Istanbul Gelisim University (IGU) Fine Arts Faculty (GSF) Deputy Dean and Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department asst. Prof. Dr.Murat Doğan made evaluations on famine and drought in the Cause and Effect program with Melih Altınok.
Asst. Prof. Dr. Murat Doğan stated the following to draw the framework of the subject:
"In the 17th century England, a scientist, demographer Thomas Robert Malthus, comes to the parliament and says, 100 years later, our people will starve and die, and before the 20th century, the human species will go extinct. However, this does not happen. His theory is what Let me point out. The production of our food, that is, the production of agricultural and animal foods, increases arithmetically. That is, from one to two to three, to four. There is such a production. But the population is not like that. The population increases geometrically. From two to four, from four to eight. When viewed, the theory It's true but it's not happening. The only reason it didn't happen is that a new paradigm shift has taken place in our agricultural activities. This is what we call the green revolution, the conversion of nitrogen into fertilizer in the 1930s, followed by the rapid increase in agricultural activities all over the world and the explosion of the population. When we look at it, we are going towards 10 billion now. "There's a population explosion, but that was a good thing. It's been good so far, but now problems are starting to arise."
Regarding Melih Altınok's question about GMOs, Asst. Prof. Dr.Murat Doğan stated the following:
A group of our scientists advocates GMOs, among the solutions to the famine. But here it is necessary to diagnose the problem. We have polluted our groundwater with our agricultural activities. The presence of sinkholes in Konya in Karaman is due to the withdrawal of underground waters. Apart from that, the use of pesticides in agricultural activities, the depletion of lands, the burning of forests and their conversion to agricultural areas, and the high amount of animal production inevitably entered a vicious circle.
Altınok said, “Do you see a great danger of famine and drought in the near term? Or is this trend being exaggerated?” In response to the question Doğan;
“It is not exaggerated. But that prophecy of Malthus was true. There, mankind found something that solves a problem, went to a paradigm shift, and the problem was solved, it was a temporary solution, and now there is a need again, what this need be, we need to talk about them.”
If We Distribute All of the Food We Produce Fairly, It Increases Too Much!
When we look at developed countries, there is a population that has problems due to obesity, around 30-40%. They suffer from cardiovascular diseases or similar problems, but on the other hand, there is a section that struggles with hunger. When we look at the 2020 Global Hunger Index, Afghanistan, and sub-Saharan African countries from Bangladesh to India are all experiencing problems right now. When we look at developed countries, there is a lot of consumption and production is also high. In other words, let me tell you that if we distribute all the food we produce fairly, we have a lot more, there is more.
Doğan continued his words as follows:
Climate change is happening. For 50 years, this is obvious. This will affect the production of food. It is affecting in the direction of decrease. But while we observe this, we cannot observe it in 3-4 years. You have to look at 50 years. There is a real problem when you evaluate them. While this is going on, it is necessary to look at what can be done about the solution proposals. One side wants to do something about GMOs. On the other hand, it is desired to revise agricultural activities again. In other words, to be able to produce without using any soil and without using chemicals.
When considering whether organic agriculture can be a solution, organic agriculture remains local, it cannot feed 10 million people. I'm looking at the GMO side, there's a big conundrum. We do not know what will happen to these people, our children, 20 years from now. There is a problem there. The real solution is to revise agriculture again. Can be vertical farming or artificial meat can be produced without raising any animals by changing similar farming practices. To give an example, if we normally produce 100 units of agricultural products, we use almost 65 of these 100 units of agricultural products only to feed animals. In other words, this is one of the reasons why it affects climate change. Carbon emission is too much, greenhouse gas is increasing too much. Here, we can produce our meat artificially to reduce agricultural activities. This will be it. The works continue on the one hand.
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