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The basic facts concerning the world’s growing population and the food supply are so daunting that they demand wider appreciation. . .
- The combination of more people, increased incomes and improving diets will increase the demand for food by 2050 by 70 to 100 percent.
- Climate change and shrinking fresh water supplies will make it even more challenging to grow enough food to meet the demand.
In confluence, these facts are creating one of the biggest and most complex global challenges humanity has ever faced. This challenge clearly will require a whole host of solutions. There is no single magic bullet.
But we already know what many of those solutions are, and if we can align and work on them together – instead of wasting energy in fruitless disputes over issues such as organic versus conventional farming and genetic modification (GMO) versus non-GMO – we can make the 21st century a success for food production . . .
These phenomenal advances fit within a strategy called sustainable intensification – growing more food on each acre of land using fewer resources or more sustainable inputs. . . This strategy was best articulated in a white paper published last spring, “An Ecomodernist Manifesto,” by prominent environmental scholars from around the world as well as officials of the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank based in Oakland, Calif.
Read full, original post: To Feed and Sustain the World, We Need Common Ground
