More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates have made an unprecedented plea for financial and political backing to develop “moonshot” technologies with the greatest chance of averting a hunger catastrophe in the next 25 years.
In an open letter signed by 153 winners of the Nobel Prize and World Food Prize, the signatories warned that the world was “not even close” to meeting future food needs, with an estimated 700 million people going hungry today and an additional 1.5 billion people to feed by 2050.
The letter predicted humanity faced an “even more food insecure, unstable world” by mid-century unless the international community ramped up support for the latest research and innovation. Citing challenges including climate change, conflict and market pressures, it called for “planet-friendly ‘moonshot’ efforts leading to substantial, not just incremental, leaps in food production for food and nutrition security.” The appeal was coordinated by Cary Fowler, joint 2024 World Food Prize Laureate, who is also the outgoing U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security.
The full letter can be found below. Help us to spread the word by using the below social media toolkit. Please use the hashtag #WFPLaureates4Action and tag @WorldFoodPrize.
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