The recently released 2022 Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report tells a disturbing story: Growth in global agricultural productivity is in steep decline, a fact that should be of universal concern to environmentalists, hunger advocates, policymakers, and the general public alike.
Alarmingly, the report found global agricultural productivity grew by only 1.12% annually from 2011-20, far below the 1.73% needed to sustainably feed the 9 billion world population expected by 2050. As troubling, some of the regions with greatest productivity gains, including Sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America, came from converting grasslands, forests, and other wildlands to agriculture or significantly increasing inputs. In other words, globally, we are no longer innovating: The world is simply putting more land into production and dumping increased inputs into it—a move in the wrong direction for both productivity and sustainability.
It is not too late to course correct, and here in the U.S., we are already taking positive steps. The Biden administration’s recent executive order advancing biotechnology regulatory modernization has the potential to be indispensable in paving the way for the use of gene edited crops, livestock, and microbes. Gene editing has unimaginable prospects to advance breeding efforts and significantly boost yields, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve disease resistance, ease mechanization, and decrease food waste.
