December 21 - Why the next world war will be fought over food

The world has a massive food crisis — so big that the World Bank and the United Nations say there won’t be enough food to feed the global population by 2050. But feeding the world is big business.

The world has a massive food crisis on its hands. The crisis is so big that organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations say there won’t be enough food to feed the global population when it jumps from the current seven billion people to nine billion by 2050. Some research even suggests a food scarcity crunch as early as 2030 – just 15 years from now.

The reasons? Severe weather events like droughts and floods, economic hardships, and political unrest in underdeveloped countries, as well as agribusiness expansion.

“To address food security, we need a shift in the way we address poverty and inequality in the world,” Stephen Scanlan, a professor of sociology at Ohio University. “There should be a reframing of food as a fundamental human right in a way that governments actually stand by.”

But feeding the world is big business. Multinational food companies and retailers are heavily involved in food production. Corporations such as Kraft KRFT -0.18% , ConAgra CAG 0.19%, Cargill, and PepsiCo PEP -0.33% dominate global food distribution. Companies like Monsanto MON 0.01% , the biggest maker of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) seeds, promote their high tech products as a way to increase food production.