The path forward in meeting the challenge of feeding 9 billion people in 2050 is not an issue that the Global Harvest Initiative thankfully is not contemplating in a vacuum. There are some really innovative thinkers who are considering how we meet this challenge through innovation, cooperation and utilizing new technologies. An article, Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People, published last month in Science magazine, presents an in-depth and well-documented case of the difficult road that lies ahead.

Here's the premise of the article:

Continuing population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will increase for at least another 40 years. Growing competition for land, water and energy, in addition to the overexploitation of fisheries, will affect our ability to produce food as will the urgent requirement to reduce the impact of the food system on the environment. The effects of climate change are a further threat. But the world can produce more food and can ensure that it is used more efficiently and equitably. A multifaceted and linked global strategy is needed to ensure sustainable and equitable food security, different components of which are explored here.

The United States has an "innovation deficit". Of course, for those of us in agriculture, this is not exactly a startling revelation. But it bears repeating that we can't shortchange funding for agricultural research, which already is woefully behind funding in other areas, if the United States is going to lead in closing the productivity gap - the difference between the historic rate of productivity growth and the pace required to meet needs in 2050 when the global population is expected to exceed 9 billion.

But I digress to make the point that our "innovation deficit" is not lost on others. Eric Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Google, writing in a Washington Post op-ed last week mused that:

We have been world leaders in innovation for generations. It has driven our economy, employment growth and our rising prosperity. But much of the cutting-edge research and development in key areas such as renewable energy now takes place outside the United States. There's a real chance that the "green Silicon Valley" will take root in Germany or China. We can't afford to let that happen.

Part of the challenge of trying to work collaboratively with others to close the global productivity gap and the meet future food needs of growing populations, is breaking away from conventional wisdom that says "it's this way, or the highway". In other words, in order to make progress, we must change a "business as usual" mindset. A mindset takes us down the road of least resistance, but a road that surely will end as land and water resources to grow crops began to diminish.

In a speech not long ago, David Everitt, John Deere's President, Agriculture and Turf Division - North America, Asia, Australia, and Sub-Saharan and South Africa, and Global Tractor and Turf Products, made a compelling case for why we must change our mindset if we are too hasten agriculture's productivity growth rates, and laid out the critical factors for doing so. Everitt outlined a blueprint for the way forward, highlighting the following initiatives as critical elements of focus for getting there:

• Increased Productivity through Technology/Innovation
• Climate Change
• Trade
• Rural Development- Ensuring Rural Communities' Prosperity

When thinkers from all over the world gathered last week for the 40th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland to mull over the global state of the economy, the role of agriculture was not an afterthought.

During a compelling panel discussion Rethinking How to Feed the World, DuPont's Chair and CEO Ellen Kullman put agriculture in the center of the global economic discussion in stating that:

Agriculture is a game-changer that can mitigate multiple global issues - hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, poor nutrition and subsequent effects such as civil unrest.