A New Food Documentery

From the celebrity Chef Tom Colicchio and the producers of Food, Inc comes a new documentary on food entitled A Place at the Table slate for release in March.  I look forward to watching it.  

I see that the subtitle of the new documentary is One Nation Underfed.  I haven't, of course, seen the documentary, but their web site suggests that the film will focus on the problem of hunger.  Ironically, however, here are the folks involved in the movie: 

 sociologist Janet Poppendieck, author Raj Patel and nutrition policy leader Marion Nestle; ordinary citizens like Pastor Bob Wilson and teachers Leslie Nichols and Odessa Cherry; and activists such as Witness to Hunger’s Mariana Chilton, Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio and Oscar®-winning actor Jeff Bridges

Some of these people have been on record in the past talking about how we Americans are Over-fed . And, they've been on record as harshly criticizing precisely those firms and technologies that have made food more convenient and affordable than it once was.  I wish for once the producers of these documentaries would pick (even at random) some of the excellent agricultural scientists working in Land Grant Universities across the U.S. to weigh in on some of these issues.  

I'll withhold final judgement till I watch the movie.  For the time being, however, I will say that I am more sympathetic to the angle that seems to be taken in this food documentary than I was with many of the other's I've seen.  Let's hope this time around the facts are presented in a balanced manner and the suggested alternatives are more well reasoned.  

The Power of Agricultural Productivty Growth

Thomas Malthus has been wrong for the past 100 years.  Here's hoping that scientific progress continues to abate Malthus's dire predictions.

My TEDx talk is up

If you care to watch my TEDx talk from a couple weeks back, it is now up.  I'm not sure why the organizers gave it the title they did, but the talk is really about food innovation, food prices, and the poor.

Oklahoma State University Professor Jayson Lusk researches many aspects of the economics of food health, safety and quality. Lusk points out in his TEDxOStateU talk that an ideology that blanket-rejects "unnatural" food is one that will ultimately doom us to poverty.

The Need for Agricultural Research

Five agricultural economists published an article in the latest issue of Science on the effects of public and private R&D spending on agricultural research.   

Here is the summary:

Most of the increase in global agricultural production over the past half-century has come from raising crop and livestock yields rather than through area expansion. This growth in productivity is attributed largely to investments in research and innovation (1). Since around 1990, there has been a decline in the rate of growth in yield per area harvested for several important crops (2). In parallel, the rate of growth in public spending on agricultural research and development (R&D) has also fallen, which may account for declining crop yield growth and may be contributing to rising food prices (3).

To this, I would add that a deluge of books and documentaries on food have demonized precisely those research developments responsible for yield growth.  It's hard to know exactly what effect these cultural influences have had on firm and government decisions to invest in agricultural research.  

However, many in the food community haven't connected the dots.  Mark Bittman wrote just two days ago about hunger, saying:

It seems absurd to have to say it, but no one in this country should go hungry.

His answer for the problem was more government spending on food stamps and food banks.  Yet, he has repeatedly denounced modern agricultural technologies and has called for food policies that will ultimately increase food prices.  

There is the old saying that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; If you teach him how to fish, you can feed him for a lifetime.  Food stamps give people fish for the day.  Developments in agricultural R&D are the gifts that keep on giving.   

How will we feed 9 billion people?

That's the question asked in a great video by Evan Fraser at the University of Guelph.  I don't agree with all of this solutions but he provides some good food for thought on an important question that often gets overlooked in food discussions.

By 2050 there will be 9 billion people on the planet - but will there be enough food for everyone? Food security expert Dr Evan Fraser guides you through a whiteboard presentation of his solution to the Global Food Crisis. See www.feedingninebillion.com for more details