We are running out of arable land.

In fact, according to FAO we are currently using 80% of all productive land with a need for 20% more within the next 40-50 years. This seems 'do-able' until you take into account that 15% of all arable land is being mismanaged or being lost to salinity or pollution.

And it's getting worse...

Changing climates are forcing droughts and floods to wreak havoc across our pasture lands while greater world needs ensure farmers are removing more trees. Broad-acre farms are becoming dust bowls and losing yields every year as pest and diseases ravage what little crops are being produced.

Project this dire situation forward 40 years and add another 3 billion people to the world's population and suddenly you have a gigantic catastrophe waiting to happen.

Unless, of course, there is a paradigm shift in our thinking and we begin to answer some of the questions that scientists have been asking for decades.

We fail constantly at feeding the 6.5 billion we have on this planet now let alone increasing that by 50%.

Kris Litman, who took this photo, states in his comments;

Every 3.6 seconds, or the time from one breath to the next, someone in this world dies from hunger. That's 24,000 deaths a day, or over 8 and a half million deaths a year. These deaths are mostly children.

1 in 7 people of this world live in chronic hunger, which is defined as not having a single day of one's life receiving adequate nutrition. That's the same number of people that live in the world's developed nations.

In my hands are 3 ounces of rice. The average person living in chronic hunger receives only this amount of food...daily.

Our attempt to solve the crisis...

The shift for most people has been to start growing fruit and vegetables on their own land. The self-sustainable life has been touted as the way of the future and permaculture has moved from cringe-factor-60's-thinking to a plausible response to the world's food problems.

But, it just can't work. As most of the world's population live in urban centres with nothing more than a balcony as their source for growing any vegetation. Those that have land are limited to postage stamp blocks where they can add a fruit tree or two and grow a handful of vegetables to supplement their daily requirements.

In other words, self-sustainable gardeners are becoming the new elite.

Those that can grow enough from their own land are in the minority, mainly because most people don't have enough land to produce their food needs. Those that don't, have to rely on regulatory board pricing, seasonal availability, climate and pest plagues in the hope that they will have enough food to eat.

And I'm not talking about the third world here. That's another issue entirely.

There's got to be a better way...

I truly believe there is. In an age where technology can grow and adapt taking our civilization forward every 5 years, it astounds me why we still think of farming within a 'box' that was handed down to us from our forefathers. Land is 'King' and trees and forests are the enemy stopping us from securing better yields and better quality foods.

Crap!!!

Allow me to throw a few technologies into the ring. Firstly, hydroponics has been around for quite some time and advances are being made more and more in producing organic results. The benefits are incredible: consistent yields, no pests and minimal disease spread, lower water use and no heavy machinery.

Second, our ability to harvest water. This has only come about because we are facing such shortages. Average rainfalls are becoming anything but average and most arable land seasonally falls victim to droughts or floods. Water is a precious commodity but it's not impossible to source and in fact, we are getting better at doing it.

Finally, our strength at building UP. I don't understand why we haven't grasped this idea yet. We keep extending farms laterally somehow expecting that it will never come to an end. Alas, it is a limited resource.

However, going up is not a problem. There's more room above the earth's surface than across it.

I've often thought about this problem and the solution I'm prescribing and wondered if it was at all possible and whether scientists would ever 'give it a go.' To my amazement, I stumbled upon a site that was developing some of these ideas.

The Vertical Farm Project.

Who knows - we may actually end up with farms in our cities rather than in rural centres. And, the technology is not that expensive that it can succeed in New York, Paris or Lilongwe.