Sustaining food production, health, and the environment

Our team of faculty from four UMN colleges will pursue the Grand Challenge of “Feeding the World Sustainably,” with the central goal being to envision and evaluate the widest possible suite of potential solutions to the problems created by the strong linkages between agricultural practices, dietary choices, human health, and the sustainable functioning of the Earth’s ecosystems. Global agriculture currently feeds 7 billion people, and is projected to need to feed 9.5 billion by 2050, and perhaps 11 billion by 2100. We will evaluate how to dietarily improve health while reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution, and evaluate policies, economic incentives, food industry-farmer partnerships, and laws or regulations that might lead farmers to adopt such practices. We will address what interventions could meet food demand in developing nations for the next 50 years while minimizing land clearing and extinction risks for the animal and plant species in each nation.