On Saturday, September 26, Secretary Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon outlined a food security proposal to broaden support and reaffirm the key principles, outlined at the L'Aquila G8 Summit in July, which "take decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty through improving food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture".  We welcome this as it comes on the heels of our launch concerning closing the productivity gap and we look forward to working with the Administration as well as all others in the food security, agriculture and conservation arenas to double agriculture production by the year 2050 in a sustainable way. 

A diverse group of thought-leaders attended the Global Harvest Initiative's symposium on Tuesday, as we launched an effort to sustainably double global agricultural output by 2050. Senator Richard Lugar's keynote addressset a collaborative tone which continued throughout the day-long event.

It was an impressive group, folks. Conservation, agriculture and food security experts from public and private organizations listed below, began sharing ideas about how to close the agricultural productivity gap - the difference between the current pace of output expansion and the far more rapid pace required to meet the world's future needs.

Today, the Global Harvest Initiative will host its first symposium, Agriculture at a Crossroads. The event will feature leading experts in the agriculture industry to include business, government, conservation and hunger representatives. Due to the strong interest in the event and the limited availability, we will be webcasting the event live throughout the day.

 

The world lost an important friend recently with the passing away at 95 of Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize winner and scientist. Borlaug, who was raised on an Iowa farm, was known as the father of the "green revolution" due to his tireless efforts to increase agricultural productivity around the world. As I wrote in an op-ed published last week in the Houston Chronicle:

We can learn much from Dr. Borlaug's approach as agriculture must begin planning now to meet a global demand that is expected to double by 2050 due to a growing population and increasing affluence in countries such as India and China.

An interesting presentation by UK chief science advisor, John Beddington, highlights the challenges that we face as the population continues to rise and the demand for food, water and energy increases over the next 20 years and beyond. He warns of a "perfect storm" of events to occur, including a 50 percent demand in food, 30 percent demand in water, and 50 percent demand for energy before the year 2030. If these issues are not addressed soon, he mentions, it will lead to a combination of events that will create international conflict and public unrest. He is hopeful that this storm can be averted, but he notes it will take much "investment in science and technology, and all the other ways of treating very seriously these major problems. 2030 is not very far away."

 

In just a few short weeks, some of the best thinkers in agriculture, conservation, hunger remediation, trade and food security will gather in Washington, D.C., along with academics and journalists, to talk about how we can sustainably close the gap between the world's growing needs and current agriculture capacity.

The symposium, titled Agriculture at a Crossroads, is scheduled for September 22. Here's the agenda. It will be the first in a series of gatherings, as we work to sustainably double agricultural output by 2050.