Lester R. Brown's Full Planet, Empty Plates

In Lester R. Brown's novel Full Planet, Empty Plates, the issue of food scarcity is explained through an environmental perspective. He begins the novel by addressing the issue of the world's high demand for crops, such as grain, and the stress it places on farmers to keep up with the increase in demand. In a time where there is a significant water shortage, higher temperatures, and eroding soils, food scarcity should be at the top of everyone's agenda. Brown poses the question whether or not food scarcity will be our civilization's "weak link" in terms of survival. He demonstrates how food security is a serious issue across the globe. As supply decreases, demand increases, thus raising the price of food. Unlike global resources such as oil,

everyone needs food to survive. Thus, Brown argues that "geopolitics of food overshadows the geopolitics of oil" (Brown 12). The Geopolitics of food affects many countries and their ability to sustain themselves without imports. Export countries restricted exports in order to combat the spike in prices. Importing countries that rely heavily on said exports are now in a crisis. Countries that are deficient in grain production scramble to make trade deals with export countries for long-term deals, however they were unsuccessful. Countries that have more capital resort to buying or leasing land long-term to grow their exported food themselves. This "land rush" affect downstream countries as they now have to compete for water that is used to irrigate the purchased land. "The potential for conflict is high. Many of the land deals have been made secret, and much of the time the land involved was already being farmed by villagers when it was sold or leased". (Brown 13).
In this crisis, poorer villagers are left out of the equation in the quest for land and suffer the consequences of these deals.

Brown makes it clear that food scarcity can lead to immoral behavior and global conflict. "We are entering a time of chronic food scarcity, one that is leading to intense competition for control of land and water resources-in short, some new geopolitics of food" (Brown 14). In the following chapters, Brown discusses how population growth creates a demand that is higher than the "economy's natural support systems" (Brown 17). As a population of people climb the social ladder, they tend to consume more grain-intensive products such as beef and poultry. This in itself boosts the demand for grain substantially. Additionally, the he addresses how a good portion of our nation's grain is going to ethanol to fuel cars. Thus, forming a debate on whether or not we should use food to fuel our vehicles. The book's statistics estimate that the percentage of grain used for ethanol is equivalent to feeding 400 million people. This statistic really put things into perspective for me. We have the resources to alleviate this issue, yet it is being used to fill the pockets of wealthy corporate CEOs. Brown provides solutions that will alleviate the food scarcity problem on a global level. He argues that there is no need to use food to fuel cars when hybrid/plug-in electric cars are on the market. Additionally, he argues that we can stabilize the climate by taking a huge cut in carbon emissions. However, caring and making real changes to preserve the environment and food security would mean that major corporate greed would take a major hit. Throughout the novel, Brown states that this is a major issue that is affecting us now, and we have no other choice but to make serious changes in our lifestyles and join efforts that enforce legal restrictions on major oil companies whose only interest is to make a profit off the

land.
When thinking about this book in the context of the course I made several connections to the material in lecture. Dr. E lectured about water usage in California and how our state's agriculture uses 40% of our water. This percentage was definitely eye-opening when thinking about this issue at a global level. Much of the water used is for fodder to feed cows. Not only does the demand for beef eat up a lot of the grain production, it also requires a lot of water to grow this crop. In lecture we talked about the major types of biofuels and alternative ways to fuel cars. We learned that vegetable oils, animal fats, and oils from algae can be made into diesel for vehicles. Although biodiesel is increasing, most bio-fuel production is ethanol based, thus it requires crops. We were also presented a chart that listed the world's major crops, and interesting enough the top crops were sugarcane and maize which can be made into ethanol. I found it compelling that the top crops produced in the world are used to fuel the vehicles we travel in. Along with the use of major crops for fuel, ethanol production is extremely harmful to the environment. Its production requires high energy inputs that include herbicides and fertilizers.
In conclusion, the novel Full Planet, Empty Plates shed a light on some very important issues that affect the food security issue in the world. When placing its message in the context of the course material I found it very interesting to draw connections that I may not have thought of before. By learning more about these major crops and their biology, the opportunity for solutions to this crisis increase.