The Coming Famine - 9780520260719

"The Coming Famine is an erudite and learned analysis of humanity's greatest challenge. At this very minute we are jeopardizing the rights to food for a billion people, and the effects will be felt by us all through migration, dietary changes, and increased health risks, whether we believe it or not. This is a book all thinking people should read."-Professor Lindsay Falvey, University of Cambridge

"Julian Cribb warns with a well-synthesized evidence base about a potential famine in the making. The food crisis is already a daily reality for one billion people. The book offers not just a warning but sound guidance for the needed actions; easily understandable but suitably comprehensive, leaving no excuse for inaction."-Joachim von Braun, Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute

In the Coming Famine, Julian Cribb lays out a vivid picture of impending planetary crisis-a global food shortage that threatens to hit by midcentury-which he argues would dwarf any in our previous experience. Cribb's comprehensive assessment points to a dangerous confluence of shortages-of water, land, energy, technology, and knowledge-combined with an increased demand created by population and economic growth. Writing in brisk, accessible prose, Cribb explains how the food system interacts with the environment and with armed conflict, poverty, and other societal factors. He shows that high food prices and regional shortages are already sending out shockwaves in the international community. he warns that the heightened risk of regional famines will have a planetwide effect on food prices, trade, and conflict and will generate new waves of refugees. But, far from outlining a doomsday scenario, The Coming Famine is a strong and positive call to action, exploring the greatest issue of our age and providing practical suggestions for addressing and averting each of the major challenges it raises.