Everyone should have the right to eat. Yet millions still go hungry every day, according to Oxfam America. This problem could worsen as the global population climbs, says Director of Policy and Research Gawain Kripke. Kripke was a guest speaker at the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum in Nashville, Tenn.
“To feed 9 billion people by 2050, we need to push all of the buttons,” he says. “And there’s room for everyone to participate. U.S. agriculture is the most productive agriculture in the world, and we need to grow a lot more food for the world. It’s absolutely true that U.S. farmers are going to play a big role in that.”
With the recent emergence of agricultural initiatives such as Farmers Feeding the World, the Howard G. Buffet Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and through his own interactions with farmers, Kripke says he is hopeful farmers will lead the way in the search for new solutions.
