ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the world food problem as shaped and influenced by climate. Harshly variable climate leads to erratic food supplies, particularly in developing countries which lack the financial, institutional, and technological means to cope with weather-induced food shortfalls. Climate thus contributes fundamentally to malnutrition and an ever-present threat of famine in much of the world. Climate’s impact on agricultural productivity depends in good measure on the farming system employed. Large-scale, nonirrigated monoculture, such as that practiced on the plains of India and steppes of the Soviet Union, is especially vulnerable to climate anomalies. During World War II, hard-pressed Germany proved that a human food can be produced from nonagricultural materials when it made 100 thousand metric tons of edible fat by chemical synthesis, starting from coal. All of the basic nutrients in food—proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins—can be produced by synthesis; and balanced, attractive, edible products can be fabricated by modern food engineering.
