World Resources Institute: Creating a Sustainable Food Future

Creating a Sustainable Food Future
A Menu of Solutions to Feed Nearly 10 Billion People by 2050
by Tim Searchinger, Richard Waite, Craig Hanson, Janet Ranganathan, Patrice Dumas and Emily Matthews - December 2018, 96 pages

The World Resources Institute (WRI) published a new report, Creating a Sustainable Food Future, that states the world must prepare to feed the planet’s growing population sustainably, reducing agricultural land and greenhouse gas emissions, and suggests that genetically modified organisms and gene editing may be useful tools in achieving this goal. According to a summary of the report by ISAAA, population is set to rise to 10 billion people worldwide by 2050, while food demand is projected to rise by 50 per cent.

The report offers several approaches to feeding the world sustainably, including reducing food loss and waste, changing diets to consume less beef and lamb, reducing population growth, increasing harvests on the same land area, stopping deforestation, restoring peatlands, improving aquaculture and better management of wild fisheries, and use of innovative technologies and farming methods to lower agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

To read WRI's recap of the report, visit "How to sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050, in 21 charts", and to read the original report in full, visit WRI.