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.