Doc. 1 By Steve Kelley.

Doc. 2 By Patrick Chappatte in "Le Temps", Switzerland.

 Is the world running out of food?

Date: Jun 24th 2015

A surging population will mean more hungry people in some parts of the world. But it is not yet time to
panic.

NOT in the short term. Stocks of grain and other foods are high, with another bumper harvest due in
the northern hemisphere this year. Food prices have been dropping in real terms since a spike in 2011.
The number of hungry people has been falling too, by 167 million in the past decade (according to the
rough estimates used by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), chiefly thanks to progress
5 in China and India. Yet that leaves nearly 800m, a third of which are in Africa. The UN reckons that
one measure, “prevalence of undernourishment” has dropped from 18.6% of the world population in
1990–92 to 10.9% now. That broadly meets a target the world set itself in 2000, in the Millennium
Development Goals.

10 But international bodies such as the G7 are worried about the coming decades. The world’s population
will exceed nine billion in 2050, with most of the growth in developing countries. The United States
Department of Agriculture reckons that the number of hungry (“food insecure”) people in sub-Saharan
Africa will rise by a third. The FAO reckons that food production will need to increase by 70%. Worries
abound. Crop yields are flat. And many trends are negative: new crop diseases, urbanisation,
15 desertification, salinisation and soil erosion, which outstrips renewal even in developed countries.
That does not mean disaster is looming. Agricultural productivity is often shockingly low in
“traditional” farming practices. That leaves plenty of room for improvement. But in most kinds of
agriculture, scarce water can be used more sensibly. A study by Britain’s Institution of Mechanical
Engineers estimated that 550 billion litres are wasted annually in crop production. Eliminating waste,
20 for example by drip-feed irrigation, could raise food production by 60% or more. Phosphorus (a finite
resource, unlike water) is wasted too: only a fifth of the phosphorus mined actually ends up in food.
Climate change will indeed hurt some farmers but helps others (so, perhaps, does more carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere). GM crops (such as drought-resistant rice, heat-resistant maize or blight-resistant
wheat) have huge potential.
25 Technology is only part of the solution. The food chain lacks resilience to other forms of disruption too,
from political strife to consumer panics. Panics about contamination (real or imagined), for example,
can send food flying off the shelves (Nestlé is having to destroy 27,000 tonnes of instant noodles in
India, amid a row about lead contamination). A new report by Lloyds, the London insurance market,
highlights the need for more innovation to help farmers and food manufacturers deal with adverse
30 weather and other potential risks. The G7 summit in Germany in early June agreed that it would aim to
lift 500m people from hunger by 2030. Attention now shifts to a UN development summit in New York
in September, where countries will discuss not merely halving the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger, but eradicating hunger. The first big target has been met. The next one will be even harder.
 Useful vocabulary
Choose the meaning that you think is the right one !

1) bumper 11) drought

a) small a) very dry weather
b) excessive b) wet weather
c) large and fine c) disease
2) spike 12) blight
a) sharp increase a) dark
b) moderate increase b) light
c) crisis c) disease
3) rough 13) lacks
a) uneven a) has too much of
b) easy b) has enough of
c) difficult c) does not have enough of
4) reckon 14) resilience
a) recognize a) courage
b) think b) resistance
c) judge c) knowledge
5) broadly 15) strife
a) generally a) conflict
b) with ease b) agreement
c) requiring effort c) analysis
6) yields 16) shelves
a) shipments a) surfaces for storage
b) arrivals b) pieces of wood
c) production levels c) mountains
7) outstrips 17) row
a) goes further than a) line of people
b) takes the strip out b) group
c) take your clothes off c) conflict
8) is looming 18) lead
a) is invisible a) leadership
b) is growing b) toxic substance
c) is threateningly visible c) boss
9) scarce 19) adverse
a) abundant a) nice
b) rare b) wet
c) frightening c) harmful
10) drip-feed 20) shift
a) fast a) move away from
b) slow b) move closer to
c) insufficient c) agree with
 Thème littéraire

Je suis allé voir la petite maison où habitaient ma tante Tania, ma tante Bella. Julien posait mille questions,
très pratiques.

— Il faut combien de temps pour descendre l’escalier et aller au bout du couloir ?

— Je ne sais pas, deux ou trois minutes, pas plus.

— Pourquoi l’hôtelier n’a-t-il pas retenu les Allemands en bas, le temps qu’ils descendent du deuxième
étage ?

— Avec une mitraillette dans le dos, il a fait ce qu’il a pu. Et puis, ils avaient mal aux jambes, c’était
difficile pour eux de se dépêcher. C’était la nuit, ils n’étaient pas habillés.

— Les autres y sont bien arrivés, pourquoi pas eux ?

Puis nous nous sommes rendus à la gare de Dégagnac où mon grand-père était allé remplir son devoir de
citoyen (...), réquisitionné par les services de police français pour prévenir les « attentats terroristes ».

Le soir tombait, la gare, en pleine campagne, sans aucune construction autour, était sans doute identique à
celle que mon grand-père avait connue en mars 1943.

Jamais, Julien à mes côtés, je ne m’étais senti si proche de mes grands-parents. Nous sommes restés
longtemps, seuls, dans cette gare plongée dans la nuit.

Jérome Clément, Plus tard, tu comprendras

Editions Grasset, 2005