We'd Like To Mention

Mankind has always looked to the stars when aspiring to do something great. Consider when President John F. Kennedy challenged NASA during a speech to Congress in 1961 to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Astronaut Neil Armstrong did just that, becoming the first person to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Nearly 60 years later, America again is preparing to return to the moon. The Artemis III program plans to land a crew on the lunar surface sometime in 2027, according to NASA. It's part of a larger effort to establish human-occupied bases on the moon that will serve as a staging point for eventual missions to Mars.

Back on earth, a coalition of Nobel Prize laureates and World Food Prize winners are urging world leaders to once again look to the stars. They are calling for an agricultural research and development moon shot to develop technologies with the greatest chance to avert what they perceive as a potential hunger catastrophe in the next 25 years.

In an open letter signed by 153 recipients of the distinguished awards and released earlier this year, they warned that the world was not close to meeting future food needs. They predicted an "even more food insecure, unstable world" by mid-century unless the international community ramped up support for the latest research and innovation. Citing challenges including climate change, conflict and market pressures, they called for efforts leading to substantial (not just incremental) leaps in food production. Other factors cited to be undermining crop productivity around the world include soil erosion and land degradation, biodiversity loss, water shortages and policies restricting agricultural innovation.

RENEWED EFFORTS

"All the evidence points to an escalating decline in food productivity if the world continues with business as usual," stresses Cary Fowler, joint 2024 World Food Prize laureate and outgoing U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security. "We know that agricultural research and innovation can be a powerful lever, not only for food and nutrition security, but also improved health, livelihoods and economic development. We need to channel our best scientific efforts into reversing our current trajectory, or today's crisis will become tomorrow's catastrophe."

The laureates highlight Africa's vulnerability, in particular, where population is soaring but yields of the staple crop corn are forecast to decline across almost its entire growing area. Africa is not alone. "In low-income countries where productivity needs to almost double by 2050 compared to 1990, the stark reality is that it's likely to rise by less than half. We have just 25 years to change this," stresses Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group.

PROMISING PRIORITIES

The signatories emphasized agriculture must prioritize the promising scientific breakthroughs and emerging fields of research to boost food production. They cited improving photosynthesis in staple crops such as wheat and rice to optimize growth; developing cereals that can source nitrogen biologically and grow without fertilizer; and boosting research into hardy, nutrition-rich indigenous crops that have been largely overlooked for improvements.

This isn't the first time we've heard similar warnings of food insecurity. Our first reaction is to largely toss it aside as just more exaggerated hype. That's easy to do when you live in a country where most never have to worry about when they will get their next meal. Unfortunately, that's not the case in many parts of the world.

The unprecedented productivity gains that have long defined agriculture over the years have been the result of advances in technology and innovation. Both public and private efforts are needed to finance and fuel continued advances in food production to create another green revolution that mirrors Norman Borlaug's efforts of the 1960s.

As Mashal Husain, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, states: "If we can put a man on the moon, we can surely rally for funding, resources and collaboration needed to put enough food on plates here on Earth."

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-- Email Gregg Hillyer at gregg.hillyer@dtn.com, or follow Gregg on social platform X @GreggHillyer

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