But now billions more want to join the party, and are increasingly able to do so. There is a massive transfer of wealth from the west to the east as the west imports cheap manufactured goods from the far east and energy from the middle east.
This is important for Peak Food, as our ability to grow enough food in the future depends on us reducing CO2 emissions enough to keep the earth from warming more than 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels and on slowing oil reserve depletion so that fossil fuel dependent farming can continue. As the fast developing nations with their huge populations become heavy consumers, this starts to look impossible.
As an example of what’s happening in the east, the Indian manufacturer Tata unveiled its new ‘people’s car’, the Nano. This car will cost about £1,300 in India before taxes, has a 32.5 bhp engine and will have 57 mpg fuel consumption. This has the potential to bring motoring to millions who are now becoming more prosperous but who had previously used mopeds, bicycles or just walked. Other makers have plans to produce similar cars and the sheer numbers involved will use massive resources both to build these vehicles and to power them.
We in the west should have expected that the rest of the world would want to share in the consumption of resources that has given us our high living standards, but the speed that it is happening at will impact on food production and consumption in a big way.
