Global food production needs to double by 2050 to achieve food security, survey shows

Global food production will have to increase 70 to 100 percent by 2050 to feed the world's predicted nine billion people, and that increase is only possible if more sustainable farming methods are used, according to the U.N.'s annual World Economic and Social Survey released on Tuesday, VOA News reports (7/5).

The report "said the 2007-2008 food crisis and higher food prices this year 'revealed deep structural problems in the global food system' that contribute to a warmer climate and polluted land and water," the Associated Press writes (7/5).

Ninety-eight percent of the world's 925 million undernourished people live in developing countries, with two-thirds of those concentrated in only six countries - Bangladesh, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, according to Reuters. The report said achieving food security would require radical changes in policies but it would help solve hunger and malnutrition, ease price volatility and help the environment, the news service notes (Evans, 7/5).