ABSTRACT
For governments in East and South Asia ensuring the food security of their populations is not just an issue of dealing with poverty, but also of safeguarding their food supply. The global demand for living biomass is driven by three forces: population growth, rising incomes and the substitution of living for fossil biomass in non-food products. Population growth is subject to the demographic transition: once a society attains modern economic growth, its population skyrockets before stabilizing at high levels. A factor that restricts the global scope for 'gap filling' are the claims on natural resources for purposes other than producing living biomass. Technical breakthroughs are hampered by a deadlock between large corporations trying to sell a one-sided model of agro-industrial innovation and an environmental movement that is inimical to all high-tech solutions. Politics will first of all decide to what extent hunger will be reduced in the short term.
