Welcome To The Brave New World Of Food

The Second Green Revolution is taking its firsts steps: disease-resistant banana trees, sensors on drones and tractors, lab-grown burgers made of plants. While all of this seems to be taken from a dystopian novel, it could indeed be the solution to one of the biggest threats of our time: hunger. 

This interactive piece explores the challenges facing our current food system and some innovative solutions. As Thomson Reuters correspondent for food security, Thin Lei Win, emphasizes, changing the way food is produced and consumed globally will be a battle on many fronts. The world population is growing quickly, and climate change is a threat to production. At the very same time 815 million people go hungry every day, and 2 billion people are overweight or obese, both in developed and developing countries. Plus, the problem is not about production itself but about distribution. In fact, globally, one third of all food produced is lost or wasted.

The paradigm shift definitely requires hi tech solutions, but not only, as highlighted in the feature. It requires new approaches, new policies and joined efforts. Collaborative projects like the joint initiative by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to eradicate the tsetse fly in countries such as Senegal are a good example. You can see more examples in this series of short videos. 

On the very same day that Bayer has announced its plans to close Monsanto, one of the symbols of the Green Revolution of the 1960s, I believe this piece about new approaches to sustainable food production takes on great importance. 

Now that that you are here, it is also worth looking into the under-reported news section of Thomson Reuters Foundation, that covers issues from to social innovation to women rights in a way and pace that not many media outlets do. A rare gem.