12: Human Appropriation of Natural Resources  Challenges, Constraints and Ethical Aspects

Feeding a growing world population over the past 40 years required to raise global food, feed and fibre production by 145%. Feeding the world in the future is likely to bring even greater challenges: The FAO long-term projections for global agriculture for the next 40 years foresee an increase in global food output by 60%. All of this output growth will have to come from a very limited resource base, the expansion of which will inevitably result in additional resource stress. As a result, expanding production will require using all existing land, water and biodiversity more judiciously in the future.
This seminar provides an opportunity to take stock of existing human appropriations of the natural resources and provides an outlook into what can be expected to 2050. It provides an overview of the challenges and outlines the major constraints world agriculture is likely to face. It goes beyond the traditional aspects of resource constraints and looks into the likely effect of land and productivity increases on resource quality, notably on GHG emissions and water pollution (AEI).
Seminar topics include:
1. Past Trends and the Outlook for World Agriculture to 2050: Production, Demand and Resources.
2. Land use Change in Agriculture: Taking Stock of Developments and Impacts.
3. The Impact of Biofuels on the Resource Base, Links to Global Agricultural Prices.
4. Cochran v Jevons: Will Technology Save or Destroy Remaining Resources?
5. GHG Emissions from Agriculture, Impacts of Land Use Change and Mitigation Options.