Sustainable Global Food Supply

Abstract

There is no area of human activity more basic to society than a sustainable agricultural, food, and natural resources system. An existing agricultural production system which has provided an abundant, affordable, and safe food supply and many industrial and consumer products face the daunting challenge to meet the needs of a growing world population to approximately 9–10 billion people in 2050 with the need to provide about 60–70 % more food than now being produced. However, it is more than just agricultural productivity because the system must function within the space of climate change; minimum (zero) negative impacts on the environment; reduced (zero) greenhouse gas emissions (GHG); reduced water usage; concern for availability and cost of energy; increased application of conservation tillage; worldwide adoption of biotechnology; increased organic food production; major adoption of information technologies at all phases of the agricultural, food, and natural resources system; and significant advancements in machine innovations. Specifically, there is a need to transcend the debate between the vocal constituencies rooted in ideological solutions and rather invoke and encourage a broad recognition that many different approaches are needed to coexist to meet this huge challenge. Thus, there is no system more in need of and more likely to benefit from a comprehensive application of convergence technologies embodied in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information sciences, and cognitive sciences.