that two-thirds of the cultivated cropland is planted with cereals and 

 that more than 50 percent of our direct energy intake comes from 

 grain such as rice and wheat. 



Food production has increased enormously during this century. 

 Although the increase in land devoted to crops accounts for much of 

 the growth, science and technology have contributed in major ways. 

 Selective breeding, based on genetics, has resulted in highly 

 productive new breeds. The mechanization of agriculture has raised 

 productivity substantially. Irrigation has played a significant role by 

 making possible and profitable the cultivation of areas otherwise 

 unusable or marginally productive. The extensive use of chemical 

 fertilizers — which has been estimated to account for at least a fourth 

 of the total food supply — can triple or quadruple the productivity of 

 soils when used in conjunction with other inputs and appropriate 

 practices. Finally, the chemical control of diseases, insects, and weeds 

 has helped greatly in reaching the present high level of food 

 production. 



Despite these gains, it is increasingly difficult to meet the growing 

 world demand for food. The present mismatch between food supply 

 and demand has many signs: the recent abrupt decrease in food 

 supplies at a time of increasing demand; massive purchases of grain on 

 the world market, such as the Soviet Union's large purchase of wheat 

 from the United States and China's from Canada; depletion of grain 

 reserves; rapidly rising food prices around the world; and, most 

 distressing, starvation among the peoples of sub-Sahara Africa and 

 some areas of Asia. 



The causes of the disparity between supply and demand are 

 numerous. Bad weather in many parts of the world in recent years 

 reduced the level of food production. Cutbacks in the acreage devoted 

 to wheat were made by the major grain exporting countries (Australia, 

 Canada, and the United States) in the late 1960's and early 1970's in an 

 effort to maintain price levels. Grain reserves in North America, long 

 used to redress shortages occurring elsewhere, were allowed to 

 decline in order to meet the growing demand. The supply problem was 

 worsened also by the decline in the world's fish catch, the most 

 mysterious element of which was the temporary disappearance of 

 anchovetta off the Peruvian coast — a source of 20 percent of the entire 

 world catch of fish. 



Two factors, both of a long-term nature, figure prominently in 

 present and future relationships between supply and demand: 

 continuing population growth and the rising demand for more food of 

 higher quality, primarily animal protein, in Europe, Japan, and the 

 USSR. 



Although food production has advanced rapidly, so has 

 population. The growth in food production has been roughly the same 



15 



