Think about how much food you
eat each day. Now think about how big the human population is and how much food
is needed to feed all of those people.
One thing is universal and
that is our need to eat to sustain our lives. Without food we can no longer
exist. We fail to realise that by allowing our cities to grow without
interruption, we are literally and rapidly starving ourselves. Urbanisation is
threatening food supplies all across the planet.The rapid loss of agricultural land is prevalent throughout the world, and clearly shows that crops cannot compete with the sprawl characteristics of cities. Urban centres have forgotten that their existence is totally dependent upon the rural areas surrounding them. The continued rise in population rates is so adversely affecting the carrying capacity of the planet, making aspects of food production much more worrisome and problematic.
With almost half of New Zealand’s land area committed to pasture and crops we could assume there is still plenty of land to spare.
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub raises serious concerns whether New Zealanders have been lulled into a sense there is plenty of land to go around in our supposedly lightly populated country.
Many of our urban communities grew up as support centres for the agricultural community around them. Pukekohe would be an example. But is it the best use of land? What happens to our ability to produce food when that high quality land is taken out of production? Once it has gone into houses, you don’t get it back.
According to Landcare research
only 5% of our land is fertile and versatile enough to produce food without the
need for ‘significant manipulation’. Examples of ‘Manipulation’ include
fertiliser and irrigation. So would the population be prepared to let farmers
use more fertiliser and develop more irrigation to produce the food lost as a
result of urban sprawl? Given their view of agriculture has been negatively
well conditioned by shrieking lobby groups supported by mainstream media, I’m
confidently predicting the answer is ‘No’.
Without doubt, good quality
food is a necessity.
Horticulture NZ tells us that
productive land to the south of Auckland is a mere 4,300 hectares. Taking the
land out of production over the years could cost up to 4,500 fulltime jobs and
mean fruit and vegetable prices in Auckland would go up 58%.
From 2002 to 2016, NZ’s
vegetable growing area declined by 30%. The area of land devoted to
agricultural fell by almost a million hectares in the decade to 2012. For the
growth of 100,000 extra people, about 2,100 hectares of residential area is
required.
New Zealand has limited
national information on how quickly our versatile land is shifting to urban
use. Auckland will gain another 26,000 people a year between now and 2050. Not
only is the soil lost, but the population that needs feeding from the remaining
land will have grown by a third. And with a city bursting with people there is
the associated demands for more roads, motorways and upgraded sewers and storm
water systems.
The research agency Motu
recommends shifting from meat and milk production to horticulture, requiring at
least 100,000 hectares more horticultural land and possibly up to 250,000
hectares.
Estimates suggest that by 2050
food production will need to have increased by 60% on 2005 levels to feed a
growing global population.
In the last past 40 years,
earth has lost one third of its arable land. Research has calculated that nearly
33% of the world’s adequate or high quality food producing land has been lost.Published in the Franklin County News, Thursday 14 March 2019, page 6, Conversations, "Is there enough food to eat."
