RESEARCH STARTER

Agriculture: world food supplies

Agriculture plays a crucial role in global food supplies, as all living beings require food for survival and growth. The types and quantities of food consumed by different populations are influenced by factors such as historical practices, socioeconomic conditions, and regional customs. Throughout history, human diets have evolved from foraging to farming and now include diverse foods that can be grown, raised, or purchased. Despite advancements in food production and a global market, food insecurity remains a significant issue, particularly in developing nations where millions still experience hunger.

With the world population projected to approach ten billion by 2050, the challenge of adequately feeding this growing population is compounded by urbanization, changing dietary habits, and increased demand for high-quality food. Key staple crops such as wheat and rice dominate global agriculture, while regions like North America and Europe are major food producers and exporters. However, the disparity between food production capabilities and the demand for food is expected to widen, especially in developing countries that may increasingly rely on imports. Environmental factors, political instability, and resource scarcity further complicate the food supply landscape, highlighting the importance of sustainable agricultural practices and strategic planning to address food security in the future.

Full Article

  • Categories: Agriculture; food

All living things need food to live, grow, work, and survive. Almost all foods that humans consume come from plants and animals. Not all people eat the same foods, however. The types, combinations, and amounts of food consumed by different peoples depend upon historic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors.

History of Food Consumption

Early in human history, people ate what they could gather or scavenge. Later, people ate what they could plant and harvest and the products of animals they could domesticate. Modern people eat what they can grow, raise, or purchase. Their diet or food composition is determined by income, local customs, religion or food biases, and advertising. In the global food market people can select what they want to eat and when they eat it according to the prices they can pay and what is available.

Historically, in places where food was plentiful, accessible, and inexpensive, humans devoted less time to basic survival needs and more time to activities that led to human progress and enjoyment of leisure. Despite a modern global food system, instant telecommunications, the United Nations, and food surpluses in some places, however, the problem of providing food for everyone on earth has not been solved.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2025) data for 2024 revealed that more than 673 million people worldwide did not have enough food to eat. Although the count was lower than in the earlier years (with notable improvement in Latin America and southern Asia), the trend was not consistent across countries, with Africa and western Asia showing a steady increase in the number of people facing hunger. According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories worldwide faced acute food insecurity in 2024. Food insecurity increased in areas undergoing conflicts, and according to the report, in 2024, Sudan, South Sudan, the Gaza Strip, Haiti, and Yemen had the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded.

World Food Source Regions

Agriculture and related primary food production activities, such as fishing, hunting, and gathering, employed approximately one-fourth (26.1 percent) of the world’s labor force in 2023. In the same year, FAO reported that global production of primary crops reached 9.9 billion tonnes. Agriculture’s relative importance in the world economic system has declined with urbanization and industrialization, but it still plays a vital role in human survival and general economic growth. Demands on agriculture in the twenty-first century include supplying food to an increasing world population of non-food producers as well as producing food and non-food crude materials for industry.

Soil types, topography, weather, climate, socioeconomic history, location, population pressures, dietary preferences, stages in modern agricultural development, and governmental policies combine to give a distinctive personality to regional agricultural characteristics. Two of the most productive food-producing regions of the world are North America and Europe. Countries in these regions export large amounts of food to other parts of the world.

North America is one of the primary food-producing and food-exporting continents. After 1940, food output generally increased as cultivated acreage declined. Progress in improving the quantity and quality of food production is related to mechanization, chemicalization, improved breeding, and hybridization. Food output is limited more by market demands than by production obstacles. Western Europe, although a basic food-deficit area, is a major producer and exporter of high-quality foodstuffs. After 1946, its agriculture became more profit-driven. Europe’s agricultural labor force grew smaller, its agriculture became more mechanized, its farm sizes increased, and capital investment per acre increased.

Foods from Plants

Most basic staple foods come from a small number of plants and animals. Ranked by tonnage produced, the most important food plants throughout the world are wheat, corn, rice, potatoes, cassava, barley, soybeans, sorghums and millets, beans, peas and chickpeas, and peanuts. Wheat and rice are the most important plant foods. More than one-third of the world’s cultivated land is planted with these two crops. Wheat is the dominant food staple in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, northern China, the Middle East, and North Africa. Rice is the dominant food staple in southern and eastern Asia. FAO reported that maize, wheat, and rice accounted for 91 percent of total cereal production in 2023.

