the first and third world. International experts and bodies like the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN organisation based in Rome, agree. World stocks of cereals are at a twenty year low, and have fallen below the minimum necessary to safeguard the security of world food supplies.

So is a world food crisis nigh? Not necessarily, suggest analysts who believe that food supplies can be maintained by investing in agricultural development and expanding research worldwide into health, nutrition and education. Genetic engineering also represents a fearsome weapon in the armoury against hunger Ð helping produce crops more resistant to blight and giving greater yields. But there is a significant caveat: too much dependence on the same genes Ð the botanic equivalent of in-breeding Ð makes species more vulnerable to pandemic disease. In a nutshell, that is what happened in 19th century Ireland when the potato crop was virtually wiped out by fungal infection. 

In todayÕs environmentally-conscious age, it is ironic to reflect that selective breeding in  the 1960s caused the problem in the first place when ÔidentikitÕ crops heralded the start of the green revolution. To ensure genetic diversity, seed pools have to be maintained Ð which is where Grandpa and his allotment come in. Today, seeds from an estimated ten thousand species are banked in official repositories worldwide, a mere fraction of the estimated quarter of a million which exist in nature. 

A small Ð but increasingly important Ð proportion come from  gardeners and members of Ôseed swapÕ clubs, spurred on by the knowledge that they are doing their bit for biodiversity. Purely for fun, the keenest gardeners exchange seeds which are listed in their specialist newsletters: the American Seed Savers Exchange, for example, lists 14 pages of different tomato seeds which are available for swapping. Many seeds would simply have disappeared had it not been for the determined efforts of elderly people maintaining seeds for pleasure in their own garden boxes and allotments.

In the battle for biodiversity, every little bit will help, report experts in the field. Each year there are roughly 90 million more mouths to feed in developing countries alone, and according to the FAO, some 800 million people Ð of whom 200 million are children Ð are chronically undernourished there. TodayÕs global population accounts for 5.8 billion people, and food production will have to increase by more than 75 per cent to maintain the feeding of the population of 9 billion expected by 2030. Though scientific developments will help, governments must be aware of the magnitude of the problem. This November, the FAO is organising a World Food Summit, with the slogan ÔFood For AllÕ, where politicians from around the world will discuss this pressing issue for the next millennium.

Sources: Food and Agriculture Organisation, International Food Policy Research Institute, Royal Botanical Gardens

NOTE TO EDITORS: The issue of sustainability and biodiversity is being discussed today and tomorrow at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement Of Science in Baltimore. News editors can obtain more information by calling the AAAS Newsroom on 00 1 410 347 2792