A Technology That Could End Food Shortages

I’m always volunteering and trying my best to make an impact on my community. Around this time of the year, I try even harder to help anyone who might need it. I truly believe a little help goes a long way.

A friend recently told me that one in eight people suffers from chronic undernourishment. And almost all of the people who are hungry — 780 million — are living in developing countries.

While the number of undernourished people has dropped by over 20% since 1992, there are still 815 million who don’t have enough to eat.

Then I came across an even more gut-wrenching statistic from The Hunger Project: Nearly half of all deaths in children under five are attributable to under-nutrition. This translates into the unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year.

These children had no choice or even a chance of survival. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a parent of one of those children. As a parent, you fight to make sure your child survives. Experiencing your child’s death because of uncontrollable factors has to be one of the hardest things to live with. You tried your hardest as a parent, but because of the location and environment in which you live, your child’s life was taken from you.

After finding that out, I couldn’t stop researching more about world hunger. I came across another really surprising statistic from The Hunger Project. It reported that 50% of people who are hungry come from farming families.

How could this be? You’d think farming families would have access to food and wouldn’t be affected by hunger and undernourishment.

Will We Ever Solve World Hunger?

I went further into a whirlwind of research, trying to find some kind of solution to this problem.

It’s 2017, almost 2018. Why isn’t more effort going into reversing these statistics? There has to be some kind of solution in the works to solve world hunger.

That’s when I came across agricultural genetic engineering as a solution to this global problem.

Humans need to have a healthy diet to survive. I know that sounds like one of the simplest pieces of knowledge, but the truth is that 815 million people in the world don’t have enough food to lead a healthy and active life.

It’s possible that some people are getting enough food, but the food they’re consuming may not contain the essential nutrients required for basic nutrition.

Not to mention the environmental conditions that create food shortages, including drought, salinity, floods, hurricanes, and diseases.

These things are out of anyone’s control. People can prepare for the worst, but that doesn’t mean damage won’t still be done. The world doesn’t even produce enough food for everyone’s consumption, so it definitely won’t be prepared to feed everyone if some type of environmental disaster happens.

The world needs to produce 50% to 100% more food than it currently is to ensure that everyone suffering from hunger is nourished.

It doesn’t help when an entire crop yield is harmed by insects, diseases, and weeds. Farmers do everything they can to protect their crops. After all, their crops are their livelihood.

Doing More Harm Than Good

Recently, Monsanto (NYSE: MON), a company that provides agricultural products for farmers worldwide, announced that it will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy its weedkiller that has been linked to widespread crop damage.

Monsanto is offering its product XtendiMax with VaporGrip, a herbicide based on a chemical known as dicamba, at half the normal price of the product in 2018 if farmers spray it on soybeans that Monsanto engineered to resist it.

Honestly, it doesn’t seem like farmers are really winning in this situation. I mean, sure, they’ll be able to grow soybeans, and hopefully they won’t be damaged, but now they’ll be reliant on Monsanto’s soybeans and products. This cash-back deal was most likely created for Monsanto to increase its sales.

This year, the U.S. faced an agricultural crisis caused by these new formulations of dicamba-based herbicides. Farmers and weed experts say these new formulations are harming crops. 

So what can we do? We need more food, but the food that is being produced isn’t surviving. Not only is it not surviving, but the crops that are surviving aren’t providing people with the nutrients they need.

This Technology Could Solve a Global Crisis

My colleague Jason Stutman has been telling me about a biotech company that has developed a technology with the power to end food shortages.

And it doesn’t stop there. This breakthrough technology will be able to produce food that is enriched with the nutrients needed for a balanced diet.

The company is doing this through gene editing, and it will make genetically modified organisms (GMOs) obsolete.

The technology has the potential to make crops resilient to environmental conditions that would otherwise kill a crop. It also has the ability to give a crop its own immune system to repel pests.

The biotech company is using its gene-editing technology to develop food products that will last longer, hold more nutrients, and have higher yields.

Imagine the possibilities that this technology will have for world hunger and food shortages. If developing countries are able to grow their own food that won’t be destroyed or damaged by environmental conditions, then those people who normally wouldn’t have any food would no longer have to go without.

And the food they have will be enriched with nutrients that are crucial for proper development and nutrition.

Those 3 million children who lose their lives every year because of hunger and malnutrition have a chance at survival. This biotech company and its gene-editing technology are going to do some really great things for humans worldwide.

If you’re interested in learning more about the technology, then you should check out our Investing After Hours podcast with Jason. He goes into more detail about the technology I’ve briefly touched on in this article.

I recommend you check it out. It’s a great listen!

You can listen here.

Until next time,

Monica Savaglia
Wealth Daily