Water Resources

Instructor's Video

map of water scarcity around the world Water is emerging as the major resource issue of the 21st century in part because it is so linked with energy, food, and other ag products. Demand for water sky rockets as populations grow and more people move out of poverty. As standard of living rises, so does meat consumption and therefore, water usage. In addition, growing industrial demands for water, larger cities and more intensive agriculture are worsening water pollution. With fresh water scarce in some areas it is becoming a commodity rather than a free good. In these areas, prices have increased so much that poor people's access becomes severely reduced. Water disputes are proliferating.

One billion people worldwide lack access to clean and reliable water. Seventy percent of the Earth is covered by salt water and ninety seven percent of all water on the planet is salt. This leaves only three percent as freshwater and seventy percent of that is locked up as ice.

photo women and girls carrying water in AFrica The distribution of water around the planet is highly uneven yet every human needs a minimum of 5 to 13 gallons of clean water daily. Gaining access to water can be a tremendous burden. In many parts of the world, women and children literally carry that burden. In India, parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa, all of the family's water must be carried manually, on a daily basis. In these area, 25% of the day can be spent obtaining and delivering water. In parts of Africa, young girls are expected to carry 40 pound jerry cans of water. There is not time for school let alone playtime. In Africa alone, 17 million girls and women collect water every day. Its dangerous and physically demanding work.

Food Scarcity

For most of human history people lived a subsistence lifestyle - you grew what you ate. Today far fewer people work in agriculture globally than at any time in human history. Most people work for cash to buy food.

Modern processes of food production, distribution and consumption have greatly increased the supply and, to some extent, the security of food systems. But with this has come with costs - soil degradation and environmental pollution - that may impact future food production and food security. Despite modernization, more than 800 million people around the globe do not have enough to eat. After decades of declining numbers of people experiencing severe food insecurity, the numbers are climbing once again. This report by the U.N. outlines what the current state of food insecurity is around the world.

Food insecurity can be threatened by war, the economy, the weather (even in distant places). As the world has become more interconnected and we continue to move away from subsistence agriculture, what happens in one part of the world can ripple throughout the food chain causing food insecurity in distant locales. Just to give one example, in 2007 corn prices rose around the world as the US started to use corn to make fuel. Prices spiked beyond the reach of people who depended on corn. Food production and cost is tied into so many different aspects of the economy today. Whenever oil prices rise, the cost of food transportation and ag machinery operation goes up and so does the cost of food. Economic downturns mean immigrants can not send money home (remittances). The people at home who rely on these remittances then can not afford to buy food.

photo of large industrialized farm Even the marvel that was the "Green Revolution" has had unanticipated consequences. The "Green Revolution" included the use of modern machinery, fertilizer and pesticides. Initially production soared. But poor farmers couldn't afford the machines or the chemicals or the expensive seeds, resulting in the displacement of many small farmers. It has led to pollution and land degradation. Today we use hormones and antibiotics on animals. Industrial "mono-cropping" has become dominant worldwide, expensive GMO's have taken over. GMO's (genetically modified organisms) promise longer shelf lives for food products, tolerance to heat, boosts to nutrient content, tolerance to herbicides, better crop yields, and resistance to pests. They also may pose the potential for allergic reactions, toxicity, impacts on biodiversity and the potential for "super weeds" or "super bugs". There is also concern that 60% of the seeds are controlled by just four companies -Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and Dow. For certain crops they control even more - 80% of corn and 70% of soybeans. This has meant that the per-acre cost of soybean and corn seed spiked dramatically between 1995 and 2014, by 351% and 321%, respectively - potentially pricing small farmers out of the market. Farmers who buy GMO seeds must pay licensing fees and sign contracts that dictate how they can grow the crop – and even allow seed companies to inspect their farms. It remains to be seen whether today's innovations in agriculture can keep up with the demand. So far, for almost one billion people the answer is no.

Learn More

This video takes a look at not only the problem of water scarcity but some possible solutions as well.