More than 150 recipients of the Nobel and World Food prizes yesterday released an open letter calling for a dramatic increase in research and a commitment to new food distribution efforts, with a goal of producing more crops and avoiding a global hunger crisis in the coming decades.
The letter says that an estimated 700 million people now are “food insecure and desperately poor,” but that without a “moonshot” effort to grow more and different kinds of food, far more people would be in dire need of food because of climate change and population growth.
“As difficult and as uncomfortable as it might be to imagine, humanity is headed towards an even more food insecure, unstable world by mid-century than exists today, worsened by a vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity,” says the letter, signed by 153 recipients of the two prizes. “Climate change is projected to decrease the productivity of most major staples when substantial increases are needed to feed a world which will add another 1.5 billion people to its population by 2050.”
Photo: AP
Corn production in Africa is expected to decline and much of the world could see more soil degradation and water shortages, the letter says.
“We are not on track to meet future food needs. Not even close,” it adds.
The letter grew from a meeting of food accessibility experts in autumn last year. Despite the potential gloom, it holds out hope for an optimistic vision of the future if people take needed actions. The letter says that a dramatic increase in research funding coupled with more effective ways to share information and distribute food could prevent a hunger crisis.
Brian Schmidt, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011, said the need to dramatically increase food production in the coming decades is a huge challenge.
He calls it a “destination with destiny,” but one that can be achieved with proper funding to enhance existing knowledge as well as global leadership.
“It is an imminently solvable problem. It is a problem that will affect billions of people in 25 years. It is a problem that to solve it, there are no losers, only winners,” Schmidt said in an interview. “All we have to do is do it.”
Schmidt said he hopes governments in the US, Europe and elsewhere can commit to solving the problem, but he thinks private groups such as the Gates Foundation might need to take the lead in funding initial steps that would draw attention and prompt action by politicians.
The letter calls for “transformational efforts” such as enhancing photosynthesis in essential crops such as wheat and rice, developing crops that are not as reliant on chemical fertilizers, and lengthening the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
Cynthia Rosenzweig, a climate research scientist at NASA who won the World Food Prize in 2022, said in an interview that researchers are already making progress toward breakthroughs, but their work needs to be turbocharged with more funding and emphasis from world leaders.
“It’s not that we have to dream up new solutions,” Rosenzweig said. “The solutions are very much being tested, but in order to actually take them from the lab out into the agriculture regions of the world, we really do need the moonshot approach.”
The term moonshot refers to an unprecedented effort, stemming from then-US president John F. Kennedy’s call in 1962 for Americans to rocket to the moon.
Rosenzweig, noting she works for NASA, said meeting the food needs of a growing population would take the kind of commitment the US made in achieving Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon.
“Look at how the scientists had to come together. The engineers had to be part of it. The funding had to come together, as well as the general public,” she said. “That base of support has to be there as well.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS