Sunday, October 25, 2009

How Will Farmers Feed the World in the Future? The Super Crops of the Future, and More...

Somehow, some way, we're going to have to figure out how to feed a growing human population, while at the same time solving the crisis in global land use: reducing humanity's devastating impacts on the biosphere -- from climate change, to habitat destruction and biodiversity loss, to doubling of the global nitrogen cycle, to toxic pollution.

The London Telegraph lists some types of genetically modified crops that have the potential to help us produce more food more efficiently -- on less land and requiring less resources.  It also briefly summarzies other solutions, including use of ecosystem services and better irrigation techniques.
 
Granted, we've learned some hard lessons about the dangers of genetically modified crops, and we need to proceed with the utmost of caution.

But given the need to feed more people in a warming climate with shrinking fresh water supplies, these types of solutions will prove essential to supporting both human well-being, and the well-being of our fellow inhabitants of the earth.
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