Higher Costs, Food Shortages A Likely Future

The planet may be entering a new era of food shortages on a global scale.

According to Yahoo! News, a book by Earth Policy Institute president Lester Brown reveals that food prices have doubled over the past ten years and will likely continue to rise.

The changing environment may be to blame. Increased temperatures around the globe are having a detrimental effect on crops and wildlife alike. Soil erosion is eating away at once-fertile fields, removing 30 percent of topsoil worldwide. Large dustbowls are forming in response to this shift, most notably in Central Africa and Northwestern China. Irrigation wells and aquifers in the U.S. and 17 other countries are depleting.

Brown speculates that due to the changing environment, world food production will likely decrease, leading to shortages. He continues that countries may compete for fertile land and fresh water as these resources become scant.

Officials believe these dramatic and dangerous changes could be the effects of climate change, possibly stemming in part from human pollution of the environment.