Outlines practical solutions to global food supply problems in the twenty-first century, suggesting relevant ways to address key issues related to food safety, conservation, global trade, and more. Original.

By the year 2050, Earth's population will double. If we continue with current farming practices, vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation. Clearly, there must be a better way to meet the need for increased food production. Written as part memoir, part instruction, and part contemplation, Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. The reader sees the problems that farmers face, trying to provide larger yields without resorting to expensive or environmentally hazardous chemicals, a problem that will loom larger and larger as the century progresses. They learn how organic farmers and geneticists address these problems. This book is for consumers, farmers, and policy decision makers who want to make food choices and policy that will support ecologically responsible farming practices. It is also for anyone who wants accurate information about organic farming, genetic engineering, and their potential impacts on human health and the environment.

A journey from the "muscle era" of farming to a future where the convergence of new technologies make infinite sustainability achievable. With the veil lifted on modern agricultural practices, you'll be inspired to contribute to a culture where farmers can adopt the science and tools they need to carry out their mission of feeding the planet.

A realistic yet encouraging look at how society can change in ways that will allow us to feed an expanding global population. This book addresses the question of how we can best feed the ten billion or so people who will likely inhabit the Earth by the middle of the twenty-first century. He asks whether human ingenuity can produce enough food to support healthy and vigorous lives for all these people without irreparably damaging the integrity of the biosphere. What makes this book different from other books on the world food situation is its consideration of the complete food cycle, from agriculture to post-harvest losses and processing to eating and discarding. Taking a scientific approach, Smil espouses neither the catastrophic view that widespread starvation is imminent nor the cornucopian view that welcomes large population increases as the source of endless human inventiveness. He shows how we can make more effective use of current resources and suggests that if we increase farming efficiency, reduce waste, and transform our diets, future needs may not be as great as we anticipate. Smil's message is that the prospects may not be as bright as we would like, but the outlook is hardly disheartening. Although inaction, late action, or misplaced emphasis may bring future troubles, we have the tools to steer a more efficient course. There are no insurmountable biophysical reasons we cannot feed humanity in the decades to come while easing the burden that modern agriculture puts on the biosphere.

"A powerful polemic against agricultural technology." —Nature A major new book that shows the world already has the tools to feed itself, without expanding industrial agriculture or adopting genetically modified seeds, from the Small Planet Institute expert Few challenges are more daunting than feeding a global population projected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050—at a time when climate change is making it increasingly difficult to successfully grow crops. In response, corporate and philanthropic leaders have called for major investments in industrial agriculture, including genetically modified seed technologies. Reporting from Africa, Mexico, India, and the United States, Timothy A. Wise's Eating Tomorrow discovers how in country after country agribusiness and its well-heeled philanthropic promoters have hijacked food policies to feed corporate interests. Most of the world, Wise reveals, is fed by hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers, people with few resources and simple tools but a keen understanding of what and how to grow food. These same farmers—who already grow more than 70 percent of the food eaten in developing countries—can show the way forward as the world warms and population increases. Wise takes readers to remote villages to see how farmers are rebuilding soils with ecologically sound practices and nourishing a diversity of native crops without chemicals or imported seeds. They are growing more and healthier food; in the process, they are not just victims in the climate drama but protagonists who have much to teach us all.

Leading experts reveal ways that the future of food production for the world's burgeoning population can (and must) be both sustainable and ethical. In the United States, food is abundant and cheap but loaded with hidden costs to the environment, human health, animal welfare, and the people who work in our food systems. The country's current food production systems lack diversity in crops and animals and are intensified but not sustainable, inhumane in the treatment of animals, and inconsiderate of labor. In order to feed the world's rapidly growing population with high-quality, ethically produced food, new food production systems are urgently needed. These new systems must be genetically diverse and environmentally sustainable, and they need to follow internationally recognized animal welfare and labor practices. Feeding the World Well examines these costs of cheap food while presenting a unique framework for ethical food systems: the Core Ethical Commitments, which are designed to guide consumers in choosing foods that are aligned with their values while helping producers enhance the ethics of their practices and products. Edited by Alan M. Goldberg, the volume features contributions from leading ethicists and food systems experts. Addressing complex issues such as climate change, worker exploitation, obesity, antibiotic resistance, wasted food, and biotechnology, the book discusses the fundamental forces that have shaped, and will continue to shape, our food systems. It also describes some of the approaches that food companies and nonprofit organizations are using to address the ethical challenges facing these food systems. Finally, the book explains what the Core Ethical Commitments are (and what they are not), how they were developed, and how they might be used by food system actors. By bringing together an all-star group of contributors from academia and industry, Feeding the World Well sets a new course for food production and how it is evaluated. By including the voices of industry leaders alongside those of researchers and regulators, the book prepares the food production industry for a world in which "ethical" or "sustainable" production practices are not only trendy but necessary to ensure that we can feed the world's growing population. Conceived as a textbook for food studies courses, this volume will appeal to anyone who is strongly interested in food, including conscious consumers, food industry leaders, researchers, and policy makers. Contributors: Anne Barnhill, Martin W. Bloem, Jonathan Bloom, Nicole M. Civita, Claire Davis, Michiel van Dijk, Adele Douglass, Shauna Downs, Kevin Esvelt, Ruth Faden, Jessica Fanzo, Evan Fraser, Maisie Ganzler, Tara Garnett, Sara Glass, Alan M. Goldberg, Christopher Good, Meredith Kaufman, Gillian Kelleher, Frederick L. Kirschenmann, Herman B. W. M. Koëter, Jennifer Kuzma, Kees van Leeuwen, Robert Martin, Anne E. McBride, Suzanne McMillan, Tom Morley, Marion Nestle, Peter O'Driscoll, Lance B. Price, Marie Luise Rau, Bernard Rollin, Yashar Saghai, Susan A. Schneider, Ellen K. Silbergeld, Paul B. Thompson, Paul Willis, Sylvia Wulf

