North AmericaIssues and Challenges

Increasing population

Over the next 40 years, world population is expected to swell to 9 billion people. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that in that time global food production will need to increase by 70 percent in order to prevent massive famine. 

constraints on resources from fossil fuel to water to phosphorus

land management problems resulting from tillage to monoculture to improper grazing practices

food waste from spoilage to produce culled by retailers

demographic changes

NorthThe agricultural systems of the United States, Canada, and Mexico are interconnected through the North American Free Trade Agreement. Although the economic and political landscape of Mexico differs a great deal from Canada and the U.S., all three countries face similar agricultural challenges

government policy

from the high resource costs related to industrial agriculture; to degraded farmland; to excessive food waste coupled with food insecurity; to an increasingly urbanized public that is disconnected from farming; to the role of big business in food.

Water Bill

Mexico has this year experienced its longest and deepest drought in 60 years. Rural areas are in crisis, as farmers and other citizens struggle to find sufficient water supplies to survive. In Mexico City water shortages and rationing have plagued residents, with multiple areas of the city affected by water shut-offs numerous times this summer.  Reservoirs across the country are half-empty, and crops are being adversely affected by the shortages. At the same time, the problems of meeting Mexico’s water commitments to its northern neighbor, the United States, are growing as flow in the Rio Grande/Bravo is diminished and will once again be the source of diplomatic tension between the two nations.

Native Americans

The Native American Indian population of the United States faces serious cultural and social dilemmas that threaten their society. Among these issues are the problems of poverty, alienation and a high rate of alcoholism. There is also the threat of a loss of their cultural identity due to interracial marriages and the large number of young Native Americans who are leaving the territories of the Indian Nations and becoming fully integrated into American culture, leaving the old ways of their cultural history behind.

Genocide

There are 24 million Native Americans remaining, which is a very small amount considering the population of the country. The new culture of reservation life that the Indian nations were forced to accept has spawned the new social problems which plague them today.

US and Canada

Problem: Illegal migration