Corn, used primarily as animal food in developed nations, is a staple food in Latin America and Southeast Africa. Potatoes are a basic food in the highlands of South America and in Central and Eastern Europe. Cassava is a tropical starch-producing root crop of special dietary importance in portions of lowland South America, the coastal West Africa, and sections of South Asia. Barley is an important component of diets in North African, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European countries. Soybeans are an integral part of the diets of those who live in eastern, southeastern, and southern Asia. Sorghum and millets are staple subsistence foods in the savanna regions of Africa and South Asia, while peanuts are a facet of dietary mixes in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.

The World’s Growing Population

The problem of feeding the world is compounded by the population, which was increasing at a rate of nearly 80 million persons per year at the end of the twentieth century. That rate of increase is roughly equivalent to adding a country the size of Germany to the world every year. Compounding the problem of feeding the world are population redistribution patterns and changing food consumption standards. According to the United Nations (UN), the global population reached 8 billion in November 2022 from an estimated 2.5 billion people in 1950, adding 1 billion people since 2010 and 2 billion since 1998. The UN expected the global population to increase from 8.2 billion in 2024 to about 9.7 billion by 2050.

Urbanization

Along with an increase in population in developing nations is massive urbanization. City dwellers are food consumers, not food producers. The exodus of young men and women from rural areas has given rise to a new series of megacities, which are cities with ten million people or more. According to the UN, in 2016, 45 cities had a population between 5 and 10 million people. Ten of these cities are projected to become megacities by 2030. In 2025, the UN reported that cities are home to about 45 percent of humanity, and the number of megacities is expected to continue growing by mid-century.

When rural dwellers move to cities, they tend to change their dietary composition and food-consumption patterns. Qualitative changes in dietary consumption standards are positive, for the most part, and are a result of the educational efforts of modern nutritional scientists working in developing countries. During the last four decades of the twentieth century, a tremendous shift took place in overall dietary habits. Dietary changes and consumption trends are contributors to a decrease in child mortality, an increase in longevity, and a greater resistance to disease. This globalization of people’s diets has resulted in increased demands for higher quality, greater quantity, and more nutritious basic foods.

Perspectives

Humanity is in a time of volatility in food production and distribution. The world produces enough food to meet the demands of those who can afford to buy food. In many countries, however, food production is unlikely to keep pace with increases in the demand for food for their growing populations. The food gap—the difference between production and demand—has intensified in the first three decades of the twenty-first century, driven by conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks, to leave hundreds of millions of people facing acute food insecurity. Such a development would increase the dependence of developing countries on food imports. A very high percent of the rate of increase in aggregate food demand in the early twenty-first century is expected to be the result of population increases. Factors that could lead to larger fluctuations in food availability include weather variations, such as those induced by El Niño and climate change, the growing scarcity of water, civil strife and political instability, and declining food aid.


Bibliography

Conway, Gordon, and Vernon W. Ruttan. The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century. Comstock, 1998.

DeRose, Laurie Fields, Ellen Messer, and Sara Millman. Who’s Hungry? and How Do We Know? Food Shortage, Poverty, and Deprivation. United Nations University, 1998.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Acute Food Insecurity and Malnutrition Rise for Sixth Consecutive Year in World’s Most Fragile Regions – New Report. FAO, 2025, www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/acute-food-insecurity-and-malnutrition-rise-for-sixth-consecutive-year-in-world-s-most-fragile-regions---new-report/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Agricultural Production Statistics 2010–2023. FAO, 2024. www.fao.org/statistics/highlights-archive/highlights-detail/agricultural-production-statistics-2010-2023/en. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Employment Indicators 2000–2023: July 2025 Update. FAO, 2025, www.fao.org/statistics/highlights-archive/highlights-detail/employment-indicators-2000-2023-%28july-2025-update%29/en. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Lappé, Frances Moore, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset. World Hunger: Twelve Myths. 2nd ed., Grove Press, 1998.

“Population.” United Nations, 2024, www.un.org/en/global-issues/population. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Shiva, Vandana. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. South End Press, 2000.

