The global population is expected to rise by 50% to over 9 billion in 2050 (United Nations, 2019). While on the other hand, agricultural land is projected to decrease over this period (Fitton et al., 2019). What we are seeing right now mirrors the Malthusian Theory of Population highlighting the theory of exponential population and arithmetic food supply growth.

Yet surprisingly, who would have expected that the beauty industry would be exacerbating this problem? Environmental benefits are often cited as a reason for the switch to plant-based materials by chemical companies along the beauty supply chain. As many companies have started to promote these ‘green’ ingredients on their environmental credentials, plenty of these ingredients are derived from conventional food crops. Consequently, there is a risk that the increasing use of food crops in the beauty industry sparking a similar debate as biofuels. This development may open up a Pandora’s Box in the beauty industry, with stakeholders in the beauty industry possibly being blamed for jeopardizing food resources – sparking a new debate about ‘food vs. beauty crops’. However, this debate on beauty crops remains in its early stages as most consumers are concerned with the potential detriments of plant-based beauty products on one’s health due to the rise in genetically modified food instead. Yet, I personally do believe in the urgency required to address this issue.

 

References

Fitton, N., Alexander, P., Arnell, N., Bajzelj, B., Calvin, K., Doelman, J., Gerber, J. S., Havlik, P., Hasegawa, T., Herrero, M., Krisztin, T., van Meijl, H., Powell, T., Sands, R., Stehfest, E., West, P. C., & Smith, P. (2019). The vulnerabilities of agricultural land and food production to future water scarcity. Global Environmental Change, 58, 101944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101944

United Nations. (2019). Growing at a slower pace, world population is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and could peak at nearly 11 billion around 2100 | UN DESA | United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2019.html