Food

• The world population will be increasingly well-fed by 2030, with 3050 kilocalories (kcal) available per person in 2030, compared to 2800 kcal today.

• Patterns of food consumption are becoming more similar throughout the world, with greater consumption of meat and dairy products.

• Cereals are still by far the world's most important sources of food, both for direct human consumption and meat production. An extra billion tons of cereals will be needed annually by 2030.

• Much of future food production growth will come from higher productivity. In developing countries, almost 70% of the increase in crop production will come from higher yields, around 20% from an expansion of arable land, and 10% from multiple cropping and shorter fallow periods.

• Adequate water for irrigation is crucial to the world's food supplies.

The number of chronically hungry people in the world – now more than 800 million – is increasing at the rate of four million more people each year. [source]

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over one billion people currently are overweight* and their numbers are increasing by 50 million per year, heading toward 1.5 billion overweight people worldwide by 2015. [source]

*Note: “Overweight” is defined as BMI ≥ 25; where Body Mass Index (BMI) = weight in kilograms ÷ height in meters ÷ height in meters.