By the year 2050, there will 9.6 billion people living on the Earth.
Rick Fruth, former chairman of the United States Grain Council, has a problem with that.
"The question is – can we feed this many people?" he said. "Can we do this?"
The answer to his question is global food security, and Fruth shared that message with Bowling Green
State University’s Global Management and Leadership organization Monday evening.
"Global food security is a national security issue for the United States," he said. "If
the rest of the world isn’t secure, then we aren’t secure."
While it may sound simple, global food security is a complex, political operation that means different
things to different people.
For every citizen, this type of security is a right, but that’s where the similarities end.
"For you, it probably means going to Kroger and buying a melon that you know you’re not going to get
sick over. It means food safety. It means having enough food," he said. "To a lot of people in
the world, food security means knowing they’ll be able to get enough food to survive."
So knowing the population will increase by more than 51 percent by the year 2100, Fruth explained what
three factors will be crucial to feeding the world.
Migration, technology and trade, when used together, can be the answer to the big global food security
question.
Years ago, the farming world saw a great migration to "the new world." People moved to fertile
lands in the middle of the United States, Argentina and Brazil.
This relieved pressure on more heavily-populated areas.
"It’s environmental urbanization of society," he said. "It’s why you can be in this room
studying what you’re studying instead of working in some patch of existence in Timbuktu."
After the great farming migration followed an even greater evolution in technology – technology that has
changed the farming landscape forever.
"My dad is 86 and when he started farming, he had a team of horses helping him plant corn,"
Fruth said. "By comparison today, we’ve got tractors controlled by GPS. We’ve got more technology
in farming tractors than what they used when they sent man to the moon."
A major component farming technology is the use of transgenetic or genetically-modified crops.
Scientists are able to take a gene from one crop and mix it with the gene of another to produce
faster-growing, healthier outputs.
"Is that a little bit scary? A little bit spooky?" Fruth said. "I’m here to tell you it’s
not."
People’s fear of food-based technologies goes back hundreds of years.
When potatoes were first brought to Europe, people believed it was the devil’s handiwork.
"Potatoes were not mentioned in the Bible. They grew underground, so people thought they were
clearly evil," he said. "People were scared because it was new."
Fruth said he hopes just like in the 1600s, people in the 21st century will stop fearing what will
ultimately be good for them.
The last major component to global security is trade. It’s an area where Fruth believes the United States
is doing well.
"Where is the food grown in the world?" he said. "You’re right in the middle of the
largest corn producer in the world."
Fruth himself worked on more open trade for nine years as part of the United States Grain Council and the
Ohio Corn Promotion Board.
"You have to ask yourself how to do the most good for the most people?" he said.
That answer came in the form of recent trade numbers. Trade between Mexico and the United States has
grown six-fold in the past two decades.
Some say Mexico gets all the advantage from that agreement and Fruth said it’s not the case – it’s a
two-way street with "both benefitting."
Despite the obvious reasons, Fruth asked the group of business majors why they should care about global
food security.
"The global agriculture business is a big business. It’s huge," he said. "I’m suggesting
to you that there are opportunities for you in agriculture."
Business major and Global Management and Leadership officer Jim Jacobs is glad Fruth ended his
presentation with that promise. As a member of a farming family, Jacobs hopes his fellow students took
Fruth’s last sentiments to heart.
"Business students get so focused on working for places like insurance companies," Jacobs said.
"If they take off their tie and work coat, they could have a career they could really enjoy."