“2024 Global Report on Food Crises.” Global Network Against Food Crises, Food Security Information Network, www.fsinplatform.org/grfc2024. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Press Release. United Nations, 2025, www.un.org/development/desa/pd/news/world-urbanization-prospects-2025. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

United Nations. UN Projects World Population to Peak within This Century. United Nations, 2024, www.un.org/en/UN-projects-world-population-to-peak-within-this-century. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

WHO Media Team. “Global Hunger Declines, but Rises in Africa and Western Asia: UN Report.” WHO, 18 July 2025, www.who.int/news/item/28-07-2025-global-hunger-declines-but-rises-in-africa-and-western-asia-un-report. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Full Article

  • Categories: Agriculture; food

All living things need food to live, grow, work, and survive. Almost all foods that humans consume come from plants and animals. Not all people eat the same foods, however. The types, combinations, and amounts of food consumed by different peoples depend upon historic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors.

History of Food Consumption

Early in human history, people ate what they could gather or scavenge. Later, people ate what they could plant and harvest and the products of animals they could domesticate. Modern people eat what they can grow, raise, or purchase. Their diet or food composition is determined by income, local customs, religion or food biases, and advertising. In the global food market people can select what they want to eat and when they eat it according to the prices they can pay and what is available.

Historically, in places where food was plentiful, accessible, and inexpensive, humans devoted less time to basic survival needs and more time to activities that led to human progress and enjoyment of leisure. Despite a modern global food system, instant telecommunications, the United Nations, and food surpluses in some places, however, the problem of providing food for everyone on earth has not been solved.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2025) data for 2024 revealed that more than 673 million people worldwide did not have enough food to eat. Although the count was lower than in the earlier years (with notable improvement in Latin America and southern Asia), the trend was not consistent across countries, with Africa and western Asia showing a steady increase in the number of people facing hunger. According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories worldwide faced acute food insecurity in 2024. Food insecurity increased in areas undergoing conflicts, and according to the report, in 2024, Sudan, South Sudan, the Gaza Strip, Haiti, and Yemen had the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded.

World Food Source Regions

Agriculture and related primary food production activities, such as fishing, hunting, and gathering, employed approximately one-fourth (26.1 percent) of the world’s labor force in 2023. In the same year, FAO reported that global production of primary crops reached 9.9 billion tonnes. Agriculture’s relative importance in the world economic system has declined with urbanization and industrialization, but it still plays a vital role in human survival and general economic growth. Demands on agriculture in the twenty-first century include supplying food to an increasing world population of non-food producers as well as producing food and non-food crude materials for industry.

Soil types, topography, weather, climate, socioeconomic history, location, population pressures, dietary preferences, stages in modern agricultural development, and governmental policies combine to give a distinctive personality to regional agricultural characteristics. Two of the most productive food-producing regions of the world are North America and Europe. Countries in these regions export large amounts of food to other parts of the world.

North America is one of the primary food-producing and food-exporting continents. After 1940, food output generally increased as cultivated acreage declined. Progress in improving the quantity and quality of food production is related to mechanization, chemicalization, improved breeding, and hybridization. Food output is limited more by market demands than by production obstacles. Western Europe, although a basic food-deficit area, is a major producer and exporter of high-quality foodstuffs. After 1946, its agriculture became more profit-driven. Europe’s agricultural labor force grew smaller, its agriculture became more mechanized, its farm sizes increased, and capital investment per acre increased.

Foods from Plants

Most basic staple foods come from a small number of plants and animals. Ranked by tonnage produced, the most important food plants throughout the world are wheat, corn, rice, potatoes, cassava, barley, soybeans, sorghums and millets, beans, peas and chickpeas, and peanuts. Wheat and rice are the most important plant foods. More than one-third of the world’s cultivated land is planted with these two crops. Wheat is the dominant food staple in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, northern China, the Middle East, and North Africa. Rice is the dominant food staple in southern and eastern Asia. FAO reported that maize, wheat, and rice accounted for 91 percent of total cereal production in 2023.

Corn, used primarily as animal food in developed nations, is a staple food in Latin America and Southeast Africa. Potatoes are a basic food in the highlands of South America and in Central and Eastern Europe. Cassava is a tropical starch-producing root crop of special dietary importance in portions of lowland South America, the coastal West Africa, and sections of South Asia. Barley is an important component of diets in North African, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European countries. Soybeans are an integral part of the diets of those who live in eastern, southeastern, and southern Asia. Sorghum and millets are staple subsistence foods in the savanna regions of Africa and South Asia, while peanuts are a facet of dietary mixes in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.

