I picked up a copy of The Prince's Speech: On the Future of Food by HRH the Prince of Wales (that's His Royal Highness Prince Charles for my American buddies). The 33 page booklet was taken from a speech Prince Charles delivered on May 4, 2011 at Georgetown University. While nothing said in the text is really new information there are a lot of facts thrown in that were fun to learn: first and foremost that the Prince of Wales has been an avid farmer/food activist for the past 26 years.
The body of the text focuses on sustainability and how our current means of production in agriculture are not providing the yeild we need to feed the world.
"Yield increases for staple food crops are declining. They have dropped from 3% in the 1960s to 1% today."
Meanwhile, our population increases by 219,000 people a day. Yes, a day!
Another point he touches on is the issue of gasoline.
"In the United States...four out of every ten bushels of corn are now grown to fuel motor vehicles."
I'm so glad that we've figured out that whole hunger thing and now have so much food we need to shove it in our gas tank.
Sarcasm aside, I really enjoyed not only the knowledge imparted in this book, but the positive reinforcement of seeing someone in such a high political position taking a stand against agricultural wrongdoings. I don't want to give everything away, but I definitely recommend any food crusader picking up a copy!
Sarcasm aside, I really enjoyed not only the knowledge imparted in this book, but the positive reinforcement of seeing someone in such a high political position taking a stand against agricultural wrongdoings. I don't want to give everything away, but I definitely recommend any food crusader picking up a copy!
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