ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the supply-side factors in modern food production and distribution. There are several basic approaches to dealing with the reality of the persistence of hunger in a world of plenty. The most common solution advanced is to increase the amount of food produced. In 1967 the US President’s Scientific Advisory Committee on the World Food Problem estimated the world’s potential arable land at 3,190 million hectares. Traditionally, the very term “efficiency” has been linked to the effective use of energy. It is a comparison of production in relation to the cost of energy — the ratio of energy produced by a system compared to the amount of energy required to make it run. Energy resources will be needed in increasing amounts if agricultural production is to be increased in the underdeveloped countries. The goal set by the Food and Agriculture Organization in Agriculture: Toward 2000 calls for “a steep increase in the use of commercial energy.”
