World Food Production and Biomass Energy

Outlook for 2050

Abstract

This report tried to locate world food production in world history. The situation in which the food production found itself changed greatly in the 20th century. Food production in the world increased in the latter half of the 20th century. Not only grain production but also meat production increased. Industrially fixed nitrogen fertilizer contributed to this increase.
The agricultural population has begun to decrease because it has come to be able to produce food easily. The agricultural population has decreased especially in the advanced countries. The ratio of the population of farmers in advanced countries has decreased to about 2%. Moreover, the proportion of agricultural production in the GDP has decreased, too.
Grain prices have been sluggish in the past 20 years. They began to rise in 2006; however, they fell sharply in the autumn of 2008. This rapid change shows that the cause of this change came from the inflow of speculation money into the grain market.
The price of cereals for the production of biomass energy is higher than that of oil. A subsidy is indispensable for biomass energy production. It is not easy to think that a large amount of ethanol is produced from grain. Only the production of the ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil will increase in the future.