World food demand will surge this century with a leap in population,
highlighting a need to protect soils under strain from climate change, experts
said on Thursday.
About 150 scientists and government experts will meet in Iceland from Aug.
31-Sept. 4 to try to work out how to safeguard soils from over-use and
desertification when more food is needed and some farmers are shifting land to
biofuels.
"Soil and vegetation are being lost at an alarming rate around the globe, which
in turn has devastating effects on food production and accelerates climate
change," Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said in a statement.
The planet will need to produce ever more food with the world population set to
rise to nine billion by 2050 from 6.1 billion in 2000 and 1.7 billion in 1900.
"With a rising world population and biofuels, more land is needed," said Andres
Arnalds, Icelandic head of ...