Science, Food and Sustainability: Feeding Nine Billion People While Sustaining the Planet

• Global Affairs
• Science & Health

By the year 2050, policymakers, farmers and scientists will face one of the most pressing environmental challenges threatening the planet—feeding nine billion people. The increasing demand for food is the largest driver of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental destruction. To meet the world’s future food-security and sustainability needs, food availability must grow substantially and agriculture’s environmental footprint must shrink dramatically.

Dr. Jonathan Foley, executive director of the California Academy of Sciences and chief architect of a plan that takes a deeper look at agriculture, explains opportunities to deliver more nutrition to the world while reducing waste, improving efficiency and sustaining the world’s ecosystems and freshwater resources.