By 2050, we will have ten billion mouths to feed in a world profoundly altered by environmental change. How will we meet this challenge? In How to Feed the World, a diverse group of experts from Purdue University break down this crucial question by tackling big issues one-by-one. Covering population, water, land, climate change, technology, food systems, trade, food waste and loss, health, social buy-in, communication, and equal access to food, the book reveals a complex web of challenges. Contributors unite from different perspectives and disciplines, ranging from agronomy and hydrology to economics. The resulting collection is an accessible but wide-ranging look at the modern food system.

FOOD CHEMISTRY A unique book detailing the impact of food adulteration, food toxicity and packaging on our nutritional balance, as well as presenting and analyzing technological advancements such as the uses of green solvents with sensors for non-destructive quality evaluation of food. Food Chemistry: The Role of Additives, Preservatives and Adulteration is designed to present basic information on the composition of foods and the chemical and physical changes that their characteristics undergo during processing, storage, and handling. Details concerning recent developments and insights into the future of food chemical risk analysis are presented, along with topics such as food chemistry, the role of additives, preservatives, and food adulteration, food safety objectives, risk assessment, quality assurance, and control. Moreover, good manufacturing practices, food processing systems, design and control, and rapid methods of analysis and detection are covered, as well as sensor technology, environmental control, and safety. The book also presents detailed information about the chemistry of each major class of food additive and their multiple functionalities. In addition, numerous recent findings are covered, along with an explanation of how their quality is ascertained and consumer safety ensured. Audience The core audience of this book include food technologists, food chemists, biochemists, biotechnologists, food, and beverage technologists, and nanoscientists working in the field of food chemistry, food technology, and food and nanoscience. In addition, R&D experts, researchers in academia and industry working in food science/safety, and process engineers in industries will find this book extremely valuable.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a highly reactive constituent of the soil matrix because of its large surface area, high ion exchange capacity, enormous affinity for water due to hygroscopicity, and capacity to form organo-mineral complexes. It is an important source and sink of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases depending on climate, land use, soil and crop management, and a wide range of abiotic and biotic factors, including the human dimensions of socioeconomic and political factors. Agroecosystems are among important controls of the global carbon cycle with a strong impact on anthropogenic or abrupt climate change. This volume of Advances in Soil Sciences explains pedological processes set-in-motion by increases in SOM content of depleted and degraded soils. It discusses the relationship between SOM content and critical soil quality parameters including aggregation, water retention and transport, aeration and gaseous exchange, and chemical composition of soil air. The book identifies policy options needed to translate science into action for making sustainable management of SOM as a strategy for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Features: Relates soil organic matter stock to soil processes, climate parameters, vegetation, landscape attributes Establishes relationships between soil organic matter and land use, species, and climate Identifies land use systems for protecting and restoring soil organic matter stock Links soil organic matter stock with the global carbon cycle for mitigation of climate change Part of the Advances in Soil Sciences series, this volume will appeal to agricultural, environmental, and soil scientists demonstrating the link between soil organic matter stock and provisioning of critical ecosystem services for nature and humans.

A century ago, only local charities existed to feed children. Today 368 million children receive school lunches in 151 countries, in programs supported by state and national governments. In Feeding the Future, Jennifer Geist Rutledge investigates how and why states have assumed responsibility for feeding children, chronicling the origins and spread of school lunch programs around the world, starting with the adoption of these programs in the United States and some Western European nations, and then tracing their growth through the efforts of the World Food Program. The primary focus of Feeding the Future is on social policy formation: how and why did school lunch programs emerge? Given that all countries developed education systems, why do some countries have these programs and others do not? Rutledge draws on a wealth of information—including archival resources, interviews with national policymakers in several countries, United Nations data, and agricultural statistics—to underscore the ways in which a combination of ideological and material factors led to the creation of these enduringly popular policies. She shows that, in many ways, these programs emerged largely as an unintended effect of agricultural policy that rewarded farmers for producing surpluses. School lunches provided a ready outlet for this surplus. She also describes how, in each of the cases of school lunch creation, policy entrepreneurs, motivated by a commitment to alleviate childhood malnutrition, harnessed different ideas that were relevant to their state or organization in order to funnel these agricultural surpluses into school lunch programs. The public debate over how we feed our children is becoming more and more politically charged. Feeding the Future provides vital background to these debates, illuminating the history of food policies and the ways our food system is shaped by global social policy.