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  • Book
  • © 2018

How to Feed the World

  • Contributors from around the world represent a wide range of academic disciplines, perspectives, and backgrounds
  • An invaluable primer that fills a need for undergraduate and graduate courses focused on key issues facing the food system
  • Draws on practical expertise from one of the country’s premier land grant universities

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
  2. Introduction

    • Jessica Eise, Ken Foster
    Pages 1-4
  3. Inhabitants of Earth

    • Brigitte S. Waldorf
    Pages 5-23
  4. The Green, Blue, and Gray Water Rainbow

    • Laura C. Bowling, Keith A. Cherkauer
    Pages 24-45
  5. The Land That Shapes and Sustains Us

    • Otto Doering, Ann Sorensen
    Pages 46-58
  6. Our Changing Climate

    • Jeff Dukes, Thomas W. Hertel
    Pages 59-76
  7. The Technology Ticket

    • Uris Baldos
    Pages 77-93
  8. Systems

    • Michael Gunderson, Ariana Torres, Michael Boehlje, Rhonda Phillips
    Pages 94-114
  9. Tangled Trade

    • Thomas W. Hertel
    Pages 115-131
  10. Spoiled, Rotten, and Left Behind

    • Ken Foster
    Pages 132-147
  11. Tipping the Scales on Health

    • Steven Y. Wu
    Pages 148-164
  12. Social License to Operate

    • Nicole J. Olynk Widmar
    Pages 165-175
  13. The Information Hinge

    • Jessica Eise
    Pages 176-188
  14. Achieving Equal Access

    • Gerald Shively
    Pages 189-206
  15. Conclusion

    • Jessica Eise, Ken Foster
    Pages 207-216
  16. Back Matter

    Pages 217-249

About this book

By 2050, we will have ten billion mouths to feed in a world profoundly altered by environmental change. How can we meet this challenge? In How to Feed the World, a diverse group of experts from Purdue University break down this crucial question by tackling big issues one-by-one. Covering population, water, land, climate change, technology, food systems, trade, food waste and loss, health, social buy-in, communication, and, lastly, the ultimate challenge of achieving equal access to food, the book reveals a complex web of factors that must be addressed in order to reach global food security.
 How to Feed the World unites contributors from different perspectives and academic disciplines, ranging from agronomy and hydrology to agricultural economy and communication. Hailing from Germany, the Philippines, the U.S., Ecuador, and beyond, the contributors weave their own life experiences into their chapters, connecting global issues to our tangible, day-to-day existence. Across every chapter, a similar theme emerges: these are not simple problems, yet we can overcome them. Doing so will require cooperation between farmers, scientists, policy makers, consumers, and many others.
 
The resulting collection is an accessible but wide-ranging look at the modern food system. Readers will not only get a solid grounding in key issues, but be challenged to investigate further and contribute to the paramount effort to feed the world.

Editors and Affiliations

  • West Lafayette, USA

    Jessica Eise

  • Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

    Kenneth Alan Foster

About the editors

Jessica Eise is an author and Ross Fellow in the Purdue University Brian Lamb School of Communication doctoral program. 
She is coauthor of The Communication Scarcity in Agriculture (Routledge, 2017) and other works. Jessica formerly served as director of communications for Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics, new media specialist in DC and international media consultant. She has a master’s in journalism and international relations from New York University and a bachelor’s in political science and international studies from Saint Louis University. Jessica’s pursuits have carried her across the nation and globe and afforded her opportunities such as interviewing two presidents, reporting on the legacy of US intervention in Nicaragua and writing on the former home to the dodo bird, the island of Mauritius. She speaks fluent Spanish, some German and a smattering of Arabic.



Ken Foster is a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. He teaches agricultural price analysis and applied time series analysis. Foster served as head of the Department of Agricultural Economics from 2008 to 2017. He was the Chair of the National Association of Agricultural Economics Administrators and has been recognized nationally for his teaching, graduate mentorship, and outreach activities. His current research focuses on coffee and cacao storage and the associated linkages to food quality, food waste, and farm household income.

Bibliographic Information