Researchers have long been aware that feeding the world’s future population, estimated to reach 9.8 billion people by the year 2050, will be a challenge. But in 2018, given the quantifiable changes in the size of people all over the world, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology began to question previous projections of future food needs. They looked at how the size and energy needs of the average adult have changed since 1975. Compared to their 1975 counterparts, people in 2014 were 14 percent heavier, 1.3 percent taller, and required 6.1 percent more energy. In 1975, the average person consumed 2,465 calories a day, compared to 2,615 calories in 2014. If those trends continue, even more food will have to be produced in order to feed the population increase of more than 2 billion people predicted by 2050.
How to handle a hungry planet:
- Between 1975 and 2014, the average amount of food consumption increased by 129 percent. Increases in population and body size were actually mitigated by the fact that older individuals in our aging population require less food.
- The biodemography researchers noted different changes in different regions. They found the greatest size gains in Africa, and the lowest rates of change in Asia.
- “Based on the discovered trends, feeding 9 billion people in 2050 will require significantly more total calories than feeding the same people today,” the researchers concluded.