yeah, sure there may be more land in africa. but where go the endangered species? zoos? fuck that. lock me in a cubicle for my entire life while you're at it. same for those who propose that -- no double standards here. as if agriculture weren't displacing enough for animals and destructive of what habitat remains (if you don't believe me, ask yourself, when will the expansion stop? and, how is agricultural expansion tied to species displacement [which isn't far off from destruction when there's no place left to go]). agricultural expansion almost always calls for importation of water (it's kinda like hydrating Las Vegas, it's a sink, a black hole), and if done via industrial methods of pest...

yeah, sure there may be more land in africa. but where go the endangered species? zoos? fuck that. lock me in a cubicle for my entire life while you're at it. same for those who propose that -- no double standards here. as if agriculture weren't displacing enough for animals and destructive of what habitat remains (if you don't believe me, ask yourself, when will the expansion stop? and, how is agricultural expansion tied to species displacement [which isn't far off from destruction when there's no place left to go]). agricultural expansion almost always calls for importation of water (it's kinda like hydrating Las Vegas, it's a sink, a black hole), and if done via industrial methods of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers (all petroleum based [so even more use of oil, that ever more scarce resource]), hyper-salinates the land, increases runoff (bye bye topsoil), and provides for less nutritious (that is, nutritionally deficient) foods (what, you think NPK grows full and vibrant foods, while at the same time destroying almost all the organisms in the soil? the organisms are what make more nutrients [those beyond NPK] bio-available to the plants, and therefore to us).

as if this weren't enough, that food then would need shipping to wherever else (more expenditure of oil). has not Africa been colonized enough? let them have their independence already!

as for desertification, i suggest looking into the video 'greening the desert' on youtube, or Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming and his idea's of using clay seedballs onto deserts. Robert Hart and his forest gardens, Mollison and Holmgren's Permaculture, not to forget the work being done recently through Transition Towns, in Russia the Ringing Cedars, Kin's Domains, etc.
these are all local solutions to said problems, but they call for personal responsibility (eek!).
grow your own. food not lawns.

what of green roofs, couldn't they reclaim some of that useless-ugliness, while producing local food?

Additionally, from a succinct and short review of Francis Moore Lappe's 'World Hunger: Twelve Myths'

All over the world, there has been a huge concentration of land in fewer and fewer hands, forcing poor and middle-class peasants off the land (in the US, witness the decline of the family farmer). Structural adjustment programs from places like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (part of the requirements when asking for a loan) require a country to reorient its agriculture toward items that are easily exportable rather than items that can feed their people. Another requirement is the removal of internal tariffs and other barriers to the import of grain and other f...

Additionally, from a succinct and short review of Francis Moore Lappe's 'World Hunger: Twelve Myths'

All over the world, there has been a huge concentration of land in fewer and fewer hands, forcing poor and middle-class peasants off the land (in the US, witness the decline of the family farmer). Structural adjustment programs from places like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (part of the requirements when asking for a loan) require a country to reorient its agriculture toward items that are easily exportable rather than items that can feed their people. Another requirement is the removal of internal tariffs and other barriers to the import of grain and other foodstuffs. It results in a flood of cheaper (usually American) agricultural products reaching the market, driving local farmers out of business. The countries that one thinks of when hearing "famine" actually produce enough food to feed their people. The only problem is that much of it has to go overseas to help pay the foreign debt.
- http://www.amazon.com/review/R2UH49FWQC869K/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm [emphasis added]

If world hunger is the issue at hand, it would be salient to address the actual causes and perpetuaters of it.

Actually, chiggles, you may post as many comments as you like on this topic. You have pre-empted me with a few of your remarks, anyway. I find it hard to believe that the article in question could be taken seriously; the New Scientist must have been having a slow news day or some such. The fact that the World Bank (one of the sponsers of the study) has been largely responsible for numerous famines in Africa is widely known and yet we still have their so called experts blundering around offering dangerous advice & ideas that are as shallow and fragile as the top soil, itself.
We need as many ideas as possible and we do need them urgently but
we need some 'deep green' thinking on the problem...

Actually, chiggles, you may post as many comments as you like on this topic. You have pre-empted me with a few of your remarks, anyway. I find it hard to believe that the article in question could be taken seriously; the New Scientist must have been having a slow news day or some such. The fact that the World Bank (one of the sponsers of the study) has been largely responsible for numerous famines in Africa is widely known and yet we still have their so called experts blundering around offering dangerous advice & ideas that are as shallow and fragile as the top soil, itself.
We need as many ideas as possible and we do need them urgently but
we need some 'deep green' thinking on the problem of food production.
The old 'evergreen' idea of 'thinking globally and acting locally' still holds true and, in fact, I think is a matter of great urgency.
In the UK some folk are lucky enough to have an 'Allotment:" This is a small area of land that a tenant of a council home is given to cultivate. Roots veg is exchanged and shared among each allotment holder and the sites themselves help to bind local communities together.