The World’s Growing Population

The problem of feeding the world is compounded by the population, which was increasing at a rate of nearly 80 million persons per year at the end of the twentieth century. That rate of increase is roughly equivalent to adding a country the size of Germany to the world every year. Compounding the problem of feeding the world are population redistribution patterns and changing food consumption standards. According to the United Nations (UN), the global population reached 8 billion in November 2022 from an estimated 2.5 billion people in 1950, adding 1 billion people since 2010 and 2 billion since 1998. The UN expected the global population to increase from 8.2 billion in 2024 to about 9.7 billion by 2050.

Urbanization

Along with an increase in population in developing nations is massive urbanization. City dwellers are food consumers, not food producers. The exodus of young men and women from rural areas has given rise to a new series of megacities, which are cities with ten million people or more. According to the UN, in 2016, 45 cities had a population between 5 and 10 million people. Ten of these cities are projected to become megacities by 2030. In 2025, the UN reported that cities are home to about 45 percent of humanity, and the number of megacities is expected to continue growing by mid-century.

When rural dwellers move to cities, they tend to change their dietary composition and food-consumption patterns. Qualitative changes in dietary consumption standards are positive, for the most part, and are a result of the educational efforts of modern nutritional scientists working in developing countries. During the last four decades of the twentieth century, a tremendous shift took place in overall dietary habits. Dietary changes and consumption trends are contributors to a decrease in child mortality, an increase in longevity, and a greater resistance to disease. This globalization of people’s diets has resulted in increased demands for higher quality, greater quantity, and more nutritious basic foods.

Perspectives

Humanity is in a time of volatility in food production and distribution. The world produces enough food to meet the demands of those who can afford to buy food. In many countries, however, food production is unlikely to keep pace with increases in the demand for food for their growing populations. The food gap—the difference between production and demand—has intensified in the first three decades of the twenty-first century, driven by conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks, to leave hundreds of millions of people facing acute food insecurity. Such a development would increase the dependence of developing countries on food imports. A very high percent of the rate of increase in aggregate food demand in the early twenty-first century is expected to be the result of population increases. Factors that could lead to larger fluctuations in food availability include weather variations, such as those induced by El Niño and climate change, the growing scarcity of water, civil strife and political instability, and declining food aid.


Bibliography

Conway, Gordon, and Vernon W. Ruttan. The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century. Comstock, 1998.

DeRose, Laurie Fields, Ellen Messer, and Sara Millman. Who’s Hungry? and How Do We Know? Food Shortage, Poverty, and Deprivation. United Nations University, 1998.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Acute Food Insecurity and Malnutrition Rise for Sixth Consecutive Year in World’s Most Fragile Regions – New Report. FAO, 2025, www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/acute-food-insecurity-and-malnutrition-rise-for-sixth-consecutive-year-in-world-s-most-fragile-regions---new-report/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Agricultural Production Statistics 2010–2023. FAO, 2024. www.fao.org/statistics/highlights-archive/highlights-detail/agricultural-production-statistics-2010-2023/en. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Employment Indicators 2000–2023: July 2025 Update. FAO, 2025, www.fao.org/statistics/highlights-archive/highlights-detail/employment-indicators-2000-2023-%28july-2025-update%29/en. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Lappé, Frances Moore, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset. World Hunger: Twelve Myths. 2nd ed., Grove Press, 1998.

“Population.” United Nations, 2024, www.un.org/en/global-issues/population. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

Shiva, Vandana. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. South End Press, 2000.

“2024 Global Report on Food Crises.” Global Network Against Food Crises, Food Security Information Network, www.fsinplatform.org/grfc2024. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Press Release. United Nations, 2025, www.un.org/development/desa/pd/news/world-urbanization-prospects-2025. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

United Nations. UN Projects World Population to Peak within This Century. United Nations, 2024, www.un.org/en/UN-projects-world-population-to-peak-within-this-century. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

WHO Media Team. “Global Hunger Declines, but Rises in Africa and Western Asia: UN Report.” WHO, 18 July 2025, www.who.int/news/item/28-07-2025-global-hunger-declines-but-rises-in-africa-and-western-asia-un-report. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.

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