KEY POINTS:
Where does the world get more food? The global food crisis is piling pressure on the search for solutions to build a sustainable future in which the world's population is expected to expand from 6.6 billion to 9 billion people by 2050.
The debate is wide-ranging and encompasses government policy towards the developing world, genetically engineered produce, a return to traditional farming and the benefits, or otherwise, of free trade.
Genetically modified rescue
Colin Harvey, director of animal health development company Ancare Scientific, says the global food crisis is strengthening the argument for genetically modified crops.
"The South Americas and Chinas of this world are significantly into GM crops and they have significantly aided the yields," Harvey says.
Fear in the 1960s that the world would run out of food was met by a green revolution of pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers and hybrids which raised productivity.
Genetic modification could be the equivalent of the green revolution to meet the latest crisis, says Harvey.
"There's no question things like genetic engineering have the basis for that [increased productivity] to continue to happen."
Crop & Food Research chief executive Mark Ward says genetic modification has a role to play globally in feeding people, provided the science stays in step with public perception and the process for making sure it is as safe as possible.
"As long as the science stays in step with that then I believe eventually the planet will get to the right position on this and it may even save the planet in terms of our grandchildren," says Ward.
Science and technology
Ancare Scientific's Harvey, who is a past president of NZ Agritech, says that apart from work on genetic modification there is a significant opportunity to apply technology from developed farming countries like New Zealand in other parts of the world, including South America, which has enormous opportunities for pasture-based industries.
"I don't think that's enough to alleviate the world food crisis but it definitely brings a lot of economic benefit to them and to us."
Zimbabwe also holds enormous scope, Harvey says. "You have countries like that which were food baskets 20 years ago and look at them today."
"So Africa in itself is an opportunity, but just how you manage it from a political viewpoint is another thing."
The benefit to New Zealand from the rising price of grain is the added emphasis on pasture-based technologies, Harvey says. "While we can see it as an overall international crisis it is in fact a major benefit for us as a country."
Crop & Food's Ward says the crown research institute is working with international partners to sequence the potato genome by 2010.
"Nowadays the potato is heralding a new frontier," he says. "It's actually the mighty potato that's leading the way in understanding how we can secure food for the planet."
Understanding the potato genome can enable the identification of specific qualities and selection for various environments "and also create a model whereby it can be applied to other even larger crops".
Crop & Food is focused on maximising food attributes including nutrition, health and sustainable production.
"In terms of the rapid population growth versus resource constraints that seem to be facing us in energy, in water, in [arable] land even ... we're thinking about our grandchildren now and that's why again science is the answer around sustainable production."
Traditional roots
Soil & Health Association of NZ spokesperson Steffan Browning says genetic engineering is not the answer.
The answer to world poverty is a return to traditional methods of agriculture, he says.
"That is way more sustainable, it's using the traditional breeds of grains and animals that they were using before," he says. "The things that they were using over millennia effectively ... were what was working in those areas."
There had been sufficient food in the world, Browning says.
"There was a surplus and it wasn't well distributed. It may actually be that we're starting to head towards a genuine deficiency."
An approach using localised, traditional techniques could raise production to meet food needs, and a recent study showed it was better to have smaller farms than big agricultural business, he says.
"It's got both environmental and sustainability benefits but there's an intensive and a quality result to it as well."
Browning says some regions of India are turning back to organic methods after poor outcomes using genetically engineered products.
Free trade or protectionism
Ancare Scientific's Harvey says the food crisis has probably strengthened the argument for an increase in world trade.
"The sort of thing we've done with China is to try to keep trade moving because it's one of the answers," he says.
Many nations are putting export restrictions in place to protect supplies, which could make the situation harder for other countries competing for stocks.
However, Soil & Health's Browning says free trade arrangements are more likely to aggravate the problem.
Free trade encourages low cost and quality commodity movements, and breaks down borders and the ability to put up tariffs and controls, Browning says.
"I actually personally believe it is appropriate that countries can protect local industry, because it's more than just to do with food price or production means.
"It's actually about sustaining communities and maintaining rural communities - and the values that go with those as well."
Fair trade could work if it took account of a wide range of social and environmental factors in making decisions about the destination of produce, Browning says.
"But that's not happening in these free trade agreements. We're actually loosing the ability to make those decisions."
Oxfam New Zealand executive director Barry Coates says using trade policy to boost food security could be justified.
"But it does need to be done carefully because on an international scale what you may end up doing is creating even worse food shortages."
Change policies
Ancare Scientific's Harvey says a major cause of the food price rise can be traced to the United States' policy move towards biofuels.
Land has been transferred to the production of crops used for biofuel, while demand for food has grown in countries including China and India.
The world's reserves of grain have disappeared, says Harvey.
The European Union has decided against setting a biofuels target for 2020, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for a review of the sector.
Oxfam's Coates says biofuel in the United States is taking about 20 per cent of the corn crop, with about US$7 billion ($8.9 billion) of public funds spent each year supporting ethanol production.
A change in the US biofuel policy would have a significant impact on the food crisis, he says.
"There are lobbies [for biofuel subsidies] within the US," he said. " I can't see anything happening until we get a new President."
Part of the problem in the developing world had been the dumping of cheap subsidised food into markets which then destroyed local production.
There have been decades of policy neglect of the rural sector, including under-investment in agricultural and an overly dogmatic and ideological emphasis on privatisation, Coates says.
"That's been particularly the policy of international institutions like the World Bank."
Meanwhile, Governments in developing countries have often neglected rural sectors, Coates says.
The most useful outcome would be for the current crisis to be used as an opportunity to revitalise agriculture in developing countries.
"Boost local food production, help small producers and basically kill two birds with one stone.
"Potentially, with higher food prices you have the ability to have rural food producers actually earn a decent living where previously they haven't been able to."
