YORKTON - Not surprisingly discussions at the World Seed Congress in Rotterdam, Netherlands are including talks regarding global supply chain challenges.
The Congress which brings several hundred people together from around the world, including seed production companies, national trade associations and researchers, is obviously a place where getting grain from one place to another is of paramount importance.
This of course is far from a new issue too.
One of the biggest reasons people go to bed hungry in far too many countries is the inability to get food from producer to the tables of the hungry.
Part of the reason food doesn’t get to those tables is breakdowns in the transportation system.
Those disruptions can be anything from strikes by employees, to severe weather to civil unrest, all of which can leave food sitting and sometimes spoiling.
Overlay that with the politics at play – an unsettling trend away from free trade – and the all too real prospect of warzone hotspots, and getting food distributed gets far more difficult.
The more barriers to trade created by politicians the greater the challenges of distribution become.
Then one must factor in wealth distribution. The world grows enough food but not everyone can afford to buy it at a price which makes the producer and those handling the food along the way a profit.
We don’t have to go farther than local food banks and homeless shelters to see that wealth distribution is a very worldwide issue and one that leads to hunger for too many people.
How we as a civilization address such inequities is a huge question – one with very little hope of an answer because those with the ability to address such a thing seem generally to have no interest in doing so.
It’s the same reality when looking at world population.
Ultimately, the resources of this planet are finite.
Even with scientific advancements there are finite acres to produce food and maximum productions levels to be achieved. So at some point how enough food is grown if population continues upward becomes a massive question.
While not directly tied to distribution concerns, population is at least issue adjacent.
But, again, it’s not a question with any serious effort seeming to be put into finding a workable solution. Again it’s time the process was at least seriously started because workable solutions are not likely to be quickly achieved.
So, it’s good that the World Seed Congress is at least looking at some aspects of a multifaceted problem. Hopefully, they manage a few ideas that can improve things – even a little.
