There are approximately 7.5 billion people in the world right now, and this number is expected to increase to 10 billion by the end of 2050. That’s a lot of mouths to feed, and it may well prove to be the biggest challenge our society will face in the 21st century. According to the United Nations, there were more than 815 million undernourished people in the world in 2016. “We are facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the UN”, warns Stephen O’Brien, UN’s emergency relief coordinator. To prevent starvation on a massive scale, we’ll not only have to significantly increase our agricultural yields, but also greatly reduce the consumption of water and fossil fuels. According to a report from the World Wildlife Foundation, “Humanity must now produce more food in the next four decades than we have in the last 8,000 years of agriculture combined”. How can we achieve that? The Dutch may have the solutions.
