When we start looking toward the future it appears to be a place with a lot of rather ominous shadows cast over it.
In this case the future I am thinking about is not immediate. In fact I am thinking a ways beyond the years I am likely to witness first-hand.
While I have less than 50-years ahead, under the best of possible circumstances, I do have children, and hopefully one day grandchildren who will see the start of the next century and beyond.
Of course that will only be possible if we as a global society come to terms with some massive issues looming on the horizon.
On top of the list will be how we grow enough food for our growing population.
There are a couple of constants we know for sure.
One the world population is growing, and there does not appear to be any controlling that, at least within the foreseeable future. Any efforts in that regard come with massive moral and ethical debates I am not even willing to wade into.
The second aspect is those new mouths will need to be fed.
And that comes back to farmers.
There is finite land to produce food on, a land base which is actually likely to shrink from urban sprawl, desertification, and similar things which are taking acres out of production.
Urban sprawl is even happening here in Saskatchewan. Take the city of Yorkton. It has purchased land around the city to facilitate growth in the near future. The land is currently farm land, and while the few quarters in isolation may not seem like the loss of a lot of land to farming, when you multiply it by all the cities around the world, the impact becomes rather significant rather quickly.
Technology is helping to offset land loss and other factors by increasing production.
The move to zero-tillage systems, using a better package of crop nutrients, and utilizing precision farming techniques has meant more production from the same acres, at least here in North America.
The same tech can transfer to a broader world of course and in time it will have to.
But that will not happen quickly.
There is the issue of the money needed to make that transfer, but in time it will have to happen.
Of course there is also the backlash against high tech farming.
In spite of most of us recognizing the need for more food, with generally full fridges in the developed world we can stand back and have the debate over whether we should use intensive techniques. Farmers here could grow food for North America using less tech, but to feed a larger world that will not cut it.
And the basic issue of food production has other hurdles it will need to overcome.
Climate change will mean dramatic changes to what grows where in this world, and how that impacts food production a half century from now can only be vaguely guessed at.
Resources too are finite. It is a case of when, and not if, oil and gas reserves run out.
We assume science will solve that question, but steps in reducing reliance on oil and gas are currently small at best.
Add in a reluctance to make any serious effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture faces a lot of unknowns in the decades ahead.
The issues are something world leaders need to start seriously addressing now for the sake of our children, grandchildren, and generations beyond.
