The journal Science has published a special issue on food security. A particularly interesting article on the use of molecular techniques such as GM in agriculture is included.
Radically Rethinking Agriculture for the 21st Century, Fedoroff N V, Battisti D S, Beachy R N, Cooper P J M, Fischhoff D A, Hodges C N, Knauf V C, Lobell D, Mazur B J, Molden D, Reynolds M P, Ronald P C, Rosegrant M W, Sanchez P A, Vonshak A, and Zhu J-K (2010). Science 12 February 2010: 833-834.
This paper makes the case for the use of molecular techniques such as GM. It concludes that the heart of new agricultural paradigms for a hotter and more populous world must be systems that close the loop of nutrient flows from microorganisms and plants to animals and back, powered and irrigated as much as possible by sunlight and seawater.
This has the potential to decrease the land, energy, and freshwater demands of agriculture, while at the same time ameliorating the pollution currently associated with agricultural chemicals and animal waste.
The design and large scale implementation of farms based on non-traditional species in arid places will undoubtedly pose new research, engineering, monitoring, and regulatory challenges, with respect to food safety and ecological impacts as well as control of pests and pathogens.
But if we are to resume progress toward eliminating hunger, we must scale up and further build on the innovative approaches already under development, and we must do so immediately.
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