‘How to Feed the World’ offers practical, positive solutions to food insecurity

A new book of essays by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Purdue University helps readers understand how decisions made today by farmers, scientists, policymakers, educators and consumers are vital to ensuring global food security in coming decades.

The book “How to Feed the World,” is now available from Island Press. It includes 12 chapters examining key challenges and opportunities in the global food system. Topics are population growth, water scarcity, land use, climate change, technology adoption, competing food systems, international trade, food waste and loss, health, social license to operate, communication and achieving equal access to food.

“By 2050, we will have 10 billion mouths to feed in a world profoundly altered by environmental change,” said co-editor Jessica Eise, Ross Fellow in the Brian Lamb School of Communication. “How we meet this challenge will be the difference between food abundance and shortage, environmental preservation or destruction, and even life and death.”

Plain-language essays offer practical, positive solutions ranging from precision agriculture and nanotechnology to making healthy choices at the grocery store.

“We have the tools and ingenuity needed to achieve global food security,” says Ken Foster, professor of agricultural economics and co-editor of the book. “But the pursuit of a secure future begins with a clear understanding of the challenges facing our food system today.”

In addition to Eise and Foster, other Purdue contributors are Michael Boehlje, Otto Doering, Michael Gunderson, Thomas Hertel, Rhonda Phillips, Gerald Shively, Brigitte Waldorf, Nicole Olynk Widmar and Steven Wu, all from the Department of Agricultural Economics; Laura Bowling, agronomy; Keith Cherkauer, agricultural and biological engineering; Jeff Dukes, Purdue Climate Change Research Center; and Ariana Torres, horticulture and landscape architecture and agricultural economics.

To learn more about the book, including ordering information, go to http://islandpress.org/book/how-to-feed-the-world.

Featured Stories

Junior Pork Day educates 4-H’ers and parents on swine industry

Junior Pork Day offers hands-on learning for 4-H’ers and parents on swine industry skills...

DIAL Ventures Agrifood Economy Index posts 8-point increase since August

The overall Agrifood Economy Index rose to 94 in December, recovering from August’s low of...

Purdue Agriculture launches new leadership certificate for students

The College of Agriculture has introduced a new undergraduate leadership certificate program,...

Graduate Student Spotlight: Harliqueen Jacinto

Harliqueen Jacinto studies animal welfare at Purdue, transitioning from fisheries to expand her...

Julian Hutchinson at home on leave from the Army before the Korean War; Hutch with family members in 2008; the cover of Hutch's new book An American Hero

1958 Alumnus Julian Hutchinson Publishes New Book

At age 94, Julian “Hutch” Hutchinson, a 1958 Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources...

Esther George to speak at 50th James C. Snyder Memorial Lecture

The Purdue University Department of Agricultural Economics is honored to celebrate the 50th...