October 12, 2011

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Feed the World, Save the Planet

By Mark Fischetti

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

The world's population will cross the 7 billion mark this month and is projected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. So many more people, plus rising living standards, mean that global agriculture will have to double food production by mid-century.

Yet farming and ranching already exact a daunting toll on the environment: burn down rain forests to create more arable land, dump fertilizers onto fields that run off and choke life in rivers and oceans, emit volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, use up vast stores of freshwater for irrigation. How could we possibly produce 100 percent more food without wrecking the very land, water and air needed to grow that food?

An international team of researchers has devised a five-step plan that boldly claims to achieve both goals. The plan is explained by team leader Jon Foley from the University of Minnesota in the November 2011 issue of Scientific American, which will be available online on Tuesday, October 18 (a preview of the article is now live). Foley has also posted a series of six world maps that show how the plan could work. It includes some big gains in the U.S. heartland, not to mention South America, Europe, India, China and Africa.

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Photo of wheat courtesy of USDA

Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

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