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Water scarcity, urbanization, and climate change are combined threats to food supplies in the developing world

by Michael Tiboris

Global water resource security poses a serious threat to the world’s population, even before we even factor in the effects of climate change. The global water consumption rate is double the rate of population increase. Demand is expected to outstrip supply by more than 50 percent by 2025, leaving 1.8 billion people in water scarce conditions. This trend has been driven chiefly by unsustainable agricultural water extraction, especially non-renewable groundwater pumping and flood irrigation, as well as increasing urbanization, as city living is associated with higher per capita water consumption.

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    For the past 40 years, since its founding in 1976, the mission of World Hunger Education Service is to undertake programs, including Hunger Notes, that
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