United Nations data finds that diversity in varieties of global mainstay crops has and is decreasing, by 75% during the 20^th century, and will decrease by another third by 2050. This “globalized diet” consists mostly of wheat, rice, potatoes and sugar, as well as soybean, which was not a staple crop just fifty years ago. Crops in decline include millet, rye, yam, sweet potato, and cassava.

Experts feel that this opens up the world to two dangers; the danger of increased non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease (the result of increased reliance on starchy crops and processed foods as dietary mainstays) and the very real crisis of major, worldwide crop failures. The concern is that plant breeding is controlled by a small number of multinational companies, which focus on a limited number of plant varieties, this further limiting genetic resilience to disease (Mark Kinver, “Crop Diversity Decline ‘Threatens Food Security,’” BBC News at BBC.com, March 3, 2014).

Most of us don’t actively participate in agriculture as a career choice and from the perspective of going to the grocery store, the scale of global food production can seem so immense as to be impossible to comprehend. However, it all comes down to basic facts: humans have to eat and our food has to come from somewhere. If that chain breaks down, many people will suffer.

The book of Revelation outlines events that will occur before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and among those events are worldwide famines. It’s important as a young person to keep an eye on agricultural as well as moral trends in the world because that knowledge will help us to be watchful and alert and actively obedient to God when Jesus Christ does return.

“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man,” (Luke 21:36, NKJV).

In the mean time, our prayers are very valuable when we pray for God’s mercy on our individual nations and all the nations of the world that food will be accessible to those who need it, which is all of us, every day!